Month: September 2013

Rigging our fishing kayaks with the V.I.O. POV camera.

V.I.O. POV Camera getting all the action

People often ask me about how we get the point of view shots on our show, what kind of camera we use, and how we mount it on our Jackson Kayaks. For the past couple years we have been using the V.I.O POV camera because we feel it gives us better shot control and higher quality over other cameras available at this time. The V.I.O is also water tight and rugged enough to handle the abuse of kayak fishing.

Some of the other features that really appeal to us on this camera are;
An external waterproof microphone which picks up much better sound than anything else available from other onboard mics.

The POV Power which allows us to hook up the camera to an external battery so that we can run the camera all day without fear of running out of power when we need it most.

A wrist worn remote control which makes starting and stopping recording on the fly as simple as can be.

A recording looping function which means we can set the camera to record in a constant loop, only saving it when needed. This means we will never miss that shot of the fish hitting our baits.

Here you can see the POV remote worn on my right wrist

Watch the video below to see how we have the V.I.O. mounted on our Jackson kayaks with Yakattack gear.

The Kayak Fishing Show Visits Oriental North Carolina

This past week I had the opportunity to visit the lovely town of Oriental North Carolina to shoot another episode of The Kayak Fishing Show. Joining me on this trip were Brooks Beatty, from Jackson Kayak and Bobby Brewer a local who helped us set up the visit.

Oriental is a quaint little town with a lot of character, filled with small shops and restaurants like the Silos, which is actually in a Silo. The town has a love of festivals, dragons and all outdoor activities. For paddlers there are many choices of water to hit and for fishermen there are lots of species to target. For kayak fishermen it is ripe with possibilities. We were lucky enough to stay at the River Neuse Suites Hotel with rooms more reminiscent to a apartment than a hotel room.

River Neuse Suites our home away from home

On our first morning on the water we hooked up with Captain Ashley King of Keep Casting Charters, unfortunately we were greeted by high winds which kept us from being able to target the Old Drum known to live here. Fortunately Ashley had a plan B that would get us out of the wind and get us on fish. We moved from the bigger water to a nice protected spot out of the wind. This spot was gorgeous and had us fishing all around cypress trees covered in moss. Ashley promised us a good top water bite on Stripers and it didn’t take long until we had our first fish.

The Jackson Cuda 14 is a great stand up platform, at least for those more comfortable standing than I, and I got to see Brooks get the first fish while standing up tossing a Zara Spook and walking the dog. I discovered that I am not that good at standing and casting and even worse at walking the dog while seated. Because of my lack of coordination I switched to a lure I knew I could work properly and just hoped that it would do the job. My lure of choice was a Sebile Splasher and it wasn’t long before my lure choice paid off with huge surface blow ups and many hookups. Seeing my success Brooks switched to another lure which caused an equal amount of surface disturbance and noise and began to see the same great results. Many fish were hooked, landed and released that day and we can’t thank Captain Ashley for having such a great backup plan.

Brooks showing off amongst the Cypress trees

One of many caught on the Sebile Splasher

Brooks with another one on his secret lure

The next morning we stayed on shore to do some shooting around town and did an evening session chasing the big Red Drum. This time we hooked up with Capt. Mitchell Blake of Fish IBX. Captain Blake got us all rigged with Popping Corks, which are the hot ticket for the reds. We worked as hard as we could up until dark but we had to battle the wind all evening and just not found the fish. At least we got a good sunset.

Oriental Sunset

With only one day of fishing left on the trip we got an early start to the next day, hitting the water just as the sun rose. For our final day we met up with Captain Dave Stewart of Knee Deep Custom Charters. Dave set us up with DOA deadly combination popping corks, which by this point my arm was getting a bit tired of popping. We reached the fishing spot to find grease calm waters and bait popping, which got all our hopes up. Unfortunately for me the only thing biting were Blue fish which just bit my soft plastics in half. It didn’t take long though for Bobby to get on a real nice Red Drum, which gave him a great ride.

Sunrise and grease calm waters

Bobby with a beautiful sunrise Red fish

It seemed like we were going to get on the fish as all the signs were right, but I think maybe fifteen minutes after Bobby landed that fish someone turned on the wind machine and we spent the rest of the day trying to battle or hide from the wind.
Later in the evening as things calmed a bit Brooks hooked a good fish which he got to the side of the kayak but lost before landing so no photos were taken. At the point of being on the water about twelve hours I finally hooked what felt like a good fish which towed me around a bit but as luck would have it the hooked pulled.

I know that given some better conditions we would have really put the hurt on a lot of fish, but this is fishing and you have to take what you are given. Even with the tough conditions we caught fish and had a wonderful time in Oriental. Every single person we met or dealt with on this trip were absolutely awesome and I wouldn’t hesitate to visit again given the chance.

