Mother Nature teasing me..argh

[Kardinal_84]

Yesterday (April 25, 2011), I had to go pick up my test shrimp pot that had been in the water over a week due to bad weather. The day I dropped it, the following day forecast was for one foot seas and it turned ugly in a hurry!

Went to work early. Got off at 4:30pm. Left the house at 5:30pm. Made the 6:30 tunnel. In the water by 7pm. Pick a pot. Land ho! at 8:05 pm. Easily made the 9pm tunnel. back at home at 10:10pm since traffic was delayed due to a train coming through the tunnel. Despite the long soak and no bait, I had three shrimp! That's three more than I expected!

it was a super light mist and a tiny bit of rain. But it felt warm and there was ZERO wind! Wow. Hard to believe I was sitting over 500ft of water!!! Of course it happens on the day I can't spend any time out there and one of the few times I have EVER been in a situation like this without a fishing rod in my hand.

Mother Nature is TEASING ME!!!!!

33 second video just to show you how FLAT it was in the salt over 500ft of water.
http://youtu.be/PzEt0pXJuBU

I suppose a frame grab is just as good....

[power drifter]

Good for you at least your getting on the water.Your new underwater lights what color you going with?Are they 12volt or just small batteries?Does this mean drilling holes into the hull? Id love to try some night time fishing on the lakes. you got me thinking and looking tonight. I know down south people fish crappie with lights and it works great. Never gave it much thought up here till now.
Who knows you might be the first to catch a Humbolt squid in these parts. They are moving north Ive heard and are in Sitka and Glacier bay.Now that would be a photo on your kayak deck.

[Kardinal_84]

I plan on mounting 4 underwater LED lights that in total should be th equivalent of a 100watt halogen. I ordered the green lights mainly for saltwater but it should work in lakes as well. I also am considering buying a high intensity light you drop down that I can plug into my 12v receptacle. I have a 7ah 12v for my sonar and I picked up a 18aH 12V yesterday for additional power.

No drilling I hope into the Kayak. Plan to mount it on a piece of cutting board i cut and bent into sorta shape that I can attach to my kayak. I have caught so many bigger trout in lakes at night, can't wait to try it on a lake.

I know we have squid here. Just not sure where when or how.
here's the mount concept.

[Kardinal_84]

Here are the lights. I am going to get the vertical mounts. 4 of these should draw 2.0 amp.


the hang over the side one I am looking at draws 2.3 amps


So with my fishfinder I think draws something ridiculous like 0.1 amps. So with my 7aH and 18aH I figure I can get 5 hours ideally with the full setup.

Maybe I am wrong, but I envision going to lake, attracting fish, but getting bored with it after a 15 minutes. Whenever I stopped at night before on a lake returning home and directed my headlights into the water, the fish would start milling around and the only fun part was trying to keep the small ones off your hook so the bigger ones had a shot. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. But now with a kayak, I hope to try some lakes where the "bigger fish" are at least over 20 inches and not the 12 to 14 inchers I considered large in some of the stocked lakes I stopped by. Its the saltwater opportunity which has the potential for big payoff and surprises.

Oh and there will be some drilling but I am going to run the power through another marine receptacle well above the waterline for the wires.

[Mark Collett]

Looking Good and Fancy

Kardinal_84
Too bad you had such a short time on the water.And no pole ??????? That's hard to swallow.There's always next time,eh?Are you getting close to the 350 pound limit for your Mini-X yet ? Talk about a snowballing project....whew .Keep those reports a coming.

[Kardinal_84]

Kardinal_84
Too bad you had such a short time on the water.And no pole ??????? That's hard to swallow.There's always next time,eh?Are you getting close to the 350 pound limit for your Mini-X yet ? Talk about a snowballing project....whew .Keep those reports a coming.

Well fortunately I believe the shrimp project and the lighting project are independent. I think I could easily pack another 50 to 75 pounds given the weight limit. I will say that I do spend a bit of time looking at the waterline and thinking "Am I sinking? Am I really sitting this low in the water?" Its usually when I am sitting facing backwards cranking on the pot meaning all the weight is in the back third of the yak.

I discovered my lighting project has hit a glitch. the light I was going to mount for whatever reason only produces 10% of the light i wanted. So I am going to upgrade the mounted lights. I am typically not an impulse buyer but I found myself online buying a hangover the edge lights I was eyeing up. good thing since my mounted lights will be another several weeks as I ship them back and get the more powerful version. Who knows, if this hang over the edge light works decently, I may not even use the mounted lights though "running" lights would be kinda cool. lol. The hanging lights apparently draw 2.3 amps and produce 1900 lumens. I was hoping to get 900 lumens from the underwater lights so this might be a better alternative anyways. Not sure about the durability of the hangover lights. Well we will see.

Oh, Mark Collett, I finally got a hold of my friends on the Kasilof. Might be running into them this weekend.

[Bassman 1950]

If your worried about weight why don't you tow another Kayak for storage.