swansea, mumbles report

[lazy hooker]

with the westerly winds decided to fish knab rock at mumbles - gateway of the gower .

Its not the best location for specimens of any description at this time of year but it holds some shelter from the 20mph westerly wind that greated us . my mate johnboy joined me on his firts fishing outing with his prowler.

spent an hour trolling lures around and upto the pier but no takers from the bass which have supposedly been showing up but not today.

 

made the decision to go after dabs so anchored up 3-400 yards off the rnli slipway , had a bit of a learning curve about anchoring in strong wind. Couldn't get the yak to sit in the current with the anchor trolley at the rear of the yak without the kayak turning sindeways into the wind...ended up with the trolley at the front sat facing into the wind and current which wasn't the most comforatable.

 

the dabs didn't know we were there and ready to feed them their favourite snacks but we had a steady steam of chinese fish - whi'ting which kept the rods rattling..best of the day was one of about 16" inches to johnboy.

good day and a little further into the learning curve

 

john

[richi]

was in Rogers Tackle on thursday,the charters have certainly had Bass lately shame they didn't show for you today but it sounds like you gained some valuable experience--nice one

[nifty]

At least you got out John and had a few fish, and 16 inch whiting are a decent size for the frying pan

Anchoring, be it in a charter boat or a kayak, is always at the mercy of the prevailing conditions. The only difference is a charter boat sitting sideways to the tide or wind is always going to be more comfortable than doing the same on a yak and knowing when it is safe to stay put should be you're primary concern. Sometimes it is better to just admit that the conditions are wrong and go somewhere easier and safer.

Stu.

[JonBoy]

At least you got out John and had a few fish, and 16 inch whiting are a decent size for the frying pan

Anchoring, be it in a charter boat or a kayak, is always at the mercy of the prevailing conditions. The only difference is a charter boat sitting sideways to the tide or wind is always going to be more comfortable than doing the same on a yak and knowing when it is safe to stay put should be you're primary concern. Sometimes it is better to just admit that the conditions are wrong and go somewhere easier and safer.

Stu.

 

 

Yip all 16 inches went straight in the frying pan when i got home!!! Still needed a fry up after it though to help see me through the day of Rugby in the Pub!

 

Biggest learning curve for me was ALWAYS Tether rod to the Yak. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS

 

I untied it as the leash was hindering winding in on the fixed spool and forgot to re-attatch when travelling. As it was in the rear flush mount (no rod holder fitted yet), my paddle hit the reel handle on the backward Up stroke. Bye Bye Rod

 

So if any of you find a Shimano Exage rod and Okuma reel at low tide, Please let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

John

[lazy hooker]

Yip all 16 inches went straight in the frying pan when i got <a href="http://web/search.php?q=home">home</a>!!! Still needed a fry up after it though to help see me through the day of Rugby in the Pub!

 

Biggest learning curve for me was ALWAYS Tether rod to the Yak. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS

 

I untied it as the leash was hindering winding in on the fixed spool and forgot to re-attatch when travelling. As it was in the rear flush mount (no rod holder fitted yet), my paddle hit the reel handle on the backward Up stroke. Bye Bye Rod

 

So if any of you find a Shimano Exage rod and Okuma reel at low tide, Please let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

John

 

i wasn't going to mention that to save your blushes.....HAHAHAHA

bet you won't do it again

 

john

[paintfly]

Yip all 16 inches went straight in the frying pan when i got home!!! Still needed a fry up after it though to help see me through the day of Rugby in the Pub!

 

Biggest learning curve for me was ALWAYS Tether rod to the Yak. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS

 

I untied it as the leash was hindering winding in on the fixed spool and forgot to re-attatch when travelling. As it was in the rear flush mount (no rod holder fitted yet), my paddle hit the reel handle on the backward Up stroke. Bye Bye Rod

 

So if any of you find a Shimano Exage rod and Okuma reel at low tide, Please let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

John

 

OUCH! (Don't worry John, we've all been there, it's part of the learning curve)

Wouldn't waste any time looking for them. Imagine throwing them into a cement mixer for a few days. They sleep with the fishes

Edited February 26, 2007 by paintfly

[Simon Everett]

Jonboy,

Sorry to hear about your mishap with the rod. However, all is not lost -

a bit more of the learning curve for you is how to forward paddle without wasting the energy you obviously have been. You should not be taking your paddle anywhere near as far back as you must have to hit the reel!

 

The majority of the power of the stroke is developed within the first third of the stroke - that is between your toes and your knees. You should not take the paddle back further than your hips - level with you. Once you go beyond your hips you are (as you found out) lifting the paddle in an arc upwards - so in effect, from your hips you are shoveling water uphill. You get NO power from the paddle once it has gone behind your hips - you get ruddering only. If you are lifting, it also follows that you are pulling the kayak down in the water (equal and opposite reactions) - not only are you wasting energy, you are adding drag and using your effort to roll the kayak from side to side. I have written out a bit of technical, technique blurb on forward paddling - see below. I hope it helps.