A huge thanks goes out to all the people in Oriental for helping us put this trip together and particularly Bobby Brewer for handling all the logistics.

If you would like to visit Oriental I highly recommend the guides and locations that helped us out.

Capt. Mitchell Blake
Fish IBX
252-495-1803
http://www.fishibx.com
mitch@fishibx.com

Capt. Bobby Brewer
919-349-6112
bobbybrewer@att.net

Capt. Ashley King
Keep Casting Charters
910-389-4118
dashley.king78@gmail.com

Capt. Dave Stewart
Knee Deep Custom Charters
252-249-1786
http://www.pamlicotackle.com
specfever@hotmail.com

Capt. Greg Voliva
Four Seasons Guide Service
252-514-5086
http://www.fourseasonsgs.com
fourseasonsgs@gmail.com

River Neuse Suites Hotel
http://www.riverneuserentals.com
252-249-1404

The Silos Restaurant
http://www.silosnc.com
252-249-1050

Oriental NC
http://www.townoforiental.com

Kayak Fishing on The Crystal Coast, North Carolina

We have just returned from a great trip of kayak fishing on the beautiful Crystal Coast in North Carolina.
This was my first visit to this area and I really enjoyed it. Besides the kayak fishing there is so much to do there, inshore and offshore fishing and miles of awesome beaches to explore. You may even run into some of the wild horses that roam the area, climb to the top of the Cape Lookout lighthouse and you can see for miles.

Cape Lookout lighthouse, yes you can climb to the top

walk on the boardwalk

Joining me on the trip were Brooks Beatty from Jackson Kayaks and Bobby Brewer, a local and fan of our show who helped put the entire trip together. Bobby also hooked us up with Captain Joe Shute of Fish Finder Charters as our guide for the week. The name of his business is spot on because he really found us some good fish.

The area we fished is seventeen miles from the launch so we were not going to paddle out so we loaded our kayaks onto Joes boat and made the run out to a WWII wreck that was known to hold Amber Jack.

Captain Joe Shute

First job in the morning was to load up on bait, which Joe did with a Cast net in a single throw, Then we made the run off the beach.
Once on location the plan was to troll live bait from the kayaks around the wreck. With the strong current using my Raymarine Dragonfly fish finder really helped me stay on the right spot. It didn’t take long for my first hookup and the joy of pulling on these real hard pulling fish. The wreck was in less than sixty feet of water and these fish love to run into structure so you had to fish heavy line and very tight drags to keep them out of the wreck. This worked much of the time but just as often even with my thumb on the spool I couldn’t keep the fish from breaking me off.

Just before the trip I received a couple new reels from Release reels and I was very happy with their performance on these tough fish, smooth drags and plenty of power is key and these reels had both. I love using knotless connections so I loaded my reels with sixty pound Seaguar Threadlock hollow core braid and used a short top shot of Seaguar Fluorocarbon fifty pound leader.

I think the coolest thing for me was getting to see Bobby and Brooks get their first big fish ever from a kayak, they really learned how hard these fish can pull and can really make your arms ache. We had many double hookups and caught fish until our arms burned and we were out of bait.
I was also pretty pleased to see how well my new Shark Shield worked. On two occasions on the trip I was able to test it out and see first hand that it does indeed deter sharks. First I had a small Tiger shark cruise right up to me I turned on the Shark shield and the shark immediately turned and swam away, on the next occasion I was reeling in a fish and saw a shark following it, again I turned it on and off went the shark.

This was simply an amazing trip and I can’t thank the people of the Crystal Coast enough for helping to make it happen.
Here are a few more shots from our trip.

Using my portable Dragonfly to stay on the spot, this thing would light up when big schools of fish went by.

Bobby Brewer going full bendo on an AJ

Bobby’s First AJ, but not the last!!

How about a double hookup

Brooks taking a beating

Whooped or ecstatic???

I get in on the fun

Set for release

Man these fish are fun

Brooks gets another nice one

With his Maui Jims on Brooks could pick out his next fish.

One more time

Look at the bend in that rod

Another AJ set for release.

When the fishing is this good you give the last baits to the camera man Will.

And he comes through with the only Cobia caught on the trip

I want to thank once again the wonderful people on the Crystal Coast for making this trip happen, Bobby Brewer for putting it all together, Brooks Beatty for bringing the kayaks and being a great fishing partner, Joe Shute for finding the fish for us and of course all our sponsors for supplying the great gear and of course our fans because without you we have no show.

For more information on this amazing location, please visit:

Capt. Joe Shute

Fish Finders Charters

252-240-2744

www.captjoes.com

captjoesinfo@yahoo.com

Inlet Inn

www.inlet-inn.com

800-554-5466

Crystal Coast

http://www.crystalcoastnc.org