Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Fishing Report 3/12/14 and a Personal Best!


With a short window in the weather, I decided to splash the new Tarpon 140.  I went to some favorite spots along the Elizabeth River.  With some intel from a few friends I made a plan and went to work.  I quickly set up with some gulp and landed countless puppy drum jigging on the bottom.  As the day went on the puppy drum bite turned off and the trout moved in.  I decided to switch to a mirror lure and began throwing that.  As time rolled by the wind began to blow harder and harder.  I knew I would only get another 30 min tops out on the water before I should head in.  I hit one more spot on the way in that I thought I saw some fish rolling on the top when I paddled out earlier.  4th cast and it felt as if I hooked a barge.  The fish took off and began to tow me around.  I ended up in a real muddy area once I got the fish close.  In the shallow mud I could see that this huge Speck was barely hooked in the top of its mouth.  It was sloshing around in the mud throwing it everywhere.  I was prepared to jump off my kayak and tackle this fish.   No matter what I needed to get this thing in the boat. Carefully grabbed the leader and kicked the huge speck into the cockpit of my kayak.  Just then the hook popped and the fish went into a intense break dancing session.  I quickly threw my legs on top of it doing whatever I could to keep it in the boat.  I grabbed my lip grippers and hooked into the huge mouth of this fish and finally got a chance to breath.  Measured it up and was surprised to see how big this fish really was.  28 inches on the hawg troph.  After I tagged and released that fish I wiped the mud off and decided to call it a day.  A great first trip in the new boat and some quality fish caught.  Looking forward to many more to come this year.






Addition to the fleet: Tarpon 140



This week I headed up to Appomattox River Company and picked up my new Wilderness Systems Tarpon 140.  Of course there is only one color kayak for me.  I was pretty excited to add a second boat to the fleet this year.  Since I started kayak fishing, I have fished from a Ride 135.  The Ride 135 is a fantastic boat,  Unmatched stability and tons of room to fish from.  The tarpon is a much smaller and faster kayak. 



When you first look at the Tarpon 140 you notice that is has the sleek lines of a Wilderness boat.  It just looks fast.  It is noticeably thinner in width then the Ride series too.  I picked the boat and lifted it onto my Jeep.  Strapped it down and headed back to the southside.  3 days of warm weather ahead, I wanted to try and get on the water at least one of them.


 

Phase 3 seat is super comfortable and adjustable.  The Ride has a great seat that I fell in love with but this one blows it out of the water.

Like I said before...It looks fast.


I was surprized at the amount of storage space that this thing had.



Plenty of track space to mount any and everything you need.


All in all this boat performed very well for me on my first day.  Hopefully later this spring I can give a little more indepth review on it.  Its only been on the water once and in some windy conditions it did great.  It even got smiled up a little bit too.   Stay tuned for that fishing report here soon!!


A.