A Couple Sundays In January

 So here's the deal. I had been watching the forecast since the beginning of the week knowing that I was going to have at least one day on the water this weekend.  The forecast looked good outside of a slight chance of rain. SWEET! I woke Sunday morning to the sound of rain! S.O.B. I can't catch a break.

So what's a guy to do?
 I know! Troll the internet for fish porn and drink coffee! That got old quick.

 As the sun came up I saw a beautiful clear sky so I got loaded up and headed over to one of my honey holes. When I got there the water was almost completely slick. Really stained but definitely clearing up. I tied an 8" Huddleston on to start the morning but got tired of pulling weeds off of it after every cast so I switched up to a Weedless Hudd 68 and went to work. I noticed some birds diving on baitfish so I started casting in their direction and picked up my first fish of the day.

She measured about 18''.

 I got bored dragging the 68 and my gut was telling me to switch up so I tied on an 8" BBZ1 and made my way over to a channel that normally holds fish. When I got over there I notice a "wolf pack" had baitfish corralled in a corner and were just hammering the snot out of them. On back to back casts I caught fish. I haven't had that happened for me throwing swimbaits since mid-summer last year.

Other than a messed up back this fish seemed to be in good health.

 The second cast into the school I got a solid hit and the fish definitely felt better than the last one. She was by at least twice the weight. I'm all pumped up and in my excitement I wasn't paying attention to where I was and drifted into the school, spooked the fish and killed the bite. GRRRR!

   

 The following Sunday I tried a repeat the previous with no luck on the big baits but the pattern was the same. To get bit I had to downsize my baits from 6" & 8" baits to 4" baits.

 

All in all not bad for a couple weekends in late January. Now if spring would just get here...

                                 

The Reality

  I had this vision that I was gonna get this new kayak and the stars were going to align and fish were just going to jump into my boat and I'd go home a hero propped up on my friend's shoulders. OK that was a bit of a stretch. What I had in mind was I was going to go to my "Honey Hole" toss a 68 for a few hours stick one good swimbait fish and brag about how cool I am and feel like a king for a day. That was "The Plan". Here's the reality; I get to my "Honey Hole" there is no clear water to be found, my line guides had ice building up in them and after an hour it felt like my finger tips were on fire and if I bumped them they would fall off. Oh yeah can't forget no bites…. Great.
 Plan B. Wait for it to warm up and go to my favorite flow in the area and fish with traditional bass tackle stick some fish (hopefully not get skunked) and go home write a report and brag my ass off. OK, so I didn't get skunked and my favorite flow didn't let me down. Good because I hate getting skunked, but it's part of the game whether I like it or not.

A little slime to knock the new car smell off.

  The next chance I get to get out I figured I would run down the road to a place I know that the specks stack up during the winter. It would be an epic afternoon I'd big crowned the "Big Fish Daddy" I'd write an awesome report and my buddies would bust my balls for fishing "there" but still love me even though I "cheated" by fishing in an aquarium. NOT QUITE SO FAST SKIPPY! The reality. I get there  the water looks like a latte` and I can't buy a bite. Well I decide "GO BIG or GO HOME"! So that's what I did. I tied on a "real swimbait" and went to work. Now I only caught one fish and I was actually making my way out of that area on my way back to the launch but I'm pretty proud of the fish. It was my first "real swimbait" speck not my best and definitely not my best fish ever but my first speck on a swimbait 6" or larger. So I was pretty pumped up about that.

My first swimbait speck.

  The reality things didn't go as I had fantasied but I had two good afternoons on the water and I got to "break in" my new kayak. More important than the fish and the kayaks is the actual time on the water. That's my "church" it's where I count my blessing and where I talk to God. It's where I'm reminded that I have a wife that supports my pursuit of fishing because it makes me happy. For that I'm truly grateful.

The Big Game II

I had seen some pre-productions pics of the BGII so I had an idea of what it looked like but I've got to admit it looks a lot cooler in person. I hate to sound like the total "homer" but this thing has some really cool lines that I couldn't see in the pics of the pre-production model. The two main visual cues I'm talking about are the towers the seat rails are in and the cutaways towards the rear of the hull. The original Big Game has the cutaways but add the other details like the seat towers and the rigging boards and it's a pretty cool boat to look at.

 My very first impression on the water was "WOW this thing is BIG" and it is. It is 12' 9" long and 34" wide. Coming from a kayak that is 12' long and 29" wide it took a few minutes to adjust but once I got settled in she started getting a very "familiar feeling". I think it's because I have recently fished from the Old Town Predator and the O.K. Trident 11. In case you didn't know Old Town and Ocean Kayak are owned by the same company Johnson Outdoors.  Back on the water….

 I would say the speed is ok for a kayak this wide but what I like the most is it's stability and the solid feeling this thing has. I'm telling you this kayak is a tank. In fact I was joking about naming it Abrams after the tank. I was standing and fishing within minutes of being on the water and it "poles" nicely. So sight fish is going to be a pleasure. 

                                         

 The hatches are standard O.K. hardware but I'm good with that although it would have been nice to have the hatch from the Ultra as an option. The way it is now it is what it is. With that being said what was most important to me was having a place to store my rods to and from the water and the center hatch that it has does the job just fine so I'm happy with it.

Standard Ocean Kayak hatches.

 With a 500-600lb load rating I don't think I'll be maxing it out anytime soon. In fact I was thinking that I needed scupper plugs but I was clearly mistaken. I got on the water with my normal tackle load and I don't think water even came through the scuppers. 

 So all in all I like the Big Game II and the more I'm on it the more it's growing on me. When I first started looking for a new kayak I had three main requirements.

1. A comfortable seat.

2. The ability to stand and fish.

3. Vertical rod storage.

Item three has changed to good in hull storage and the BGII has all three in spades. The vertical rod storage has been figured out too so it's just a matter of a little rigging and that will be handled too.

 So far I'm digging it.