baldycoup

inspirational Mark! and a fantastic report with the ever important pictures. cheers .

going back to one of the first pics mate, is that a cod coming up to get a titbit from your hand??? surly catching them cant be that easy? also, what bait is it your using?

i wouldnt even consider taking anyone out with me fishing on the big malibu,girl friend capsized us one day on a lake and couldnt get back on !! would have been a disaster a mile out at sea so its solo for me when im chasing the fish. then i only have to worry about myself lol.

yes Speciman, your right about being inconvenienced and not really in danger,the guys on the lifeboat told me the same thing - id have drifted back in with the rising tide. i had the same idea about heading away from the headland out to sea thinking the tide would have eased but as im relativly new to this caper i wasnt sure wether id be making things worse than they were lol. as they say , you live and learn .....but some things prompt you to learn a little faster eh? things were better today though, loads of doggies and a nice pollock for the pan, i only lost my anchor! had the weak link set-up and all but the bugger wouldnt budge so i had to cut the rope. it was too big anyway apparently. sound advice though thanks.

i was fishing in a large bay on very calm water, no chop whatsoever but a few swells now and again and i headed out to a spot id fished before maybe a mile from shore. i stopped and was unravelling my anchor rope which was in a nice neat roll straight from b&q thinking it would run straight out - first mistake , ended in a tangled mess so i spent time unravelling it. i didnt realise the tide was pulling me to the left of the bay so qiuckly on its way out. when i turned round i was about 100 yards from the headland on my way out so i pulled up my anchor which wasnt holding me at all and started paddling .after about twenty minutes i rerasis4ed i was making no headway so i changed direction away from land hoping the tidal rip would be less and i could paddle back across the bay, this worked to an extent but i was getting quite tired . there was no one else about to signal to so i phoned the coastguard and told him my situation. he understood where i was and what was happening ,and told me he would send the lifeboat out to come and get me . although the sea was quite calm it was a little unnerving knowing i was at the mercy of the tide and had little choice but to let it take me along with it . the coastguard called me back on my mobile and gave me an eta of eight minutes,he was very reassuring and pleasant and when i asked if the callout was going to cost me anything he said `not a thing mate-just the embarrasment of telling my mates in the pub later` then in the distance i could see the lifeboat heading straight for me ,i waved my paddle and a foil backed bag but they could see me clearly anyway and it wasnt long before they were alongside and i was passing my gear up to them then climbing aboard myself , then two of the three man team lifted my yak up and it sat along the side of the big rib. they were really friendly guys and very professional and when i said` you dont rescue many of these do you ?` the answer was ` youd be surprised` then one of the guys said that the fishing was fantastic just where theyed picked me up and laughed when i told them to come back in an hour . i was amazed at the sheer power and speed of the boat , powered by a couple of 75 engines and we flew across the water on full power then back into the bay where they dropped me off at a little harbour . they told me that i could continue fishing but perhaps i should stay away from the headland on a changing tide. but before they went i asked if i could get a photo of me beside the boat ,they were pleased to oblige and one of the shore crew took a couple of snaps . i thanked them very much and they headed off. the experience made me appreciate the fact that these guys are there in times of need and while i dont intend to ever need them again ,it does make one feel much safer . so a big thankyou to the RNLI and coastguard and never again will i pass someone collecting for them without making a donation.like the advert says - they dont need your thanks , they need your support! tho whole experience did make me think about safety a lot more and having knowledge of tides.also about measures needed if i did get in trouble in different circumstances. JUST DONT PANIC lol

lol that,ll be me i spose.............. i was browsing the threads earlier and posted on a few. is there a problem replying to old threads even though they are new to new members ? seems a shame to start a new one and then be told to search earlier threads lol anyway, it was pertinent to me as the coastguard had to rescue me yesterday and they never mentioned flares or whistles or radios , they just asked if i had a pfd which i had. gotta try everything once havent you lol

antique threads? lol sorry i thought all threads were relevant and i was just browsing ALL the posts. and as i own a malibu two xl which is only slightly longer but basically the same i thought id reply . just my opinion of course lol dont take the hump mate .

in the malibu two xl defence i must say im very pleased with mine! im six foot tall and not slightly built either and theres loads of leg room in it for me , but then i can always ajust the seat position! also for space and stability i think its hard to beat. ive been out on rough seas and headwinds and find the malibu very manouverable and cuts through the water easily enough. ive paddled an ok big game and id prefer my malibu anyday.plus i can go out with my son and daughter if the weathers nice and still sit in comfort. id be hard pressed to do that on a dedicated angler model and yet i can do everything an angler model does too. though as with most things - its always down to personal choice and OPINION. wish id a bigger paddle though lol.

well said peter! personal integrity is paramount ,advice can be taken or ignored but theres no call for rudeness and name calling.

