Your best day in 2007 from a yak....

[ohioyaker]

For Numbers ...?

Looking through my log tonight, I came across a memorable trip from 8/4/07 when I took a solo 4.72 mile float . My records shows the days tally:
Smallies = 31 - Biggest 17.5"
Rockbass = 15
Sunfish = 9
Saugeye = 6

A few other great trips were:
A 2 hour trip which produced, ...6 species.
Tally was 25 smallies, 12 White bass, 3 LM , 4 Crappie , 6 bluegill and 8 Rockass. Biggest Smallie was 18.25"

Another:
I boated 23 smallies, 4 Whitebass, 2 s-eye and a handful of greenears & pumpkinseeds. Biggest smallies in the 17.50" class.

As for my biggest Smallmouth from a Yak, that would be a 19 1/4" fish that I caught again on another trip through the same area 2 week later..it was on the same log and hit the exact same bait...


How about any strange or crazy trips?

Two stick out in my mind, I was on a trip with my buddy Duane, watched him hook a smaller Spotted bass on a soft plastic bait. The fish came off right as he was lifting it out of the water. He sat his rod down, lure hanging in the water, so he could reposition...his rod bent over...same thing s he lifted the little spotted bass out of the water, it fell off. This time he quickly dropped the lure back in the water...the fish hit it and came off the next 3 times...then on the fourth he hooked and landed it. It was crazy to see such a thing happen with my own eyes...he was shocked too.

Another was something I had never had happen before...here it is taken from my log:
"Had a very weird thing happen today thats not happened before. I just pulled through a riffle and swung around to cast my crank up into the fast flow, hooked a little 8-10" smallie and as he was crashing and bashing on the surface a very BIG smallie busted him like he was bait..GEEZ US!! The explosion scared the crap out of me and I was shocked at what I had just witnessed. The crash was so loud my Buddy's both heard it and couldn't believe it either...YES I did sit there for a little bit after releasing the little guy trying like heck to get that bigger fish to take a lure....nothing doing, I guess that big boy or girl wanted something BIG and lively to eat?"
Man I felt real bad for that little Smallie and as soon as I realized what the explosion was about I got him up and out of the water quickly...I was almost scarred to release him back in the water for fear the big fish was under my Yak just waiting...lol.

How about you guys?


Scott

[shwookie]

Numbers?

Would of been one of my koko trips. My buddy and I had to boat over 70 fish that day. In one spot I got 6 bites, 4 hook ups, and landed 3 all without moving or casting to a different spot.
It must of been like a buffet line under that tree....

Best day over all?

Probably a couple of weeks ago with Daggerdoofus and pasta. Not a big numbers day, but I caught 2 18" sm and was just one of those days where everything felt right. Maybe it was the good fishing, or it was the odd aroma drifting around me, who knows?

Oddest day?

One week earlier, I had floated maybe 2/3rds of the trip without a bite. It was cold, water temp was 46, air was 34. So cold that ice formed on the eyelets of my spare rod.....

Anyways, I had floated infront of DD by a ways and casted into the mouth of a opening and got a good hit but missed. So I cast again to the same spot, thinking I blew it, but sure enough i got another hit. I reeled in my bait, SSS, situated it while wondering what the heck was screwing with me and cast again. Got another hit! Managed to fight him for a few seconds and got off again. thoroughly angered by this unseen smart ass, I cast again, fully expecting a bite now, well that sm hit my lure like a ton of bricks, and I set the hook with all I had and finally landed the fish.

That fish was the first 18+ smallie I ever caught and was worth all the frustration.

Of course, I was alone, I shouted for DD, but with a riffle between us, he couldn't hear me, heck I even called him on his cell twice, he screened my calls, bastard. Upon catching my PB sm, no one was there to witness it....
I ended up taking a pic of it on my cell. I later found out I left the resolution set to 160x160 though >:
No one saw it and I got a poor, small picture of it. I must of taken hundreds of pics all season and had no problems, other than on the one I wanted most, I goofed up. To be honest though, after admiring the fish, calming down, and waiting for Dave a bit, I snapped one pic and let the fish go, it was more important to make sure he got away alive and kicking than to get a bunch of pics.

[ohioyaker]

Thanks for sharing the memories Brock....Dont worry, you'll get a chance at taking a GOOD picture with your first 20"+ smallie soon enough..I'm sure of that.


Sometimes catching is not the only memorable thing about a trip. I had a few trips this year that did'nt produce much in the way of fish to brag about...but the company, funny chit chat and all that made for a very good trip.

Sometimes I get caught up in the trying to CATCH, that I forget about the REAL important stuff...good friends, good times and being thankful to get the time to float a beautiful stream.


I'm buying a new digital camera for next season, one I wont have to worry about getting wet and all that...so I can capture more moments to refleck back on during the slow times.

Scott

[Dave Stephens]

my best yakking day of 2007 was in august when i reached my goal of paddling the new river gorge. i then went and did it again 10 days later. so i really got 2.

ds

[bterrill]

Here in Indiana, we had a lot of shallow water that made for more intelligent wading. So I didn't approach last year's kayak fishing trips(although fish caught numbers were way up).

My best day from a yak was 3/31/07, where I caught but three fish from my Dagger BW 106.

The first, a 15" on nikishi pointer 78. The other two pictured below were caught on Misty Shad Pointer 100. Both were 20".





B

[stuckathome]

My best trip was the koko as mentioned by Brock, we slayed them that day, saw my first bald eagle outside of the zoo, heard turkeys, deer, cool place. I don't remember if it was the same trip, but next to a DEEP blowdown, I had SOMETHING nail my tube, then pulled about 10 feet of line out of my meduim baitcaster with 30 pound Fireline, pulled so hard it turned my yak around, then like a train right into the heart of the deep snag. Brock had to notice cause I was screaming like a girl for him to drag me away from the snag, then I asked him to dive in and retrieve my fish. After a prolonged x-rated rant, I broke him off, then I paddled to shore , got out, threw my rod, and cursed the fish gods and anyone else I could think of. Brock knew just to move on, I'd get better sometime.

To me, it was a class T smallmouth, never had a fish pull like that, more than likely(but NO!) it might have been a flathead or muskie/northern, but it was big and powerful. Nice thing about never seeing it is it could have been a SM of a lifetime, if I did get it, I wouldn't pursue it as much. It still sucks though.

[ecoangler]

My best day was a family camping trip on the Hocking in Mid June.
I caught 3 smallies to 17".

The best thing was helping my brother in his new yak and my nephew in my Pungo get on to many Fish Ohio rock bass and smallies over a 7 miles distance.

By day's end they had lost count of their successes.
I had the greatest reward in watching and guiding them to their enjoyment and the memories they will always carry.