Your stupidest mistake kayak fishing?
 

Curious to hear everyone's experiences, to learn from and make myself feel better..

I'll start: while launching from LJ surf I once put in my Hobie Mirage Drive backwards... Silly me assumed the incoming tide was pushing me hard back in so I started using my paddle and somehow got past the sketchy surf with a backwards drive... :confused::confused: only then realizing my mistake.

Don't ask my why I didn't realize how my drive was backwards.. :confused: Half asleep? Maybe. Idiocy? Definitely! D'oh! Never again.

Hobie Surfin in the rocks
 

Against my better judgement, I got in the habit of hugging the rocks coming into Mission Bay where I didn't have to fight the tide as much in the shallower water. In addition, I would catch the waves coming in. One day I was too close to the rocks when my down rudder rope came out of the clip as a wave hit me. On a Hobie, when the rope comes unclipped it throws the kayak into a hard to port turn. Of course that was the side the rocks were on. My bow hit the rocks while I was trying to get my paddle out and my mind was trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Before I could get my nose out of the rocks the next wave hit me broadside and flipped the yak out from under me. The only thing hurt was my pride, and I lost a few poles, small tackle box, and a very special hand made brass knobbed hali-bat.
Lesson learned. Now I keep the rocks not quite as close, and on the starboard side of the yak.

Y'all will have to stand by, I just got my kayak so I'm sure it'll happen soon.

I mean, I did install my Mirage drive backwards and didn't cleat off my rudder the first time I went out and had a hell of a time sorting myself out. Reading the manual would have helped. But I guarantee you I'll have something better soon . . .

One of my first times out, completely inexperienced, I was fishing south of the Mission Bay pier, near some cliffs and not paying attention, I realized that I had strayed into a group of surfers, and next thing I know a big wave hits me from being in a Hobie tandem kayak, causing the kayak to pencil and launching me and my gear. Complete yard sale. Stranded on the beach, up against the cliffs, with the kayak but minus a fair amount of lost unleashed gear, it took me about an hour to successfully launch past the surf, repeatedly getting thrown back by the waves. The surfers were laughing their asses off the whole time. Let’s just say I’m a lot more careful about wandering into surf zones these days.


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Eating an entire bag of pistachio nuts--tough to get the floaters out of the drive well.

When I first became interested in kayak fishing I tried a few different models out. One I rented out of Oceanside, a Hobie sport, pretty small for someone my size. I dropped out a sabiki rig and before long I hooked up on what turned out to be smelt. As I turned around to get the pole I flipped the kayak over. After getting back in, I went to recover my pole, which had tangled on the back, and flipped over again. I got back on and before I could do anything I moved the wrong way and flipped again. I was soaking wet when I returned the kayak, the guy asked me what happened, I just shook my head.

Securing my catch to a game clip that wasn't secured to my kayak .... and dropping it over the side. :cheers1:

I put my head over the side of my kayak to take a closer look at a fish, mission accomplished... but not exactly how I thought it would go.

LOL LOL LOL this is GREAT! I was in Deer Creek Malibu north County one morning chasing the WSB bite... 6 foot shore pound, about 2 second interval...


This was about 5 years ago and to this day have issues with my knee.. For sure tore a ligament trying to get my 14 foot barge out in that nonsense :sifone::biggrinjester: On my third try through the surf I flipped the yak on the 3rd yard sale for whatever I had left and at that moment could not really lift the yak and flip it over in the surf... tore a ligament :/

Always confirm that the kayak seat is well fastened to the kayak. Once flipped in 200+ft of water and the Hobie vantage seat came off.... attached to it was my VHF radio, dry bag with brand new phone, wallet and car keys.

Ouch, there are some painful ones here.

My only oopsy was paddling hard into the wind one day, and every few strokes my paddle would brush up against the handle of one of my spinning reels. Didn't realize I was slowly working the rod butt out of the rod holder. After a while I noticed I wasn't hitting it any more, so I turned around to look, and sure enough there was an empty rod holder. Ugh.

The first day out on the new outback I dropped a $500 set up straight into the water.



I was fishing on a Pro angler before the outback. What I would do is lay the rods on the side between the seat and raised lip of the hull. Well there is no such space on the outback. I laid it down, looked away for a second and went to grab it and it was gone.