i know exactly what you mean mate, i too have a malibu two xl and it came with two day trippers and two seats thrown in. yesterday i had to be rescued by the coastguard( long story) but only after half an hour of frantic paddling against a big tide. no danger really but i wasnt sure when the tide was changing and didnt want pulled round the headland miles from anyone till it turned . anyway,i do feel that if id had a larger paddle with more resistance i could have covered more ground(water?) and gotten myself out of that situation alone. its not a question of weight for me ,sometimes it feels im paddling with a stick fs lol they make different sized engines for different sized boats , and everyone has different upper body strength and fitness levels too. im sure technique has something to do with it too. question is simply which paddle has a greater water displacement area. is there some kind of table for this? ps, i think my malibu manouvers better than the ok big game .

well i have got to say my fears of going out from the shore line any distance have been well and truley squashed! ive only fished from my malibu two a few times but last week i met boogaloo from n.ireland,like myself and did a little fishing ............ when i arrived at the beach i was quite dissappointed to see no sign of him ,even though i was an hour late. though out in the distance i could faintly see a boat and what i thought was a yellow bouy. thinking i was too late i decided to gear up and launch since id driven so far.i was convinced that it couldnt be andys yak so far out as only a madman would be so far out at sea. id paddled out about a hundred yards and realised id forgotten my mobile phone so cursing myself i turned my yak and paddled back to shore. it was only then that i saw andys 4x4 parked on the beach and i thought he must have just arrived. great i thought but when i beached there was no sign of him. bizarre i thought , surly theres no way that could be him? i could hardly see the tiny yellow dot in the distance from the little dune i was standing on. i got my phone and decided it must be him and resigned myself to a days paddling back to shore if it turned out to be a bouy but when i got closer i could make out the flash of two paddle blades. i laughed nervously to myself and thought `the guys a nutter!!!` but turns out that it was just so far out of my own reality to be there ,and just the usual for him lol. i had a great days fishing but just couldnt bag a cod (which is a little dream of mine) but caught so many dogfish i lost count , i even caught a new species for me - a huss! the day deffinitly opened new ideas to me and taught me a lot of things so cheers Andy for that. the next day we went fishing for tope of all things lol - but thats another story. im off to fit 3 hatches to the yak now and an anchor pulley system, after saturdays escapade i really think i need one lol. so i really broke out of my restrictive point of view as far as distance and capability of the yak in big water.but if i wanted to reach any decent fish i knew id need to eventually , sure, it was a little nerve wracking and hard to confront but once the experience is under your belt then its no big thing now . i also know when to start for the shore when the waves have little white horses on em lol thanks again Andy for the pointers .i think hes doing a tope report on the irish yak fishing site .might even be a pic of meeeeeeeee !

my malibu two is quite distorted too but it still floats and performs fantastically regardless. there are two flatter spots where i strap it to the roof bars( two bits of 3x3 timber post) saying that, my car has a big dent in the wing and it dosent bother me either lol. as long as it works i say. im sure theres plenty more outlets where you could get another if you dont like it?

well done on getting the malibu 2............i own one too lol . a fantastically stable boat in my opinion and plenty of room. i find it easy enough to paddle ,though i find it easy enough to lift it by the two carry handles up over my head and onto the two bits of 3x3 i use as roof bars! i feel really quite safe on it even out on big swells and mental tide rips. it just glides over the swirls and feels stable in choppy water too. plus i can get my girlfriend on it , or my 16yr old son for a bit of touring too or island hopping and camping .i recon i could strap a fully loaded ruck sack on my yak and be safe enough on calm water.

hi andy! i joined the other site there and im green with envy at the cod you got lol i like to get out as often as i can ,which is quite often being self employed. though only just started catching at the weekend there. spent the last few weeks paddling round strangford lough islands from killinchy. trolled for sea trout but to no avail, saw a few just had no luck catching .......... go on , tell me where i should be fishing lol you know you want to ????

hello Hake and thanks for the reply. im just in from a day trolling round a couple of the islands in strangford lough.Yesterday i saw a couple of sea trout jumping and thought id try a few spinners trolled behind me ,unfortunatly i had no luck but the scenery was good lol. i have fished from the shore at all the venues you mentioned and thats one of the reasons for getting the yak in the first place, to explore new places and inaccesable spots which i cant fish from the shore or rocks. you may be right about the bass but to be honest theres only a couple of spots i know of for bass and thats castlerock and benone strand - both surf beaches. ive not heard of one ever being caught anywhere else in 20 yrs of shore fishing , but hey theres always a first time for everything. apparently the fishlife around the salmon cages in red bay is something to behold according to some divers i spoke to .they told me it was teeming with huge plaice and flounder with lots of codling there too.they reconed it must be something to do with excess food falling through and landing on the sea bed? though i hear they dont like wee boats getting too near the cages ....wonder why? lol on a different note though, i passed a group of kids in sea kayaks with an instructor and got some odd looks ,followed fifteen minutes later by some more kids in open canoes and i thought to myself ....thank goodness i bought a sit on top.the sea kayaks had no easy access storage compared to my bungeed on crate and drybag,and the canoes where painfully,almost embarrassingly slow and constantly blown in the wind. though each to their own i guess. anyway,i ended up moored amongst some seaweed watching the gulls and cormorants and hearing the odd splash of a jumping sea trout, tomorrow im bringing my flyfishing gear ....a local gent gave me a places where they frequent ...i may have more to tell tomorrow lol fingers crossed.