First time out with the new yak...I think I'm in love

**PondHopper** · 10-17-2011, 12:37 PM

This past weekend was pretty momentous for me as an angler. I was able to take my first fishing kayak out for her maiden voyage!
A few weeks ago I purchased a 2012 Wilderness Systems Ride 135, and aside from putting it in my neighbor’s pool to test the stability (very stable), I had not yet been able to take it out. Let me tell you, it was hard getting work done at the office knowing that my beautiful fishing machine was at home on the kayak rack.

Finally, the day came when I was able to slip out of work a few minutes early, and hit a private lake in the Midlands. I wanted to take the yak out for some river bassin’, but didn’t have the time to set up a drop-off/pick up with another driver.
It was a gorgeous – and very windy – afternoon. Honestly though, it could have been hailing anvils and I would have been grinning from ear to ear just to be on the water.

The Ride 135 met all my expectations! It was stable, tracked well, and had lots of room for the gear I had (and all the gear I plan to recklessly pour money into over the next few months). It also feels very comfortable standing and casting. I’m sure it will only get easier with practice.
Thanks to my drag anchor, I was able to get pretty good positioning of the yak, even in heavy wind. I had some friends fishing with my in a jon boat, and while I was sitting comfortably in one place casting, they were having to run the trolling motor on low power to stay relatively still.

Within ten minutes or so of being on the water, I pulled in my first kayak bass. It took a junebug, Texas-rigged worm by a bridge piling, almost as soon as it hit the water. The bass was only about ten inches, but it might as well have been ten pounds. It felt good!

Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my phone or camera with me in the yak, so this first bass will have to go officially undocumented. I had visions of losing all my gear on the first trip out, so I had to rely on my friend in the job boat to snap a few pics for me.
That first bass was the only one I caught that day. I also caught a small bluegill while I was casting a Roadrunner jig around some docks, and a jackfish casting a Rebel popper around some weed edges. That jackfish surprised me so much I almost went out of the boat. I was looking around at the scenery (not paying attention to my bait), and the fish exploded out of the water right next to the yak to inhale the plug. It was the first jackfish I had ever landed.

What a great afternoon on the water. The only problem is that now I can’t stop thinking about taking the kayak out again!

Until that happens, I’ll bide my time, and try to help my wife work through the jealousy issues she’s dealing with towards the Ride 135! “It’s not that I love the boat more than you, honey. It's just that I love it differently.”