Overloaded the back of a tandem cobra with me (250+lb) a crate and some rods. Forgot to check the drain plug and the back was filling up with water. I realized something didn't seem right and I paddled back to the docks. Flip about 20 feet from the shore. Cell phone got wet even thought it was in a water proof bag and lost some plano containers filled with weights.

Coming back in on a Cobra Fish N’ Dive. Thought I had tied everything down for the surf. Poor timing got the best of me and I found myself frantically steering down the face of a wave with my paddle. Knocked the only non tied down rod/reel into the water, and stared in that direction to try and get a good location in my memory to swim back out to it. Ended up rolling on the wave and a large yard sale ensued.

The LJ tourists enjoyed the show.

Wow!! This thread really made me feel better :p Some expensive and pride-crushing mistakes y'all experienced..

But if kayak fishing's taught me anything, it's to always stay humble and err on the side of caution no matter experience level..

Keep the stories coming!! :D

Ditto!!

Reading some of yours made me feel better too!
I got one story for the book of kayaking screw ups.
I went out to the big lake in castaic and paddled out about 1/2 a mile when some youngsters in a speed boat flew pass me and created some massive wakes.. now at the same time I had just put on a $20 dollars led lighting recharging bass lure.
And set my pole down to grab a drink out of my cooler..
when the waves hit.. the kayak rocked hard and my pole, reel, and new lure went over board and slowly sank to the bottom of the lake! Now I invested in a leash and some nicer rod holders to save me the embarrassment in the near future.

I did exactly the same thing at Redondo when I was a newbie. Thanks god for PFDs. Love this thread. I could do any of these posts at any outing.

Made a trip to Newport beach 2 weeks ago. I checked the surf report the night before which seemed fair, 3-4 foot surf with intervals in between sets. When I had arrived in the morning I spent a fair amount of time searching for street parking, I parked, loaded all my gear and dragged them to the sand. Initially, the surf appeared to be the 3-4 foot waves I saw online. I foolishly attempted to launch several times and with each time I hesitated. In the process the surge generated by the short shore break caused my kayak to flip. I had failed to strap all of my gear in tightly resulting in both of my rods snapping in half. And, all this happened even before I made an attempt to punch through the waves due to anxiety, hesitation, stubbornness, and lack of sleep.

The lesson I learned from that experience was to check the surf prior to making a launch attempt, strap everything down and to store what ever I can in the hull. Trust me, cleaning sand out of your reels and mirage drive is a pain.

Went out hooping during a Small Craft Advisory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P7mWH_Yf3g

I was fishing about a mile out of Dana Point harbor with my wife in my Oasis tandem kayak. I had purchased a kayak scoop of bait before heading out. At one point, I dropped a bait and it went under my seat. Rather than just leaving it there, I decided it would be a good idea to stand up, turn around, lift up the seat and rescue the bait. As I should have expected, the act of turning around momentarily placed all of my weight on one side of the yak, which was more than sufficient to quickly roll the kayak, dumping my wife and all of our gear into the drink. Fortunately, my wife and I were wearing PFDs and all of our gear was either leashed or floated. I was able to flip the yak back over quickly enough and I could get back onboard, but my wife wasn't able to get back on. I flagged down a passing power boat and it just so happened to be a crew of retired guys that were part of the volunteer Coast Guard Auxiliary (or something like that) out doing training exercises. They said they would give my wife a ride back to the harbor while I sorted out the tangled mess of leashed gear and started peddling back in. They wouldn't leave me out there alone though and eventually convinced me to just climb onboard with them and they towed in my yak too. The only thing I lost was a tank full of bait (I didn't have the lid latched so the bait all swam for freedom when the yak was momentarily upside down). Now that my wife knows that she can't self-rescue, I won't take her outside of the harbor (she has tried self-rescuing in a controlled environment several times after this event all unsuccessfully). In looking back on this event, I realize it could have ended up a lot worse. Glad the only thing I lost was my pride and a scoop of bait. One other note, even though my kayak is in like-new condition, it still managed to collect several gallons of water in the hull in the very short time (maybe 30 seconds) that it was upside down ... which is a good reason to carry a bilge pump. One final note, my fishfinder/GPS was powered on when I flipped and it was still working when I flipped the yak back over. I immediately turned off the unit and left it off. It still works fine to this day so it must not have ingested any water.