My search for Yellow Perch

    To be a member of an awesome fishing club like the Tidewater Kayak Angler Association (TKAA), means having some awesome friends that are part of a group that will always have fun and safe events to participate in.  One of the things we do to have fun is to hold monthly tournaments/competitions.  By doing these tournaments/competitions, I feel it help’s an average angler paddle out from his or her comfort zone and teaches them to become a more than average angler.  This month the fish on the list to catch are the Yellow Perch and Crappie.  I’ve caught many Crappie in youth but the Yellow Perch was never a fish I considered before.

 

    My latest quest took me to the Northwest River located in Chesapeake, Virginia.  The site to launch from was Bob’s Fishing Hole.

 

The first time I tempted my fate at Bob’s Fishing Hole, I met up with some friends from TKAA.  The forecast for the day was said be set for a high of 50 degrees.  But when we arrived at about 8 o’clock in the morning, it was a different story.  According to my truck temperature sensor it 27 degrees, we prayed it was going to warm up some.  Pulling the kayaks to the launch we were greeted with a nice layer of frost on the ground.

 

Even with cold temps we paddled out to try and find the fish.  Using my fish finder we figured we try and mark fish on the bottom.  Our bait of choice for the day was a mixture of minnows, and jigs.  But even after we found the fish, we were having no luck in hooking any.  We figured out why the fish were not biting.  We had just had some serious rain fall the last few days and the water was really muddy.  With still having bait to use, we fished on.

 

After we got to an area to be known for holding good fish, we were greeted with more friends of the plastic navy (more TKAA members).  We later joked about the TKAA taking over the Northwest River, ha ha ha.  There were quite a few of us out there that day.

 

Every now and then a few small fish were caught, but none by me L.  I found a spot on my fish finder just up the river that looked like a good hole.  So we set off in that direction to try our luck.  After we arrived I saw some good fish below, my buddy Patrick figured he would be funny and cast right next to me.  Sure enough he hooked into a 22” Bowfin.  It was the biggest fish of the day.

 

We fished for a while longer and then tried the bridges out next to the boat launch.  I still had nothing but my other buddy Mike was able to land a few small Crappie.

 

It was time to go home.

 

The following week, I headed to the Northwest River again.  This time I went out on my own.  I needed some time to myself.  I just loss my grandmother during the week and needed to get out on the water at that moment.  I needed to clear my head.

 

I set out with my fish finder in an attempt to find the fish.  The bait of choice today was minnow’s.  After about an hour and a half, I was greeted with a hefty tug on my line that spun me in two complete circles.  I fought this fish for about five minutes and brought it up to the surface.  Low and behold I was surprised with a 31”, 15 lbs Blue Catfish.  It was my first fish of the year, yeah baby!   My largest fish to date ever caught out of my yak.

 

About an hour later while talking to a boater about the local fishing, I was greeted with my very first Yellow Perch, 10 ½ inches.

 

Still having bait, I decided to keep fishing the bottom.  A hefty tug to the line and being spun around in circles again, I was beginning to think this fish was aiming to tip my kayak over by going under and around.  After a short fight and remaining dry, I was then greeted by a 29 ½ inch, 12 lbs Blue Catfish.  This day was turning out to be a rather great day even though I didn’t get to keep my Blue Catfish since they were just shy of the 32 inch keeper mark.  This will not keep me from trying again another day. 
**UPDATE** BLUECAT BELLOW THE VIRGINIA FALLLINE HAS NO LIMIT BUT ONLY ONE CAN BE KEPT OVER 32 INCHES. I HAD THE WRONG INFO.** 

 

I would like to say my Grandmother was with me that day and she was the one to place the fish on my hook.  Thanks Grandma for a wonderful day of fishing.

 

 

The Evolution of Kayak Transport

So when you buy a kayak think of how you are going to transport it around. Be it on a car or in a truck. This is my tale of what I have experienced though out the last year. It all started with one kayak, but with having a large family I found my one-man fishing fleet quickly grew from one to four. With that said most would go about the usual way and buy something from Yakima with all the bells and whistles if you have the money for a rack / bed extender.  Myself being a welder, I took the route of making my own racks / bed extenders for my truck. And boy does it get the job done!

