Bad experience first time kayak fishing

[B1o-H4z4rd]

Hi everyone,

Well I'd like to start off by introducing myself to move on to what could've been a story I hope not to tell twice. My name's Raul i'm 38 and have been fishing on and off for about 15 years. I've never really taken it seriously pretty much have alot of cheap rods with basic reels, and my fishing strategy is a no brainer you know buy a bunch of weights and hooks with about 1lb of live/dead shrimp and have a blast on the ocean side. Well i've also sporadically rented kayaks on the beach, lake or river and have done pretty good or I thought so.

Having that said I will start off with my story. My son is visiting me for a month he's 9 and he loves fishing with me of a pier or in the beach, well i've been talking about buying a kayak or better said a cheap kayak since i'm not sure how often I will use it really made me look for a kayak which first of all seats 2 people and was stable since i'd be using it with my son while visiting and also easily modifiable to where I can use it myself alone. Well in this search I came across a kokanee 10ft which realy is 10,9ft and 36in wide. What caught my attention was mainly that it has 2 seats but also brings a third seat that if you're not familiar with this kayak is if you remove the front backrest you could seat 3 regular sized people or move the rear seat up and use it as a 1 seater kayak. Well looking for info on kayak essentials I came across lot's of things too many to name so I made my own list of possible things I could need and then add some from my personal junk so here is what I took on my first trip:

- lifevests
- flashlight
- compass
- whistle
- drybox
- water
- food (snacks and sandwiches)
- paracord

On the kayak itself I had already tied a restraining system for paddles if they floated away, some padeyes and that would pretty much it.

Well I'm going to start with the story and try to be as detailed as possible. We went to galveston state park towards the bay side i've camped and fished there before so it was a place I was familiar with. Me and my kid probably paddled for about 5 minutes and then said why don't we just go with the flow so that's what we did. While drifting a big fish came up pretty close to us and my kid was excited about catching it or any big fish but my reels only have probably 12lb line so I knew I wasn't going to catch anything big. After about 30-45 minutes I catch a small fish and start reeling it in when I feel a bigger tug, at this point my rod was bent alot and was almost to the point of breaking when whatever I caught made the kayak turn around and dragged us about a minute or so in which felt like an hour I freaked out, I had never caught anything this big (28in personal best) well so the line snaps I felt relieved about it didn't know if we could flip over or what specially having my kid with me, although on the kayaks defense me and my kid stood up on it and must say it was really stable in wavy waters. Well after fiahing for about an hour or hour and a half I noticed we were very far from the park so I tell my kid to keep on fishing that I was going to paddle back in the meantime. Little that I know not sure for being naive or stubborn that the stream/current was so strong. After paddling for about 30 minutes I noticed I hadn't advanced anything and I started freaking out, it was getting dark and what I thought would be a10-15 minute paddle back turned into about 2-2:30 hrs. I was desperate but never showed my kid my anxiety to get back, at moment I had to stop and that only set me back alot. I played with my kid once it got dark giving him my emergency flashlight stating that since it was dark I didn't want a boat to hit us so I said flash it as much as you can and it was a flickering red light, I didn't want to do it myself cause we would drift even further. So I kept on paddling and out of nowhere a push of strength came came to me and was able to make it to the flats so I got out and started walking and dragging the kayak with my kid out, he helped me at times I was exhausted and needed to rest. Started fishing at 5:30pm and started my way back somewhere around 7 and made it to my truck around 9:30. By the way in the meantime I also was checking my phone and a walkie talkie I had taken in case I needed to reach help, needles to say I didn't call 911 and on the walkie talkie as much as I scanned never came across a signal.

My conclusion: out of stubborness now I know never try anything similar as a first time by myself and obviously with my son or nephews. Going to practice alot and try to find a group of people or friends that go kayak fishing, it's too risky to go on my own. First thing i'm buying once I step a foot in academy, gander, walmart, dick's or anywhere is an anchor, much of thos anxiety and frustration could've been avoided if I would've had one. I'm going to buy a trolling motor my kayak is too slow and heavy I think for a beginer kayak. And now I need to be aware of many things and study the place of wherever i'm going before just finding some water and jumping in. Going to stick to lakes and bayous until I feel comfortable again to go out in the bay or the gulf for that matter.

Thank you for taking your time on reading this but I needed to get it off my chest. I'm open for suggestions, ideas or the simply bitching at me for being so naive, stubborn or simply just taking it so easily when something much worse could've happened.

Looking at the bright side at least we had our life vests on no way I'd go without them.

[MobyYack]

i have fished that area before and know what you mean. a trolling motor could help but if the current is going fast enough it might not work as well as you want...staying close to shore sometimes help. you can also use a drift anchor in various applications...not sure if that would have helped. always go with a partner too....good luck and stick with it