 

The following is a guidline on how to save energy when paddling forward and use your paddle as efficiently as possible - for long duration. If you only go 50 yards it will hardly make any difference - but if like me, you can cover 20 miles of coast in a day while fishing, it makes a HUGE difference - and covering that amount of water (or even 5 miles) puts you over a great many more fish - so you catch more. Here is how to do it:

 

A few pointers of how to get the best out of the paddle and make your paddling MUCH more efficient. The first thing you will notice is that with a feathered paddle you have to roll your wrist to get the left blade in the water. Sorry cackhanders this is for RIGHT HANDED PADDLERS, Those with a southpaw just reverse everything.

 

Start with the right blade upright, that is how to take your grip - a loose grip, not a tight grip - KEEP THE POWERING BLADES UPRIGHT IN BOTH THE AIR EXERCISE AND THE WATER AND DO NOT TURN A WING PADDLE OVER - use the back of the blade to go backwards. THAT IS IMPORTANT. The shape of the wing blade is like an aerofoil, it creates lift at the top - if you turn it over it creates lift at the bottom - and it will dive fiercely, pulling you down that side with it - possibly capsize you if you do it hard enough!! Try it carefully to feel the pull - CAREFULLY I SAID !! That is the efficiency of the shape of the blade you are feeling, not your strength.

 

I'll try to show you now - but you will have to persevere at this, it will take a few outings of watching yourself and trying to catch yourself getting bad habits, it will not be briliant at first - keep at it, the benefit afterwards is worth the couple of hours of practise - you will make it up in one long day on the water.

 

Hold the paddle normally (on dry land this is - for practise). Then with your arms straight out in front of you at chest height - not bar iron straight, relaxed straight, with just the very slightest of hint of bend in your elbows - swing the paddle to one side keeping it horizontal. Now stop - you should be stood with your body twisted at the waist, your arms STILL STRAIGHT - NO ELBOWS BENT (the nearest one to you!) - You only need turn through about 30 degrees. The paddle blade is now stopped roughly level with your hips. That is good.

 

From there, swing back to the other side in a full sweep - AGAIN, KEEPING YOUR ARMS STRAIGHT. Don't bend your elbows, that puts strain on your arms and wrists (when you have the weight of water on the paddle it does) and tires you MORE quickly. Bent elbows flailing is sprint or white water technique - this isn't, this is efficient sea paddling. White water or sprinting is fine for 2000 yards - try keeping it up for 5 miles. You can't and your paddle stroke goes to ****. This technique you can keep up for 20 miles, and still not be exhausted - so you can carry on again tomorrow. Out with someone yesterday, an experianced paddler too, I left him 600 yards behind within 1000 yards and had to keep stopping for him to catch up. Purely down to technique and timing.

 

That swing from hip to hip is all there is to the paddle stroke - no more, no less. It is just like swinging a broom handle from one side to the other. There are a couple of things that you can do to help you get this paddle stroke right - and not slip back into the bendy elbow push-me-pull-you paddle style that wastes 30% of your energy. I'll tell you about them in a minute. First we need to develope the stood up exercise that you have just doen into a sitting down one.

 

First you are going to need somewhere to sit down with clear space around you - a sandy beach is excellent - and get your old paddle out - that is fine for digging sand castles. You don't want ot do that with your nice, new shiney paddle!

Sitting down - a patch of grass will do. Practise swinging from side to side - as far as you can and still be comfortable. At first you will feel the muscles beside your ribs - running up and down your torso from just behind your shoulder - getting tight and letting you know they exist. Concentrate on keeping your arms straight and the paddle horizontal - it is a good exercise. You can pull those up and down muscles if you go at the paddling like a bull in a china shop staight off from not doing this before!

 

Having swung from side to side - say 20 times. It is time to turn that swing into a proper paddle stroke. We will start on the left side. This is done by simply dipping the end of the paddle by your toes and swinging back that side - KEEP THOSE ARMS STRAIGHT! Your elbow bent didn't it!! The one nearest the body, on the inside of the swing.....try again - swing so that your arms stay straight, relaxed straight not tight. Your TOP hand should go past your eyes in a straight line across your face. STOP when the paddle blade is level with your hips - if you go back beyond this you are wasting energy. The MAJORITY of the power is developed within the first third of the stroke - that is from your toes to your knees (roughly). Taking the blade back behind your hips, you actually cause drag - slowing you down.

