Yakhopper/ Fisherman's Warehouse Delta Madness Tournament

What a day at Yakhopper's Delta Madness. I made a late launched at Turner Cut Marinia and headed towards Mildred Island. Paddling my Eddyline Caribbean 14 without a rudder for the first time and halfway through Empire Cut I noticed the kayak was faster making it pleasurable compared to my Ocean Kayak T15. In the past, while in Empire Cut I always see fish busting surface after bait fish. But being a little late I didn't see any surface activity. It didn't matter for I knew where fish would stage for an easy meal so the first cast I used my Powell 795 C with 65lb braided line with a 5" Sinister America Shad DeltaWoodbomber. I saw a swirl but the fish didn't commit. Recast and the large mouth bass goes flying in the air missing my lure. Tryed working that area but nothing showed. On the next stop cast the 5" Sinister again and this time a fish stucked. 15 and a half large mouth CPR. Tried the outside of Mildred Island for nothing and with time left before check-in I wanted to paddle back to the marina and work the docks. Eventually, the wind picked up along with high tide pushing hyacinth inside of the docks. With little time to work I had no luck there so time to go check in. To my suprise my catch of the day secured 2nd place and took home a nice placard and a Lowrance Mark 4.

Yia Yang
Eddyline Kayak Fishing Team Member

Yia's new Caribbean 14

2nd place on a tough day of fishing. 

NuCanoe Frontier 12 rigging with Bass Yaks Trolling Motor

Here at Headwaters we never turn down a rigging job no matter how complicated it may be. This one was a NuCanoe Frontier 12 with a Bass Yaks Trolling Motor, anchor trolley, tandem and solo Max 360 seats, front mounted battery, Lowrance Elite 4 DSI fish finder with transducer scupper, Yak Attack Mighty Mounts, Scotty rod holders and so much more. Here is a video walkthrough of the kayak. We hope this helps get the wheels turning for you and your next rigging project. Don't hesitate to call or email if you have questions on how to rig something.

Headwaterskayak@gmail.com
(209)224-8367

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7LFhEzcUzs

American River Fish and Cleanup

The American River Fish and Cleanup was the brainchild of Headwaters Fishing Team member Adam Koons. Adam and I had talked about doing a "Fish n Chill" event on the American when the Salmon started running. A Fish n Chill is what the Nor Cal Kayak Anglers club calls a non competitive event geared toward getting new and old members together to fish, relax and potluck. We wanted our event to double as a river cleanup, an idea originally brought to us by fellow NCKAer Jim Meier. Jim host a kayak fishing tournament series called "Fresh Kats" (freshwater kayak angler tournament series). This was his way of promoting and rewarding good stewardship of our fisheries. Usually at all Jim tournaments there is a large prize for the most trash collected. We decided to make this part of our event, and the Headwaters Kayak Shop got on board and donated a Wheeleez kayak cart to whoever brought in the most trash.

Soon after the event was posted interest started pouring in from all over Nor Cal. We had people RSVPing all the way from Paradise, the bay area, and surrounding cities. We quickly realized that we would need to get in touch with the parks and to get a permit and make this a ligament event. Thankfully Adam made the call and talked to the parks person about our plans. Not only did he make it easy to get our permit, but because it was based around a river cleanup he waived the fee, proving doing the right thing really has it rewards. Adam also got in touch with local artist Skinner to design a really awesome shirt for the event. A zombie salmon with some trash in his mouth. Gross sure, awesome absolutely!

The Fish n Cleanup took place on Sunday October 6th at Howe River Access on the American River Parkway. We all started rolling in at dark and watched the sun rise over the river. Mist was rising of the water and Salmon were rolling everywhere. Everyone quickly hit the water and begin working spinners as they drift down the river. Right off the bat as I was side drifting through the first bit of current and I got a hard hit. I was still half asleep and didn't set the hook in time, but it was enough to wake me up and get my attention. Unfortunately for me that was the only action I would get all day. My fishing partners and fellow team members Bam and David continued toward the Pump House near Sac State. This is where a lot of the guys were anchored up jigging the deep hole near the pump.

