jonsok1

hi baldycoup i've got a malibu 2 and a prowler13, yes as the other guy said hard work on your own, but not really that bad, i have paddled mine about 5 miles round trip and that was knackering, if you are doing 2 up then you will have got a great kayak, really stable, i've been drift fishing and had waves come over the side with no problem,i've never even come close to tipping it, only problem with it is that it is more difficult to rig for fishing, best to do what i did and get a plastic box and rig it with plastic piping for rod holders and then bungee clip it to seat holder brackets, works for me, and you then havent devalued your kak with drill holes every where!!!!!!. another thing is get a decent paddle this will make a huge difference, i did'nt realise how much until we went out yesterday i had the double with my wife and my daughter had the prowler with my decent paddle, i used my cheap day trippers(not used them for ages) what a difference!!!!, i was glad to swop when my daughter got on with her mum. have fun and you havent done the wrong thing with the malibu 2 far from it, what you will probaly find is that once the bug takes hold you will want decent singles. i'll also tell you what i wear, i use a wetsuit when the weather is warm and for autumn and winter i use neoprene waders with a dry top, there have been a few posts about the supposed dangers of using waders, all i can say is i have tried mine by falling out and getting back on board no problems at all, if your water is very cold then i would maybe save up for the dry suit and join the power ranger clan cheers jon ps as s2vto has said do some searches , there is a wealth of information on this site

hi john your best bet is to launch at meadfoot beach, there's a nice slipway and if you get there early there is FREE all day parking on the road, there are plenty of places to fish, thatchers rock, around towards torquay harbour you have thunder hole, or paddle out to hopes nose, fish 200/300yds off the point you'll catch allsorts, i had several mackerel last week cheers jon ps, may see you out there myself

nice one richi glad to have you back, went out berryhead and around to sharkham saturday just for a paddle, came across a large pod of dolphins,20 plus, only 20 yds away , guess what i forgot my camera, great sight, summers coming. keep the reports coming cheers jon

hi simon would loved to have gone with you but i'm back to work on tuesday, i've been waiting for someone to try the skerries to see how they handle the tides etc, look forward to your report, shame it was'nt monday!!!!!! cheers jon

where are you richi , someone stole your kayak!!!!!!!! no conger, no cod , no bass!!!!!!

i've cancelled the fishing tomorrow, the wind will be possibly a bit to strong , up to force 7!!!!!!, i'm going to take a drive down to have a look to see how sheltered it would have been, then i'll know for next time, also i'm going to have a look at east portlemouth to see if there are any good launch sites cheers jon

i'm planning on fishing salcombe on sunday, early start about 7am, the forcast is for ne force 5/6, from what i can see on my chart it should be fairly sheltered, can anyone confirm this for me , i've only fished it once a few weeks ago with yakerbass, it was blowing southerly then and was a bit rough, anyone who wants to tag along are more than welcome, leaving paignton at 7 am hope to be fishing by 8ish cheers jon

great photos, look forward to doing it again soon jon

hi chris i'll let you know nearer the time, i can't stay but hope to join you on one day cheers jon

met the guys 5.30 am , to follow them down to salcombe, they turned up with 3 yaks tied firmly to the top of a ford galaxy, i joked about how they got them up there to which they replied its ok we've got the step ladders with us, when we got down to salcombe we parked in north sands car park and started unpacking, to my amazement the first thing they got out was the step ladders these guys are amazing, they had everything all packed in the back of the galaxy, next thing was the portable stove to cook breakfast ,after getting set up we were off down the beach , i was first, there was a fair swell starting to build which made it fun to launch, we all got out safely, the swell was the biggest i've been in since starting kayaking, when you went over the swell you lost sight of the kayak in front, could'nt even see the tips of the rods after one drift and a small pollock i felt it was a bit rough for me so i headed up the river, fished there for a couple hours with no luck, the wind was freshening so i decided to go back out to the mouth to see how the rest were getting on, paddling back was a real struggle, it was with the tide but against the wind , which made the river very choppy, when i got to the mouth i could see the waves had got quite a bit bigger, there was no sign of the others, then my mobile starts ringing, it was to rough to answer at that point , out of the river it was'nt so choppy so i phoned rob to see where they were, they were on the other side sheltering from the swell, they had come in because it got to rough, rob had taken a spill (i'll let rob tell you about that). the beach which we had launched from was very rough the surfers were having fun, i thought s**t i'm going to get dumped big time if i go in there, luckily the south sands was sheltered so i beached in there, the guys followed and decided to stay and fish in the calm bay the next thing was the car was about half a mile away up a hill and down the other side, rob said they would keep an eye on the kayak while i got the car, i decide to take the kayak with me seeing i had to walk it any way, big mistake!!! that was one of the hardest walks i have ever made, trouble was once i started there was no going back, needless to say i made it, i was totally knackered but i learnt a lot from these guys on this trip. here are just a few things which i learnt which are a must, firstly prepare everything before you get on the water, its a lot easier tackling up and preparing bait etc on shore than it is out on the water and the most important thing is to get experience in launching and returning to shore in rough conditions, this means going and getting wet in the surf, practice, practice, practise, sorry the most important thing is practice getting dumped and re-entering the kayak while out of your depth, i must admit i have'nt practiced any of the above but its the first thing i will be doing in the future, doing these things will build your confidence no end, a big thankyou to rob, mark and paul great trip shame the fishing was poor. one last thing to the new comers out there, if you get chance of going out with the more experienced kayakers in your area don't miss it , you will learn so much cheers jon

hi rob nice to see your back with us, i'm up for a plaice trip, any been caught yet ?, wheres best to try, if the weathers fine this weekend i'm off out, maybe over to broadsands, still trying to find the ridge mark, if anyones got landmarks i'd be greatful, anyhow let me know where and when ,i'll be there cheers jon

