Mistake day on CA Delta. It costs me.

[Darth-Baiter]

It was breezy as heck.  Bass were plentiful but dinks.  I headed out against the wind and seemed to have the place to myself.  When the sun came out, so did boats. All types of boats. Even Big cigarette boats.  Huge, fast and loud.  I can weather boat wakes with minimum management.  
 

I casted to rocks in a narrow channel, on the deep side. A finesse jig.  A wake boat came in near me and I rode out his wake.  I saw the same wakes batter the shoreline I had casted to.  It immediately snagged me up. I paddled above the jig and tried that “pluck” the line thing to try to bounce the jig loose - nope.  I was positioning myself to grab the line with my hands to break off, when another boat came shooting out between tule islands.   He veered away from me and passed at around 30 yards.  As a kayaker, it’s not good to be up against the riprap when a wave hits.  I froze like a knucklehead and I chose to kick away from the rocks and point towards the tsunami, and my kayak surged up and over;  my rod in my hand snapped.    It was surreal.  I should have lowered it, pushed the spool release. Something.  
 

the mental cussing was epic.  I rigged up another jig setup and kept going.  
 

now?  I’m trying to contact and connect with the shop in PHX to get a copy of my receipt that I misplaced.    I am within the 1 year warranty, but I’m dead in the water if I can’t get a receipt.   (My next rod will prob be a Dobyns). 
 

totally my fault. The breakage, (the missing receipt).  I shouldn’t have gone to shore with boats in that narrow channel. Not when I was on the deeper side where the boats favored.   I’m thrilled I stayed upright and didn’t lose all my gear.  Thankful.  This is a mere blip in my fishing history.  A teachable moment.  Next time I break off from the get go. 
 

interesting observation.  Boaters never look back to see if I stayed upright. Haha.  
 

a bad day of fishing is better than any day at work.   Nope.  Not always.  Haha.    Try not to flame me folks.  I know I messed up. 

[Kirtley Howe]

As you said, it could have been much worse. You are OK. You still have most of your equipment. Your Kayak is still fine. Also as you said, take it as a teachable (learning) moment and count your blessings. We all have those momentary brain freeze-ups at one time or another.

[Swamp Girl]

19 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

interesting observation.  Boaters never look back to see if I stayed upright. Haha.

 

Shameful. A person's decency or indecency can be seen when they're in a situation where they have more power than another, whether they're in a more powerful boat (wakeboat vs. kayak) or more powerful vehicle (car/truck versus bike or pedestrian), or more powerful position (boss vs. worker). Of course, there are creeps who'd be happy you broke your rod. 

 

As far as your decision making, it was a complex situation and you had a pinch of seconds to decide. The mistake wasn't made by you, but by the wakeboaters. 

[Zcoker]

Well, man, at least you can look at the situation at all angles and turn it into a teachable moment, as you say. No blame nor fingerprinting, just learn and move on. Happens to all of us. Losing a jig is a drag. Rod breakage sucks. Having no receipts is normal. But the outcome of no injury I consider a big WIN! 

[TOXIC]

Was a tough weekend for us as well.  First forgot a rear ratchet strap on a 20 foot Ranger and it was impossible to get it back on the trailer so we cut the strap.  Next drifted into an old dock complex at high tide that we knew was there and ended up putting a scratch all the down the side of my buddies glitter sled.  Not good. 

[Darth-Baiter]

ouch.  

 

 

[gim]

On 9/24/2023 at 10:40 AM, Darth-Baiter said:

I shouldn’t have gone to shore with boats in that narrow channel. Not when I was on the deeper side where the boats favored.   I’m thrilled I stayed upright and didn’t lose all my gear.  Thankful.  This is a mere blip in my fishing history.  A teachable moment.

Wake boats and other large wake-making watercraft are easily the most hated group of boaters on my list nowadays.  There is ZERO respect.  Their massive tsunami-type waves barrel towards you like a tidal wave and if you don't see them coming, they will catch you off guard, even in a fishing boat like I have.  I have taken their waves over the bow, stern, and gunnel.  Then the waves continue on and erode the shoreline.  Meanwhile, they just continue on playing loud music without a care in the world.

 

I can easily see how a kayak, canoe, paddle board, or other small water craft might capsize.  I've learned to just remove myself from these areas with wake boats now.  No fish is worth dodging massive waves for.

 

Luckily, there appears to be new restrictions coming down the pipe for these rigs here in MN.  It can't come soon enough, and there will be more needed enforcement.

[TnRiver46]

The wake rule is now in effect in TN but same problem as always, nobody cares to write the tickets and people don’t care when they get the tickets 

[gim]

42 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

The wake rule is now in effect in TN

What is the rule you speak of?

[Choporoz]

I strongly dislike wake boats from a number of perspectives...as a waterfront erosion owner, as a boater, and especially as a kayak fisherman.  Wake boats, hard boundaries and kayaks don't mix.  Fortunately, I learned from a far more different sort of wake boat driver.  

   A few years ago, I was kayak fishing just off a seawall, so I could closely cast parallel.   A wake boat came down the channel a good distance off shore,  and he was repeatedly hitting his horn until I turned to acknowledge him -- he  verbally warned to me back off from the wall as he passed.  I'm still thankful he did, because I had no clue at the time what a mixing bowl that creates.

[TnRiver46]

53 minutes ago, gimruis said:

What is the rule you speak of?

https://www.tradeonlytoday.com/columns-blogs/water-sports-law-passed-in-tennessee#:~:text=The law prohibits wakesurfing and,beyond the boarding platform) propeller.
 

don’t get too excited it didn’t help any. They are supposed to stay 200 feet away from land but they don’t . The university team is out on the river every single night and the river probably isn’t 400 feet wide and they do about 50 U turns per evening 

[gim]

Interesting.  200 feet is really not very far though.  If I can recall the proposed rule here is 500 feet minimum which would essentially prohibit the use of wake boats on many smaller lakes here.

 

As you stated, enforcement is a completely different issue altogether.

[TnRiver46]

I think there was a no wakeboarding on lakes,

less than 50 acres clause in there as well, which is hilarious because I can’t think of a single one of those anywhere in the state 

[Darth-Baiter]

1 hour ago, Choporoz said:

......e what a mixing bowl that creates.

i love this description.  

 

my friend once got his bass boat washed up on the riprap a bit, and it was proped up by his trolling motor staff.  He hates the wake-boats.  

[TnRiver46]

Some dude on chickamauga ticked off enough people to get in trouble a few years ago. He had some offshore monster boat capable of like 50 mph. I mean this thing was as big as a dozen wake boats. He would just tear up and down the river and slosh un holy amounts of water and injured 3-4 people. He is a doctor and was awaiting federal trail for some shady stuff in 2021

 

the boat is a Pershing 74, one bass boat clocked it at 58 mph 

[Alex from GA]

On Lake Lanier the Corp of Engineers almost requires lake front owners to put rip rap up but allows wake/surf boats.  Builders must put silt fences up but boats wash shoreline.  We need a bigger lobby.