 

Also, if you watch the arc of the blade behind your hips you will notice it starts to rise up - do you like shovelling water uphill? If not, don't do it, it wastes energy - only thrust directly in line with your direction of travel is efficient - upwards paddling (like that behind your hips) is actually trying to pull the kayak DOWN in the water - it must be, with the paddle in the water as it lifts (and you saw it does) the side of the kayak has to react - it dips a bit, causing extra drag on the kayak, slowing you down and putting more weight on the paddle, sapping your valuable energy...

 

Back to the stroke: Once the blade gets level with your hip - on the left side - stop. The right blade is now in position to drop beside your toes on the right. You are sitting slightly turned at the waist - your legs still out in front of you, arms straight. With the blade by your left hip, now dip the right blade by your right toes - as near as, and swing with STRAIGHT ARMS back on the right side until the blade is level with your hip on the right side. Your top hand (left) will traverse across your face in a straight line level with your eyes AND NO HIGHER. You can't do it on the grass/sand, but in the water this is a good measure for yourself - watch your top hand go past your eyes. For one thing it means you are looking ahead - where you are going and not at your paddle blade. You know where that is, its on the end of the paddle. You know where the end of the paddle is because your top hand goes just past your eyes and then you are in the right place - its a good thing to do, watching your top hand, it tells you all sorts of things!

 

That is the full paddle stroke AND IT IS THAT SIMPLE. Like me with computers, it is so simple some people find it difficult to do - but you can do it fine stood up with the blade horizontal. Just translate that to sitting down and keeping the blade horizontal - just for a dozen swings or so. Then simply repeat it, by dipping one blade, swing, now dip the other side, swing. You have just mastered the efficient forward paddling stroke. I bet as soon as you get in your kayak you will catch yourself bending your elbows and taking the blade back beyond your hips - your top hand will also want to go almost above your head. Why lift the paddle blade an extra foot in the air, lifting it further, using more energy, and where it catches more wind?

 

The way I have suggested is the most efficient paddle stroke there is. It is also beneficial when paddling in a choppy sea because it develops not only thrust, but also support on the paddle side., which helps to prevent the kayak from rolling from side to side as you paddle - and tends to help stop it from zig zagging as you paddle too. To gain even more support in a rough sea, at the slight expense of drive, you can angle the blade back slightly so the thrust is a little downward. This provides additional support on that size, a help if there is a chance of a wave capsizing you.

 

It is worth perfecting, even though it feels strange at first. Don't be tempted to go back to the "easy" push top hand pull bottom hand paddling style - you will waste so much time and energy - time you could put to more productive use I'll bet. Like fishing, instead of paddling to get there.

 

When you do paddle like this, AND KEEP YOUR TOP HAND LEVEL WITH OR BELOW YOUR EYES - any higher and you are dipping your blade too deep - you are also lifting the dry blade to high, where it can catch wind, slowing you down and upsetting your draw as it catches the pull of the wind. Keep your blade angle low and the wind will not try to wrench it out of your hand - that is another sign of the "efficient bite" of the paddle blade, if you feel the wind catching it and trying to pull it out of your hand - it is not the paddles fault, you are simply presenting a good catching surface to the wind. You can avoid it by keeping your paddle lower - do this by watching your top hand - keep it going across your eyes. In very strong wind a bit below your eyes - how low is something that you have to get the feel for on the day. BUT NEVER HAVE YOUR TOP HAND ABOVE YOUR EYES WHEN FORWARD PADDLING - for manoevering strokes is different, but for forward paddling your eyes and top hand are your measure.

 

It will take you 2 or 3 trips to get this second nature - you will have to keep watching yourself and telling yourself STRAIGHT ARMS, HAND ACROSS FACE AT EYE LEVEL, BLADE NO FURTHER THAN HIP - then it will come.

 

By the way, reverse paddling is exactly the same. To go backwards you swivel and place the blade as close to the back of the boat as you possibly can - then swing the blade out with straight arms until the blade is level with your hip. Then repeat the other side - that is two strokes I have taught you - proper strokes, not just pulling the paddle in the water strokes. If you want to have any energy left for waving a rod about and fighting a fish, then paddle efficiently. Don't waste your effort.

[s2vto]

Can you videocam this motion and post video on here please!

 

Trying my best to follow those steps but very hard to visualise

[lazy hooker]

simon also didn't mention that john boys stoke is dangerous to the stability of following kayaks too....well i almost fell of laughing anyway!!

 

john

 

seriously though simon cheers for the advice i'll have a good read through, digest and try to put in practice.

[Simon Everett]

STU - that is unfair. You know I can't push a wheelbarrow, or put pictures up here (far too complicated and clever ) So what chance have I got with a video?

 

It is a very good suggestion though and I am sure the yakmeister would love a bit of video for his site - so maybe we could get the short one to stand on a milk crate, weild the videocam and then post it up as a put it up and leave it up thingy.