heading for open water

[jorluivil]

bring bait
bring food
bring your balls
launch
fish
land
pick your balls up from the sand


That's what I did my first time out

[jorluivil]

All kidding aside.....the first time I launched I sat at the waters edge and watched a few of the vets launch and land. The best advise I can give is to prepare for the worse, leash/tie everything down and store everything until you're in the open and even then you still stand the chance of getting tossed and losing something. I try to make it a habit to keep my deck clean and keep my rods leashed at all times. I have 15+ LJ trips under my belt and I've lost everything from knives to sunblock to a rod n reel that wasn't leashed. Oooh, almost forgot......BRING YOUR RADIO!!!

[Handymansd]

Jim Sammons has a great class on the basics of kayak fishing in the open ocean, including getting in and out of the surf on your own, safety concerns, where fish might be hiding, techniques, etc. Might be worth a call to him. The wealth of knowledge that he can give you will be money more than well spent!!! And he might even put you on some fish....

There is also some Darkhorse guy that supposedly visits these boards now and again, that might know something about fishing in the ocean and be willing to share his knowledge....

[Matar]

All good advise but the one that i cant stress enough is........... Lay your rods flat on the deck just encase you roll while learning. How did one guy put it. Tall rods plus roll over = snaped rods.........

[lowprofile]

Originally Posted by Matar

All good advise but the one that i cant stress enough is........... Lay your rods flat on the deck just encase you roll while learning. How did one guy put it. Tall rods plus roll over = snaped rods.........

yup, i did that at SaMo. had my rods in the holders, all leashed and snapped a 10ft ML spinner i was going to use just outside the breakers for perch and croaker. sucked. luckily my more expensive and yet shorter (8ft) bait rods were spared.