To start, one bare bone kayak with the need to get covered in fish slime and marsh mud.

Next, I had to figure out what I was going to build and the materials I was going to use to construct this yak fishing helper of a contraption and get to work.  I had some left over materials from a trailer build I had done previously.  So I started working on a single battle yak carrier.  This battle yak carrier would mount to the yak-battle wagon (aka my truck) via the tow hitch.  I welded it up, ground and smoothed the edges out.  I also tricked my kids into manual labor by telling them how fun it is to help with projects.

 

Phase One - The single yak carrier set up I first made was quite simple, and it’s very quick and easy to hook up.  It makes loading and unloading of the kayak fast and extremely easy.  It also made it possible to go to different areas in the same day to fish if I wanted to.  This system was great for the one yak but as time went on, I found that more yaks I owned meant the need to adjust the yak carrier and make it more accessible to carry more than one.

Now Phase Two of the yak carrier was in effect...

 

Armed with the same help from my kids as before, it was now time to redesign the battle yak carrier from a single to double.  After a slight modification in the original design, plus some cutting and grinding along with a little touch of paint, the finished product came out amazing.  It can now make a few fishing buddies have a great time so they too an get in the water for some fishing action.

 

 

 

Now by this time I could carry a total of four kayaks.  Two on the yak carrier and two more stacked on top of them, but the max that I’m doing with this trip was three due to all the extra fishing gear we were taking with us.  I didn’t want to take the risk of damaging any rods with a fourth yak that would be stowed in the bed of the truck.
Phase Three - The next step, but not the last.  I’ve been working on a plan for the Yak-Battle Wagon.  I’ve taken some time on this one.  I wanted to make sure it looked and functioned. I have looked around online and stalked around a few parking lots armed with a tape measure to gather a few ideas.  I was able to come up with a design of my own for the Yak-Battle Wagon.  It’s a kayak rack to mount on top of the camper.  After about two weeks of pondering and doodles on paper I was able to whip two of these up in about 4-hours.

Took me a bit to get the angle right on the pads to bolt down but after a while things worked out.

 

 This is how I made the bends for the kayak saddles.  A little portable press brake I made a few years back.  It comes in handy every now and then.

 

 

 

Time for the fun part again.  I got the grinding done and got the kids to work on the prep for paint.  I Love my little helpers.  Gave them some sand paper and let them go.  Presto, I was able to paint.

 

 

With the primer all dry ad some color to make some things pop and it was time to work on the placement for mounting the rack to the top of the camper shell.

 

Phase Four - Time to finish up the yak saddles.  Oh there going to look sweet…

 

 

All primed and painted.

Time to do some drilling. 

  



For what I chose for the material to cover the saddles with; I went with Rigid HDPE Polyethylene Marine Grade Sheet, 1/4" Thick, 24" x 24", Black from McMaster-Carr.  I ordered it and it was shipped by the next day.  Great customer service from this company.  Before deciding to go with this material I figured I'd email an expert on this type material and pick his brain for how to best work with this material for shaping it.  So I emailed Luther from YakAttack.  A master of his craft with everything he has done with this sport and always willing to help someone out.  Thanks Luther. 

 

Cut the material to length and ripped it to 6-inch widths.  Rounded the corners, heated the bends with a heat gun then bolted everything together after countersinking the bolts.

 

 

 

I didn’t have a good countersink bit so with the heat gun I heated the bolt areas and sucked the tapered bolts into the plastic.

 

 

Time to bolt everything to the rack and place it on the camper now.

 

 

Now isn't that the greatest thing you ever saw.  LOL

Now with that all done, it was time to strap down the kayak on the truck and get it out on the water in the morning.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed my little project and I will see ya on the water.

Tight Lines Everyone. 

 

UPDATE!!!!

The newest mod for the new truck. Needed to get this in here.

 

Of course I painted the bars to match the truck.

 

 

 

I finished this a while back but figured itneeded to get added.

Enjoy everyone.