Night Kayak tonight Thur

[The Image ™]

Me and Melissa jumped at the chance to go night kayaking with Ray and Kev. Went to Llandullas and the sea was mirror calm and so silent that all we could hear was the ripple sound of the paddles in the water. We set off just before sunset.
Shortly after anchoring over our chosen mark, Ray leaned too far over to reach the compartment behind him and over he went with a splash. Kev and Melissa paddled over to help. Kev helped him get back onto his yak and Melissa lectured him on how to stay on which I'm sure Ray was grateful for.
Ray returned to his car while me, Melissa and Kev fished into darkness.

Paddling out at dusk.


Kev and Ray after the big splash incident.


Melissa relaxing in her yak


Melissa at sunset. We carried on fishing well past sundown.


We tried anchoring, drifting and plugging. Drifting produced some bites but nothing else.

Melissa has now adopted the remaining live peeler crabs and named them Ernie, Shelley and Fred. She's going to be upset at the weekend when I use them as bait!

[The Image ™]

For the attention of anyone wanting to try night kayaking, it can be quite eerie. The person who seemed the least bothered by this was Melissa
One thing that bothered me was that in daylight I keep my eyes on the clouds and the horizon for early detection of a change in the weather but at night you can't see either of these things so I knew that I wouldn't know of any changes to the weather until it actually hit us. Luckily it remained flat calm.

Another thing to consider is how difficult it is to stow all your gear away in your car in complete darkness. Very easy to leave a Fishfinder or radio behind if you're not careful. I spent some time searching around with a torch to make sure I'd not left anything.

[victoriapierangling]

hi to all yes the night was excellent for my fist fishing trip on my new yak .that was utile the time Kev push me out off the yak
;D ;D ;D ;D no i would like to say thanks to all three of you Kev was there fist to get to me i just not turn the yak over until Kev told me how to do it cheers Kev. but i still would not let go off my fishing rod .shame i had to go in early but the water was very cold .what a lovely sun set that night
cheers for that can't Waite to get out again

PS we will catch some fish next time???

good job image did not get there with camera in time

[martinw]

shame there was no pics of ray going in! would have been funny to see, and took the stigma away from me ;D ;D ;D

nice pics wish i could have been there

[victoriapierangling]

hi martin i made shore is was back in the yak when he got us
thanks to kev
maybe next time the only thing that upset me was i took my phone out with me .yes you can guess i need a new phone

[The Image ™]

It was good to actually use my fishfinder in anger and it worked well. One thing I failed to do (a lesson here) was to familiarise myself with putting the display backlight on and I was fumbling in the dark scrolling through the menu. Another thing to remember before going night kayaking! Practice putting the fishfinder light on with eyes shut.

Another lesson was tidiness in the yak. Difficult to organise things in the dark and at one point I sat on a hook which Melissa thought was incredibly funny.

Another lesson learned was how long it can take to help someone. I was the first to see Ray in the water but it took a long time for me to put away 2 rigged rods, unleash 2 paddles, cast Melissa off and haul in my anchor. Kev was drift fishing so got there much earlier.

It was flat calm water and no drama really but worth mentioning for those rougher times when it would be.

[starvinmarvin]

Just a mention of safety, there has been a bit of night fishing going on down south, we all have fixed lights on our kayaks, this not only helps us spot each other in the dark it also alerts any others out in their tugs, we also all had head torches to help with baiting up etc, these were turned off once the baits were dropped over the side.

We fished the Southampton Water until about 1pm last time out. A ferry passed and as it turned into the main channel we heard it's fog horn, within 10 minutes you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you, luckily we had paddled back due to one of the party getting in a rip and deciding that was enough fun for one night.

Another thing that is worth thinking about, if you don't all have VHF, then it may be wise to get a set of 2 way radios, they don't need to be expensive and you can keep them in a watertight sandwich box when not talking. It's easy to drift apart in the dark and not always easy to communicate, the radio's would help to keep things together.

The Image, I had problems with the finder light as well, never bothered with it before, never did find the right button

SM

[speciman]

Well put Starvin.


Out of interest, VictoriaPierAngling, what clothing were you wearing for trip?

[The Image ™]

Floatation suit.