I picked up a Mainstream Kingfish yak yesterday as a Father’s Day present, so I needed to fish today. Hit Bushy Park this afternoon in the rain. I waited until the thunderstorms had passed then headed out, got some nice finger mullet next to the landing and started fishingthe grass line.
Well if you haven’t been to Bushy Park lately, be ready to see gators up close and personal. Every time I stopped paddling and started fishing I’d have a gator start swimming up to the yak to check things out. Now personally, I am not a big fan of Gators…especially when my rear end is about 3" above the water surface in a SOT yak and I’ve got baits in the water.
I went through about 2 dozen FM with them getting cut in half by blues. i’d get one tiny twitch fro mteh popping cork and reel in a mullet head.
Decided to switch to a fishfinder rig to try for reds or flatties when I was down to my last 4 FM in the bucket. Set up on the point past green 87 and began working the grass line.
Ended the day with this guy
It sure was nice to put some fish slime on the new yak.
The gators at Bushy are getting way to curious about people. When I was leaving today I saw some guy throwing chicken necks to an 8 footer off the boat dock. He was done for the day and decided to be nice to the local wildlife.
Be careful guys, if this is happening the gators are starting to associate us with food. Not a good combination
So much water, So little time
Glad to hear you got on the fish after our slow time out last Saturday. Did you happen to buy that yak from the guy selling it on Craig’s List on IOP? Just wondering because my neighbor has the exact same boat and thought it was a great deal.
What do you do at bushy park when the gators come at you? Do you just paddle away or is there some trick to not getting eaten like giving them the evil eye? Also, you should try double hooking your FM with a treble hook in the tail to catch some of those bait stealing blues.
I had a decent day on Saturday. Check it out here http://old.charlestonfishing.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=62168
14’ Pamlico 140 Angler w/ rudder
Switching to lead-free tackle.
Yes I bought it from the IOP Craigslist. I took it out for a couple of hours Saturday afternoon just to get a feel for it ini rough conditions. The wind was blowing like crazy, the tide was streaming in, but I could still make decent headway. It’s stable and really comfortable except the footwells are a little cramped.
I took it into the cove to try to nails some of the reds we saw last week, but between boat traffic and wind the water was a mess. I caought a break in the boat wakes and stood up in it for a few minutes to stretch. I’m no DolphinD, but I could get used to standing up in a yak.
I don’t have any secrets for getting rid of gators that don’t involve illegal firepower. I would slap my paddle on the water and sometimes they’d swim off, sometimes they wouldn’t.
Next time out I’m ptting a stinger hook in the FM.
So much water, So little time
that is the most stable yak i’ve tried. i put some slip grip down on the outer sides bby hte handles of mine - it makes it very easy to stand up with your feet that far apart
glad to hear your out and yakin
thanks for the tip P4R. I think there’s some leftover grip tape from the last skateboard redo
So much water, So little time