Born and raised in Houston. Thats right, the story starts at birth...haha. Seriously, being in that area, in an outdoors family we fished san luis pass to galveston almost weekly. In middle school, I attempted to build a self designed raft, that proved to be unseaworthy (in the bayou). And so it began, the hamster wheels in my head were turning on what to use to get me across the muddy marsh and over to Colds pass. I never did successfully navigate to colds pass back then, so i should probably revisit the area. As soon as i had a car, id go to Christmas bay all the time, id park in one of those last cuts off the road and trudge through 200 yards of mud to stop and fish. Back then (mid-90s), I didnt have aol (internet) and thus no interest in message boards. I did happen to meet some shark/surf guys one summer and apparently they started an internet group, CCCF, Coalition of Confused Coastal Fisherman, my first message board, my first screen name ever "Santiago's Pal," my first real reason to want internet. It was probably 1996ish, all i remember is id use the school computer to read fishing reports of what was biting in the surfside area. Still Yakless, in 98 i moved to Austin for school and finally had pretty regular access to a computer. Somewhere around there in the early 2000s some of the CCCF guys that were kayaking eventually broke off to form TKF, to have a kayak specific community. (((TKF founders, forgive me if my facts are off...remember i had limited access to the web))) So although, my status shows join date as 2004, im pretty sure my original Handle was within the first few months of the site going live. ahh, finally, start talking about kayak fishing already...
My first boat back in 2000, Necky Sit Inside Tandem, 16ft. Went halves on a tandem with my roomate, 2001ish we used his credit card to over rig it with a MinnKota 38, humminbird, etc, etc. Thus my TKF Handle from 2004-2013 "Motoryak". Remember in 2002 there were no motorized kayaks, just people staring/laughing at us. WHatever, it was a tool, it got us from point A to point B and we caught fish. Success right....wrong, it was an effective tool until we kept adding weight to it, by the time we were done it was over 180lbs with battery/motor/livewell/etc. Add two grown boys and it wasnt very seaworthy. It would take on water in rough chop, sitting low rider, it was a beast to paddle, and the "tandem" was too close making dual fishing almost impossible. Better than my first raft, but definitely not the fishing platform i was looking for. Lesson in a question, "Is that really how you want your kayak to be rigged forever?" Think then rig.
My second boat, Perception Bimini, 15ish ft. Great kayak, low profile so it didnt catch too much wind, tracked straight, pretty good glide, and very fishable. ever since that first boat, ive gone minimalist, and rigged accordingly. I wanted a boat that could go some distance to access areas of Port O'connor. Now in Austin, POC was the new closest salt water. Thus i went with the 15ft hull. The issue i had with the Bimini was it was still heavy, probably 85lbs rigged with rudder/rod holders. Another issue i had was that the hull had absolutely no rocker, so BTB in any kind of surf was pretty difficult. So, the dilemma continued...I had a great bay boat but not even mediocre hull for going BTB. My new obsession in those years was PINS, so I was torn. So Lesson in a Question: "There is no perfect hull for everything, so where do you want to fish most?" The guys that buy Hells Bay boats dont complain about not getting to the rigs just like the Contender guys dont talk about chasing tails on the flat.
The call of PINS, my first truck, and a great kayak. I briefly had a convertible, briefly because it couldnt hold my kayak and i was growing out of my "race" phase anyway. Got a truck in 2005, which opened up PINS and thus the search began for a suitable surf friendly hull. In the meantime i was using my buddies OK Scupper Pro TW that was in my garage. By the way, if you are just getting into BTB, and come across this little gem i would scoop it up. This hull must have been way ahead of its time, because it is a blast to paddle and handles surf and chop with ease. It is also very wet, and very tight fitting even for a medium sized butt like mine, and almost no flat places to rig todays style of attachments. BUT, perhaps this is how it should be...a good hull for paddling vs a good hull for fishing. Remember the main objective of this tool was to get from point A to B, but somewhere along the way we started to rig em with everything we could possibly need. To this day I dont know of many kayaks that are faster or have better surfing ability than that OK SPTW. Just know that some of the oldies are goodies. The new boats are cool but not necessary, just like all that rigging is cool but not all necessary.
