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Kayak Jack · Post by **Kayak Jack** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:12 am

Steve,

Speak to me about your pole? Length, material, tips?

Thanks.

dangermouse01 · Post by **dangermouse01** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:55 am

Steve;
Looks beautiful!!!!
I think I ran aground on that oyster bar in my wooden kayak, maybe twice.

While doing the Big Bend paddle last Dec, was coming out of Big Spring Creek with the outgoing tide, moving right along at a good clip. I noticed that the water in front of my boat was very quickly being replaced with oyster bed about 1 inch under the water. Had time to do one quick back paddle and me and my fully loaded kayak came grinding to a complete stop. What a racket that made. After getting off the bar and backing up and finding deeper water went about another 100 yards and did it again. That and all the rock banging getting out of Spring Warrior Creek, I wasn't looking forward to seeing the bottom of my boat at the end of the trip. It was scratched and scraped pretty bad, varnish missing, but no compromises to the single layer of 6 oz cloth on the bottom. Sounds like your's should hold up fine. I want to get back up to the Rock Island area soon, just to spend more time fishing and less time trying to get to the next campsite.

You can get some thing like this for your truck to help haul the boat.

Harbor Freight has a cheap one (cheap price and cheaply made).
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... mber=39168
Or a better made, more versatile, more expensive one...
http://www.extendatruck.com/
My buddy has a seldom used extend-a-truck for sale.

Might want to think about adding a tie-down point up at the bow of your boat so that you can run a line from the truck to the bow and back to the truck. Would hate to hear about that boat sliding out of the back of a truck bed.

Good job.
DM

Post by **jem** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:09 pm

Kayak Jack wrote:Steve,

Speak to me about your pole? Length, material, tips?

Thanks.

Jack you just like painting a bullseye on your chest, don't you?

surfman · Post by **surfman** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:10 pm

Jack, my pole is an old fiberglass extension pole used for things like paint rollers, etc. I fused it together into a one piece pole and added the foot piece that I made out of wood. I still need to make a point for the other end. The point is used as a stake out pole to hold the boat in position without having to drop an anchor. Mine is 15’ long. I didn’t make the pole. You can buy push poles already make up and the price range can be significant depending on the materials used. Here is a link to a company that sells kits if you are interested and it gives you a good idea of how they are made. polecatpushpoles.com

Thanks DM I was hoping not to have to use something like that but, I may have to. I will let you know and if he still has it I will call you first. I am planning on adding a handle to the bow and probably some U-bolts to the back for tie downs. That picture of the oyster bar is fairly tame, some of those bars are much more jagged. It is good to hear that your boat sustained very little damage I am a little paranoid I guess but I would rather have it over built than not enough. This thing will last for years, hopefully. Next time you go up that way let me know, after scallop season I will resort back to fishing.

surfman · Post by **surfman** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:29 am

In Florida if you put a motor on your boat, even an electric trolloing motor, you have to have it registered. So now I have to find out how to get that done. This law is fairly new, 5 years I think. Used to be you didn't have to register anything under 10 hp. Dang tax collectors.

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:54 am

Steve mate,

Congratulations on a fabulous boat and build! she looks terrific.

Just looking at her, I can see obvious Aussie bass fishing potential! our bass don't grow as big as yours but they are game little fighters and similar techniques and tackle work on both.

Just how stable is she? Would you be able to stand and cast? More to the point, would you be able to stand in her while fighting a reasonabe fish?

Again Steve, Bloody well done. Goodonyamaaaaate

surfman · Post by **surfman** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:25 am

Absolutely Mick, I can easily walk forwards and backwards and even stand a little to one side. She will roll a little if I stand off center and that feels funny but after I use her a little I don't think it will be a problem. I don't think fighting a fish will be a problem at all and I am looking forward to that test. When I get the seat installed I will post more detailed pictures and do more testing.

Kayak Jack · Post by **Kayak Jack** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:36 pm

Thanks, Surfman. I have a 12' X 2" wooden closet rod I intend to epoxyify and wrap in glass. I've thought about molding a small, dome shaped epoxy tip. This would be molded inside part of a plastic Easter egg. Not real professional, but available.

surfman · Post by **surfman** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:37 am

Actually I considered using a fir dowel. You can buy them at the lumber store. They may be 2" or 1 1/2" diam. and up to 16'. I was just going to epoxy saturate the rod and make a foot for it but, I was able to get this fiberglass pole instead. The real problem with the wood rod is that it is fairly heavy and if you use it a lot you get tired. That is why the guides pay big bucks for those ultra light weight graphite poles.

surfman · Post by **surfman** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 11:32 am

Well I finally got this thing painted after trying several times and having to redo the deck because of love bugs, etc. Although the final finish is still less than great. If Dangermouse’s paint job is a 10 footer then this is a 20 footer. The epoxy has a tendency to sag and it is too easy to put it on too thick. Anyway I may sand it down later and finish it again with varnish like I am supposed to do.
Here is the finished product after I rinsed it off from fishing.

Another shot.

The bottom showing the scuff marks left by encounters with oyster covered rocks. It made some horrible grinding sounds but the scratches are not as bad as they look in the picture. They are basically just scuff marks.

This is the worst scratch (dead center of photo) where it actually went through the graphite but came no where near the wood. I have 3 layers of glass under the graphite.

In the bed of the truck. I made up a little tail light which works better than a flag, I think.

From another angle, I made a cradle for the boat to sit in.

A view of the cradle. This helps keep the boat in one place and supports it a lot better. When I add a huge weight like the battery I will need good support. I am also going to make a cradle with wheels so that I can transport the boat over a long distance if I can’t get close to the water.

The boat loads and unloads easily with the cradle set up too. I just have to get the back tires 10 or 12 feet from the water and she is in with out having to drag it across the ground.

Low tide at Rocky Creek, an hour later and this was all dry land out to ¼ mile.

Fishing was fairly good I landed 4 reds from 17 to 21 inches a large lizard fish and several trout up to 17 inches. I had a large redfish on that managed to get off and a large trout probably 22 inches up to the boat that also managed to get off. Why do the big ones always get away? I guess that is why they are big.

It was very windy in the morning, blowing at around 15 knots steady. The boat was blown around quite a bit by the wind but I could handle it okay as long as I was paddling. If I stopped to fish it would immediately breach the wind, which is to be expected. It still handled the wind a lot better than a standard canoe. It paddles fairly slow, slower than my 12’ kayak which has a slight V bottom. I also did a lot of poling and the boat was very stable for me to stand in and fish from. This was a big plus from my kayak. It is very easy to get in and out of in 3’ deep water too. The wind died down by noon time and the boat was a lot more tolerable however I can’t wait to put an electric motor on the boat. That is what I intended to do anyway. It was good to get it out and test it without the motor and battery.

I think I am going to install some horizontal rod holders on the sides. I had 4 rods with me and it is tough to keep them out of the way lying on the floor. If I get the motor I will eliminate the paddle too, although I may take a small one for emergencies. It poles easily and I really liked that. This is another thing that I really liked over my kayak. I can pole along and see a lot better, in the kayak you are too close to the water and visibility for sight fishing is very limited.

I still have some rigging to do like install some holders for my push pole and a few more cleats. I want to keep that stuff to a minimum though. I have tought about an anchor trolley but not sure how I am going to do that yet. I may not do it since I was standing up while fishing most of the time and if the boat is facing the wrong way all I have to do is turn around. I think I am going to do a lot of fishing form this rig. Oh yea I will need a bigger anchor too that little 2# job didn’t hold very well at all. Probably get one of those vinyl covered mushrooms with the slots.