Bam standing and casting spinner in his Jackson Kilroy

Father and Son fishing the pump house.

Soon after we stopped by the pump house we saw James headed up river with what looked like loaded down kayak. As we looked closer we saw that James had two wood pallets strapped to his back deck. It was obvious James had given up on the fishing and went strait for the trash prize. 

We fished the pump house for about a half hour with no love so we decided to make our way down stream to scope out some trash. Team member David Fowler spotted a section of bank completely littered with trash. The two of us stopped and filled our entire kayaks with bags full of trash. It was simply amazing to see how people just throw everything right on the ground or into the river. 

Trash man David Fowler doing his thing.

Soon after David and I paddled off a young family walked down the beach and had a nice clean fishing spot, and a safe place for their kids to play. It felt good to see our small efforts immediately pay off. 

Soon after this we saw James roll by with his second score of the day. A partially submerged shopping cart.

Our crew spent a few more hours casting around and enjoying the beautiful fall colors before heading back to the launch. On our way back we heard some VHF radio chatter about someone boating a nice salmon. We quickly paddled up to the pump station to find our good buddy Ron with a 36" Salmon on board his yak. He caught him on a spoon, jigging near the pump house. This was Ron's first ever river salmon off a kayak and needless to say he was stoked. It towed him all around the river before he finally was able to net it and get it in his yak. 

One stoked kayak fisherman

                           

The best time of year to be on the river. 

Fall colors are intense right now.  

Mirror reflection.

With a nice fish in the cooler most of the crew decided to get back and get to the BBQ. As with all NCKA events the fishing is only a small part of the fun. The party really starts when the food gets rolling. We had smoked tri tip, ribs, baked potatoes, bacon wrapped jalapenos, BBQ'ed salmon, and more sides and deserts than we could count. As everyone enjoyed the food and conversation, we announced James as the winner of the trash pickup and presented him with his new kayak cart. 

Tim doing his thing

Can you say amazing! 

So when it was all said and done only one salmon was caught, but as a group we removed several hundred pounds of trash off the American River. Everyone really enjoyed the day. The weather was stellar, the water was flat, and the food camaraderie was as good as it gets! I'm always proud to be a part of these events and proud to be a member of the NCKA family.

Albion Open 2013. First Kayak Salmon!

Every year 100+ kayak fisherman migrate to the Albion River Campground for a four day ocean kayak fishing festival. The Albion Open is hosted by NCKA Member and Ocean Kayak team paddler Craig Davis. This years event was huge! Over 150 registered anglers and probably 150 more friends and family. The entire campground was filled to capacity, and the energy was electric the evening before the big tournament.

Bam and I got in Friday evening and set up camp. We made our rounds saying hello to old friends and introducing ourselves to new friends. We both planned on getting up before the sun to get to our spot so we hit the sac early. We tossed and turned with excitement and I don't think ether of us got much rest. Dispite our sleep we woke up early and finished rigging our kayaks. We had a little bit later start than we wanted, but we were still out early and the whole team with the exception of Adam Koons (Had a wedding) were on the water together. We had a plan to paddle south about a mile to some structure we knew had good fishing.

Along the way stopped a couple times when we spotted a lot of activity on the fish finders. We got into several schools of Black Rockfish and even a couple small lings. Then all of a sudden the fish finder started blowing up. I dropped my 8oz swim bait down with a small white shrimp fly tied on the leader. We were in about 80ft of water, and when it hit about 50ft.. WHAM. The fish took off. I knew I had something big when I started noticing a bow wake forming and I wasn't paddling. I fought the fish for about 5-10 minutes before I saw it flash under water. A big SALMON! The pressure was on because I've never caught a Salmon in my kayak and this one was big. The salmon took a few more runs before it wore itself out. The net I brought was big, but not big enough for this fish. Thankfully Victor was close by and let me use his to boat the fish. I put it on my game clip for a quick picture and the released it back into the wild. Why you ask? I caught it on a barbed shrimp fly while jigging for Rockfish, and it would have been an illegal catch. I was more than happy to get the shot and the release video. The rest of the day was stellar.

