Setting up the yak for Alex

[Feral]

Well the kids have done quite a bit of fresh water yakkin, Alex had a big sook yesterday when I didn't take him out in the salt when I hit up the river, so purely in the interests of building some paddle fitness for Mondy in a fortnight, (and giving my ears some relief) I agreed to take him out this morning on the River. However first up I have to set the yak up to use for fishing, not playing.

As most of you know, I now have 6 yaks, so it was a bit of eny meany miny mo, but I decided on the seabreeze for him, as it already had one rod holder, it tracks well, and has lots of width so he shouldn't fall out. (Also the Pacer already has a hatch where I wanted to put the extra holder)

Now the seabreeze came from Red (LostnearBribie)and had one holder in it already, I added another, and turned Reds original one around a bit, I did not like the angle it gave the rod.

These are photo's of the seabreeze holders both in the shed and in action. Note both holders are standard 30 degree flush mount units, just different brands.

First photo is the original Rod holder Red had put in the yak behind the seat. This area of the yak is quite shallow and about 2 inches of the rod holder has been cut off so it fits inside the hull, with the requisite lump of pool noodle shoved in the bottom to waterproof it.

The holder here is pretty shallow, I would never use it without the rod leash, but it is good for long distance trolling or carting where you want the rod out of the way. (Just dont go under a tree or mangroves and forget it is there!) You might note the rod leash in this case is an ex boogie board leg rope. Kids never missed it ;-)

The next couple of photo's are the front holder. I should have trimmed this holder off to, but I didn't. When I screwed it down the deck rose about 2 or 3mm, that's how close it is to fitting. I'll wear the slight swell on the deck! (Tell my self it helps with the waterproofing to have it slightly raised!)

The rod leash in this case is the one that came with the yak, I suspect it is actually a paddle leash, but it does the job nicely.

Lastly is a shot with a rod in the front holder, modeled by Alex this morning on the Caboolture River. In the shot it just being transported, but it is a great location for trolling as well, if you get a nice big fish it has a built in catch indicator - it whacks you on top of the head! Very effective!

Seriously I have found a rod in this position whilst trolling to be my favourite location, easily accessible, you can see the rod working, just reach above your head to give the line a tug or two if the lures gets fouled - just works well for me!

I have a spare sounder, I just have to remove the transducer from my own yak, if I feel motivated it might also go in to the seabreeze, or it just might go in the cupboard for rainy day.

My Pacer has hatches in all three hatch locations, so I cant add the same sort of front mount. But I have just received a couple of spare hatches, I am going to try and mount a rod holder in to a hatch cover. If it works I can then choose between having a holder in or having a normal hatch cover in place. It will just depend on how much grief the hatch cover threads can take! If it works that will mean two fish ready yaks for my sons. Daughter's blue yak is probably going to get a scottie holder when I get around to it, as it is also going to double as my skinny water yak.

You might note the bag behind the seat in the last photo. Its just a standard zip up canvas bag with a shoulder strap. I unclip one of the shoulder strap ends from the bag, and clip it on to the side rope on the yak near my thigh. That way you can "pull it around" using the strap, and should something go awry, its attached to the yak. Got two of them from Dimmeys for $3 each.

[Dinodadog]

you sure have been a busy boy

[tacklebox]

Looking good! You've got yourself a little fishing buddy now.