Christened my kayak

[JW FunGuy]

Finally got my “new to me” Eddyline Caribbean 14 out to the coast for a test paddle and fishing trip. Went out last Thursday down by Port Lavaca. The winds finally calmed down so I decided to make a quick trip by myself and get all the rigging bugs worked out. Everything was calm and low grey clouds made it look like it was going to snow, but it wasn’t that cold. I mostly just wanted to paddle and see how the boat did and not do any casting unless I saw fish, especially since I wanted to primarily use my fly rod. Well things were so calm and flat I think I saw two mullet jump all day! The water was stained so bad from all the rain there was about 8 inch visibility, so any sight casting was going to be slim.
Well the boat paddled like a dream and sliced through the water effortlessly. After over 5 years of paddling my Tarpon 120 I was even more surprised how fast a 50 pound 14 foot composite boat was than I had previously imagined.
After a couple of miles I resorted to some blind casting some likely spots with my spinning rod and quickly ended up landing a 18 inch Red. I paddled another mile “hunting” and decided to turn around since I didn’t put in until about 11:00 and wanted to be home about dark with a 3 hr drive that was going to be tight. Going back to were I caught the undersized Red I caught a bigger feistier Red that measured out to 24 inches. I haven’t brought home a Red for some blackened on the half shell Redfish in a while so in the bag he went.
All in all a great first trip and my post surgery back thanked me after loading the boat up for the drive home!

[karstopo]

Nice fish. Nice light weight kayak. Someday, I will certainly want to get a 50# kayak, especially if there is a model that is stand up and fish stable.

Good to get out even for a little while.

[JW FunGuy]

You can stand in these. I tried it on a trials trip quickie on the Guadalupe to make sure. That was one of my goals to ease my back and not have to get out in the mud. I will practice it some more before attempting it in the marsh. Maybe when I have some hard sandy bottom.
Like anything it depends on one’s own sense of balance.

[rasaid]

Good news JW! Glad you are back in the saddle.
Keep riding the waves and catching the reds. It keeps you young.
Roger

[Ron Mc]

great Thanksgiving story.
Congratulations on your cool, fun boat, and a great day on the water.

ps - old photo of Josh standing in his 30"-wide Search 15.
This is helped somewhat by big wind and drift sock adding front-back stability.



Me on the same day - this was also on that hard bottom you were hoping for.