Kayak Fishing Blog

McGyver and The Gaff

Mark, Just thought I’d drop you a line and give you a story on how your Hook 1 gaff saved me significant discomfort on my last foray out of Dana Point. My Son Troy (AKA Zed on forums) and I launched out of Doheny this past Wednesday (3/3/08) at about 6:00 am with hopes of running into a WSB off the point. Launching at high tide with a bit of south swell made the launch a little dicey we managed to get out, albeit a little wet.

We headed out to the point with a good following current which made the paddle a lot easier. Troy as able to make a couple macs on the way out but I was only able to drum up a few tiny cudas. The water was green and cloudy until we got to the point where it turned clear and blue. I just worked around the point with a dead stick bait rig and working a swim bait with one of my other rigs, while Troy was slow trolling his mac in deeper water. I was getting a slow pick on the Sandies, but still no bait. I headed north of the point to a deeper water reef marked by a couple lobster buoys where I started to pick up some beautiful grade Sandies on the swimbaits. I even had one hit my dead stick bait rig which was weighted with a jig head and split tail plastic. Unfortunately I didn’t get a look at that one but he smoked line off my bait rig, which just happens to be a Trout rig with 6 lb test on it.

By now, the current was ripping from the North with a light breeze from the South. I was only able to stay on the reef for a couple casts, and then would have to paddle up current to drift back over the reef. It was hard work but the quality and quantity of the Sandies was incentive enough for me.

I was done with one of my drifts and was making my turn up current when my paddle broke in half just below the insert that has the spring loaded button on it. It looked like the salt water had corroded the aluminum at the bottom of the insert. By now, Troy was probably a mile or so south of me so getting his attention was not in the cards and I was pretty sure that even if he knew of my predicament, he’d probably laugh and high tail it to shore so he could include this story in his posted fish report. The current was taking me quickly to the south, which meant farther from shore.

I reviewed my options at that point and first tried to paddle the kayak like a canoe with half of the broken paddle. This appeared to be an
option, but a quick calculation of how many strokes it would take to get back to the launch, and how many times I would have to switch sides with the paddle, and imagining how my hands would look after gripping the jagged edge of the half a paddle, I was pretty sure that there had to me a better way. My next thought was to try to collapse the end of one half of the paddle and then shove it inside the tube on the other half of paddle. With a hack saw and some channel locks and maybe a hammer and anvil, I think this might have worked. Unfortunately, by tool inventory consisted of one needle nose pliers. The aluminum was just too tough, and I was unable to bend it, cut it or otherwise decrease it’s diameter enough to push it inside the other half paddle.

My next thought was to make some kind of a 2 or 3 foot splint to push inside the tubes of both half paddles. Enter the 3ft Hook1 Bamboo Gaff. After pulling the rubber cap off one end of the gaff, I realized that it was about the right diameter to do the job for me. My next task was to de-construct the hook end of the gaff. Here comes a shameless plug for the quality construction of this product. Those bastards are well built! Damm it!! I started by trying to find a loose piece of the cord that wraps the hook onto the bamboo. Well, there isn’t any. After a lot of twisting and prying with my needle nose, I was able to create a loose end and unwrap the cord from the bamboo. Home free right? Well no. Under the cord, the hook is wrapped with some real strong black fiberglass like tape and covered with epoxy. After scraping and prodding and twisting with my needle nose, I was able to erode the epoxy along the two edges of the hook. It then took three good raps on the deck of my yak to break it loose. Now I was in business. I put the bamboo inside the tubes of the two halves of the paddle and low and behold, I had myself a functional kayak paddle. It actually performed quite well. You just had to remember to not loosen your grip on one end of the paddle as you alternate your left and right strokes.

Camping - Doheny State Beach, Dana Point, CA

2/24/08 -

Doheny Campground, Dana Point, California

In order to get a beach-front campsite at Doheny, we had to go in February – ha ha   If any of you have tried to get a beach front camp spot in the prime summer months, it’s tough!  Even in February, they can be hard to get. When reserving a campsite through Reserve America, you can make reservations six months prior to the date you want.  So, if I want a good spot at a popular campground in September, I can try and get a spot on March 1^st – 8 am – fingers ready to go, racing others at their computers, all trying  to get the site you want. 

I knew the weather might not be on our side, being in February and all, but we like to camp and would take our chances.  About a week ago I started checking the forecast and it didn’t look good.  We planned on arriving Friday afternoon and leaving on Sunday.  The forecast showed rain on Friday, clear Saturday with rain starting around 11 pm that night and continuing to rain into Sunday, letting up around noon.  We had pretty good luck with no rain after we arrived Friday afternoon and Saturday was beautiful.  The “real” weather arrived around midnight on Saturday night and the wind was unbelievable.   It rained, but the wind was crazy!  We had to go out around 2 am and put the awning down – not an easy task in the wind and it started to rain again while we were out there!

 But…. enough about the weather, if you like to camp you’ll like the Doheny Campground.  It’s a beautiful place with a long sandy beach, good surf down towards the jetty wall and lots of nearby restaurants and shops.  This trip we didn’t take the kayaks, but Mark did some shore fishing and caught a perch.  We saw our friend Ray out kayak fishing and hoped he would get the “big” one!  I walked down to the beach to sit and enjoy the sun while Mark was fishing and saw trash all over the beach that had washed up from the rain earlier in the week.  There is a nearby creek and the trash just pours down into the ocean.  I got three trash bags and filled them up.  Right when I finished picking up trash, I looked down the beach and about 60-75 high school kids from Dana Hills High School were cleaning the beach!  Glad I could help a little bit – Thanks Dana Hills High School kids (some had on cross country shirts) for cleaning our beach!

If you plan on kayak fishing while you’re camping at Doheny, you can launch your kayak at the far end, near the jetty wall.  You can also drive down to Baby’s Beach and launch from there.  Visit our Dana Point page on our website that has pictures of the area: http://www.kayakfishinggear.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=74

Talking about fire pits J  We have the coolest fire pit – the inside (drum) of a washing machine.  Not only is it portable but it lets the heat out of the holes and you really don’t need a rip roaring fire to get warm.  Some of the fire pits at the campgrounds are so deep, you need a bundle of wood just to get warm.  We stick in 3-4 pieces at a time and it’s HOT!  Here’s a picture of our fire pit when we were camping last year.

If you plan on camping at Doheny and have any questions just let me know, I’d be more than happy to answer them.

karen@kayakfishinggear.com