 

We each had a highlight for the trip. For me (Dan) was catching the Salmon.

Bam Caught a bunch of nice Ling Cod on his first trip to the Salt.

Bill landed a nice Cab and a bunch of Blue Rockfish on his fly rod.

Victor had a nice stringer of rockfish for fish tacos later that night.

As always the Nor Cal Kayak Anglers scene was incredible. Everyones willingness to share info, gear and food is unlike anything I have ever seen. The beer was free, the prizes were amazing, and as always the potluck was epic. We really could not have had a better weekend on the coast.

Thanks to Craig Davis for hosting this amazing event year after year. A lot of hard work goes into it and it really shows.

Here is a video of our trip including some cool underwater release footage.

                                         

A little bumpy water around the rocks. 

Bam and his first ever ling cod! 

Party Time at the Jedmo Nation. 

Catching Rockfish with a Fly Rod at Albion by Bio-Bil1

I'm always looking for something new to try when it comes to fishing. My latest goal has been to catch a fish in saltwater with a fly. Sounds simple right? Those of you who fish know that attempting a new technique can be a daunting task. Add to that the unforgiving conditions that are often encountered on the Pacific Coast and I figured it would easily take me a year of attempts to accomplish my goal. Fortunately for me Nor-Cal Kayak Anglers hosts their saltwater events at some of the best places to catch fish along the coast of California and so far this year all of the events I have attended have had ideal weather conditions.

Going into the weekend I was hopeful that I would be able to break out the fly rod, but at the same time I was being realistic and brought along conventional tackle as well. On the morning of the Albion Open the sea was totally flat. I though to myself," today is the day." I met up with Dan, Victor, and the latest edition to the team, Bam and we headed out. As we exited the mouth of the cove we had launched in we headed south. Right away Victor and Dan started marking fish and bait. Determined, I broke out the fly rod first thing and cast out, counting down to a depth of 40 feet, which took 80 seconds with the fly line I was using. It may as well have been an eternity. The other guys were into fish almost immediately, a school of black rockfish. I kept trying, but no luck. Swayed by the fact that everyone else was catching fish and I was getting skunked, I stowed the fly rod and deployed a swimbait. We all started catching fish, but I will let Dan tell you the details of that.

First Saltwater fish for me on the fly! A blue rockfish.

I started paddling in at about 10:30, since at this point we were fighting a pretty strong tide and paddling a fishing kayak isn't exactly a speedy process. I arrived at a cove with a bridge spanning across it and stopped to ask another angler if this was the cove we had launched from or if it was the next one to the north. I noticed another angler to my left catching small blue rockfish non stop. I paddled over toward him and out of the corner of my eye saw several white flashes as a school of rockfish darted away abut five feet below my boat. I grabbed my fly rod confident that I could catch at least one of these. I tied on a size 2 clouser minnow and chucked it out about 40 feet and let it sink for 10 seconds. I began stripping in the fly and within seconds I could feel fish trying to grab the fly. I paused my retreive momentarily and then stripped hard. Fish on! I saw the school dart away as the fish I had hooked tried to frantically free itself. I couldn't believe it. I had actually done it. The fish measured about 10 inches, but to me it was a trophy. I mean, how many people can say that they have caught a rockfish on a fly rod? Of course I didn't want anyone to say that it was just a lucky fluke, not to be repeated. So I continued working kelp edges, much like working weedlines for bass.

