Not striper, but I wanted to share my vacation report from over on the Gulf coast of Florida last week. I’ve been reading a forum from there about how they fish from kayaks off the beach and I wanted to give it a try. I rented a kayak for 3 day and had a good weather window. First pic is the milk crate rod holder I made to tote my gear (Thanks Chip for helping me get that). I strapped that to the kayak and I was ready to go. After paddling out past the sand bars I used a sabiki to catch bait. That was kind of fun itself. The bait was then put on a king rig and trolled behind the yack as I paddled all around about a mile off the beach. Day 1 I saw some fish busting so I threw a gotcha plug at them. I hooked up and after a quick run I saw a nice little mahi mahi launch into the air. I was pumped, but the excitement quickly faded when fish threw the hook and I promptly caught it with my leg! Not cool, not overly painful, but not cool. I tried to get it out, but it wouldn’t budge. It was in the muscle, so I decided to call it a day and head to the ER. I’m glad I did because even the Doc had a tough time getting it out. He tried the string trick, but it was too deep and he ended up pushing it through. Day 2 I was ready to redeem myself. After getting bait I trolled around with only a spanish mackerel to show for my effort. As I was heading in my rod goes off. I was using my striper ugly stick. It was awesome watching the line scream off the real. The real was just about spooled when I tightened the drag a bit and got it stopped. When I got it to the kayak, it took off again for about half the spool. I would say it took me about 15 minutes to get him all the way to the yack. I then used my homemade gaff to get him into the kayak. I’ve caught bigger fish from a guided trip but this is my biggest fish on my own. It was an awesome experience. I went out for a bit on the 3rd day, and caught a few more spanish and remoras, but nothing like the king. Hopefully I can get down there again next year
where exactly on the Gulf Coast. We have a timeshare on pensacola beach and its my favorite week of the entire year. Redfish, Grouper, Red Snapper and Kings all without even leaving the bay, good lord what fun.
2012 DLV 198 Carolina Skiff
Humingbird 998 Side scan and GPS
GPS trolling motor
My Cherokee indian name is asuvsgi nahna adadudi or Fishes on Credit