Went on my first real excursion today.
Practically bumped into several tailing red bass on the mud and oyster
flats here in N.E. Florida (red drum or spot tail bass to some). It was the
last two hours of a falling tide and these fish had no idea I was there. The
egrets, herons and one osprey didn't seem to be bothered by my low profile
either.
I didn't realize how shallow the water was until I glanced at the paddle
and it was dripping mud. I guess those long bird legs were 6 inches deep in
mud and 6 inches deep in water.
One porpoise was diligently hunting the edge of the flat but he didn't
pay any attention to me. I've had them play alongside power boats before and
it should be a lot of fun when they decide to play around my kayak.
The "Wilderness Systems Big Critter" is going to be a great boat. I did
get a sprayskirt from Kenco.com (thanks newsgroup) after my local selling
dealer told me there wasn't one available for it. I also got bow and stern
floatation bags, pump, paddle float and sponge.
I've had a gore tec raincoat for a couple of years and it hasn't been
used much but today was a good rainy day for it. I was a little warm with
sprayskirt, raincoat and pfd but I was dry and safe. I probably looked
pretty geeky leaving the boat ramp with full body armor but I'm not quite
that comfortable with it all yet and probably should stay that way as far as
the pfd goes.
Hope some of you made it out of the house this weekend too. I'll be 47
years old in a couple of weeks and this is the first time in a very long
time that I actually went out in the rain to play.
See ya',
Robert 'knotbob' Smith