Beatiful colors! The facial pattern reminds me of a smallmouth bass

I ended the day having hooked 7 blue rockfish, and boating and releasing 6 of them. I could not have been happier. This was a day I won't soon forget.

One of my biggest of the day at 11.5 inches. Even though its small it still puts a good bend in a nine weight fly rod.

Spicer Meadows Night Paddling, Camping and Fishing

                                              Spicer Meadow Reservoir  July 27-29^th

^{Over the weekend I had a chance to mix two of my favorite hobbies kayaking and camping, which I have done many times separately but never camped out of a kayak.  I also threw in a little fishing when Bam and I went up to New Spicer Meadow Reservoir.  On Saturday the 27th Bam and I loaded up our Headwaters shop borrowed kayaks, the Jackson Cuda 14 and the Eddyline Caribbean 14 and set off for Spicer.  The Caribbean is one of my favorite boats in the shop for its light weight and sleek design.  I knew the 7 mile paddle to the other side of the lake wouldn’t be as tough with this great boat.   Dan Arbuckle came through for me with dry bags and showing me the proper way to load the Caribbean 14 with all of my gear.  The important thing is to make sure the load you are carrying is as close to the middle as possible so the weight is not all in the bow or stern.   I was able to put all of my gear inside or on top of the boat with plenty of room to spare.}

Geoff and Bam ready for adventure!

Loaded up and ready for a late night paddle. 

   

^{We left Lodi Ca, at 6:30 pm and were at the lake by 9:30 and on the water by 10:15.  This was my first night paddle without the help of a full moon.  The paddle was exhilarating and really gets your senses going when you cannot see that well.  Good thing Bam knew where to go!   Spicer is a smaller canyon type lake and the stars were out in force that night with the Milky Way very prominent in the sky.   Another cool aspect of this lake is the back half does not allow motor boats of any kind even trolling motors.    We made it to the end of the lake around 12:30 am found a great campsite started a small fire and grilled up some food before heading to bed.  The beautiful part about Spicer is there was nobody at the back of the lake.  We could have chosen anywhere to set up camp.}     

Geoff enjoying a little down time around the fire.

^{I woke up to lots of buzzing around my tent and realized the bees were working hard carrying pollen from the tall green plants surrounding the shore and wanted no business with us.   When Bam and I checked out the lake the trout were reacting well to hatching Callibaetis.  There was no wind in the morning and conditions were great to fish.  We quickly got to the lake and Bam set up his fly and me with a panther martin.   I think we slept in too much though as soon as we got going the wind picked up and the callibaetis took of for the shores.   We paddled to the where the creek came in to the lake and Bam hiked a bit to check out the creek and I stayed in the lake and kept at it with my panther.  I finally caught my first fish in almost two decades when I caught a nice trout.  We tried a little trolling but by the early afternoon the wind was really picking up and never died down till well past sunset.} 

Bam trolling a fly line. 

12"er

Geoff doing his thing. 

^{We ended up cooking up that trout with some scrambled eggs and potatoes and had a great breakfast.  Sleep caught up with the both of us and I woke up and Bam had a rainbow trout on the stringer.  He tried a bit of trolling with the Cuda 14 but still the wind would not let up.  We feasted that night on trout, grilled chicken and sausage.  Life just seems so much better when you have skewered meats sizzling over an open fire out in the middle of nowhere.    The next morning had us scrambling to break down camp load our boats and get on the water before the winds showed up.  We made it about two thirds of the way back before we got walloped with the wind.  We made it to the boat ramp and loaded boats and headed down the hill after a great camping trip.  Bam was great at getting me set up for fishing and I enjoyed camping with someone who loves it as much as I do.  If you are looking for a great place to kayak and camp with no crowds, and throw some trout fishing in, Spicer is my recommendation.} 

Great fishing with a beautiful backdrop. 

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Headed out early to try and beat the wind. Get up GEOFF! 

Geting packed up. 

Loaded up and headed back. Amazing place and we will be back!