The third kayak. So ive sold every boat and upgraded to my next "perfect" boat each time. After what seemed like days of reading all the jabber back and forth on the Tarpon 160s VS Phoenix 160s, I went with the Phoenix...mainly because it was lighter and seemed more minimalist and kayak like than what the tarpon had become, the fisherman's cadillac. Long story short, I loved this hull. I had the redesign (less rocker) hull, and could easily paddle further with less fatigue than before. Handled great, drafted shallow, minimal hull slap, and a very clean cockpit. But it rode very high in the water, which caught alot of wind. Overall me and that Phoenix did some miles around POC and caught fish. But PINS was still calling me at least once or twice a year...and the OK SPTW was still the champ out there.
The sinking of third kayak... Yep it sank. This is a touchy subject, happened last summer, and Im still getting over the loss... so be sensitive...haha...no seriously. I dont want to dig up all those years of
and drama, no sir. Water under the bridge, however how i sank the Hurricane Phoenix may help others. Take this as facts. Trylon is a great material, makes for a super rigid, beautiful kayak with similar properties to the nice kevlar/glass boats. BUT, that same rigidness will force it to crack vs give. At the Bluewater Kayak Classic last August, there were mixed forecasts as to what the surf zone would look like. I had just finished rigging the phoenix so decided to take it vs the old Scupper Pro. Big mistake. My first attempt out passed the second set of breakers, I took a wave square on, the bow flew up, stern staked into the sand and the wave pounded full force, breaking my seat off at the pad eyes. i beached the boat, assessed the damage and determined to at least get out and fish, i attempted to ghetto rig the seat to be stable-ish. Stable enough to roll me right out of the starboard side every time i would hit a wave, bow up, i roll off the side. So yeah, went home from the "tourny" without even rigging a line to fish. Pretty bummed, I repaired the pad eyes, thinking at least it was just the pad eye. One month later, I am towing the yak behind my buddies boat and not even 200yds into the ride i notice the yak is riding really low. Then it starts to sway back and forth across the wake like a wake boarder would, then it just submarined!! Apparently, I had cracked the hull at the BWKC and didnt know...or didnt notice is more like it. The cracked hull took on water while in tow putting hundreds of lbs of pressure into the yak, which forced the cracks to open to BIG OL jagged gashes...one intake and one exhaust for all the gallons of water that flooded the hull. Yup, that easy to sink a kayak. So yeah, of course i was in shock, seeing my "new to me" kayak that i just finished rigging and fixing, go under. I pulled it in and brought er home. So, since last September I have been without a kayak, and TKF for a while...it all just made me sick. All these years of perfecting the kayak to my fishing...culminates in the sinking of a highly debated kayak hull...how ironic. Lesson in a question: "When was the last time you checked/maintained your boat?" Take care of that hull because it is your ride home.Now Im not poor, but I work hard for that $ and i only get to fish 10 times a year at the most because of work, so it was tough getting over the "do i need a kayak?" question ringing in my head the last few months. I had come full circle, to the point when i was a kid designing a pirogue style boat out of 2x4, watching it sink, and just feeling broken knowing that id have to trudge through the mud again.
and Fast forward to today... After much soul searching, a trip to POC on my buddies boat to get back in the game, and much convincing of the wife...
I begin the rigging of #4, Hobie Adventure!!
Its been a long ride guys, up down and underwater. So for yall that are just starting out, know that there is alot to learn and you most likely will have to learn/decide these things on your own. Time on Water is the only way to get that done, so get one and go, learn, and do it again.
Oh yeah, im no longer "motoryak", officially figured out how to change my handle so that i dont have to explain why im "motoryak" when i do not "motor" my yak.
reborn as HookDem