Wont be long now before the better weather is with us and more fish start to show around the coast. Already reports of Mackerel showing. Cheers me dears. Bill. bill , one of the guys on a local shore fishing forum has caught mackeral every month last year and is still catching them now , mainly from princess pier and hopes nose, some over 2lbs, i think we give up on the mackeral after late summer, looks like its worth taking a float rod out with you even in the winter

hi bill i'd be up for that one, the only problems here are;; 1, parking, free if you get there early, then it gets difficult, would have to park up the road, still free but we would have to do a ferry service 2 the launch site is the slipway , at high tide the beach is covered so the sun worshippers use the slipway, not a lot of room to drag your kayak up trying to get around randomly placed bodies apart from that its a great place to fish plenty of choice, good bass fishing,( ask rob, yakerbass) some really good general bottom fishing so an early start would be best, 7 am "ish", there are a couple of beaches which you can't get to from shore which would be good to use for lunch and stretch your legs, looking forward to it already, cheers jon

great advice, need to start making some leashes etc

i got one of those camping mats about 6' long 18" wide and 6mm thick, i'm not sure what its made from , it is waterproof and comfy to sit on, its very light weight, what i did was cut 3 peices to shape with scissors and glued them with spray carpet adhesive, it is roughly an inch thick, very warm to sit on and comfortable, there was enough left over to put under my crate in the back to stop it moving about, try it ,i bet you wont find a warmer cushion to sit on and it is very dense so it wont flatten out when sit on it, i have'nt been out for more than 4 hours , but in that time its been very comfy, another bonus is it only cost me £2.99, i've got another just in case i think of something else to use it for

i've just got back from my first trip this year, headed out to berry head at 4pm, just drifted the incoming tide, i've been told that a few codling are being caught. i've just found out how difficult it is to tell how far from shore you are in the dark, berry head was packed with shore anglers, i wanted to fish fairly close in, but when you can hear reels screaming then the dreaded splash you realise you maybe a bit close!, so out of range i go , i got plenty of bites but no joy then my first fish of 2007 a nice whiting, it was the only one i caught, had plenty of pout, but no codling. i was joined by our local seal he kept popping his head out about 20 feet away, also something started making a strange sound a bit like a scream , it got closer and closer then it broke surface about 20 yards away and blew out air i think it may have been a dolphin not sure though, all i know is it scared the s**t out of me, not nice in the pitch black, i must say it was a really nice evening flat calm, just a word of warning , watch out for the trawlers, at about 6pm they all seem to head for home, they are'nt to bothered if a kayak is fairly close by, and some of those big trawlers push up a big bow wave, nothing my new best mate(prowler13) could'nt handle. come on guys more fishing reports and less talk about your wives sex aids, or should that be the other way round CHEERS

been waiting for ages to try out my prowler, the weathers been so bad , today shes had her first trip, after using my malibu 2 all summer i decided to buy the prowler for my fishing trips, wow what a difference, i paddled about 4 miles non stop some of it into the wind and some with the wind behind me, i can't believe how much easier it is to paddle although it did take a little bit of getting used to, it cuts through the waves with ease and best of all i was'nt knackered afterwards, so with the weather looking good for tomorrow i'm off fishing, see whats around berryhead. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE AND A GREAT FISHING NEW YEAR

hi volusian i've got a eagle cuda 168, like darnsarf said you are better turning off the fish symbol, use it mainly as a way of finding marks and seeing the depth, they do work as fishfinders i have found it really useful for finding shoals of mackeral, saves a lot of wasted fishing time searching for bait, also i was anchored up trying to catch my first bass , i was getting no bites so i switched on the fishfinder and saw echos at 15 feet so i changed depth and bang, fish on, pollock not bass, but it shows it can work as both fishfinder and depth sounder, plus another added bonus it gives you something to watch when you've got that long paddle home(better than the telly)

hi chris i'm up for it , but will be away in london on one of the weekends, so if you can let me know which one i can arrange london for the other. cheers jon

thanks sm i've got the prowler lined up for tomorrow, shame the weather's rubbish for the weekend i'd liked to have given it a few miles test, cheers jon

thanks, all i want is something i can fish from and get out and back with ease, i do enjoy the paddling side but fishing is the important thing, us devon boys are having a meet on friday, most of them have prowlers so i will talk to them, thanks for your comments ,i'm off to get the prowler friday morning, cheers jon

i've had great fun this year with my malibu 2, the only problem is going long distance with one up is really knackering, after about 2 miles it starts to get hard work and the 2 miles back takes forever, furthest i've been there and back is about 6 miles (never again), i like to think i'm fairly fit, would upgrading to a prowler make a lot of difference, your veiws please, especially prowler owners cheers jon

thanks dave

hi dave you've got a PM cheers jon

can anyone give me directions from paignton,i'm not to good with maps, cheers jon