Hat Mounted Kodak Playsport Camera

As a birthday gift this year I was lucky enough to receive a Kodak Playsport camera. It was given to me with the intention of it being my go-to camera for all of my outdoors adventures. The main reason being that it is waterproof and shock resistant, two very important qualities for what I will be putting it through.

The primary function I am using this camera for is capturing high quality still photos to document my catches as well as to share on this blog. Already I have been pleased with that aspect of the camera as you can see with these stills.

The main draw of this camera to the average consumer however is the capability to take HD video. I wasn't quite sure how to take advantage of this feature on my kayak as my hands are always occupied with either a pole or a paddle. Obviously I would need a mount if I wanted to shoot film. After some tinkering and a $1.50 trip to the hardware store, I was able to modify an old ball cap into a hands free camera mount.

A 1/4x20 threaded bolt, two fender washers, and a nut to match. I chose stainless since it will be inherently exposed to saltwater. With the size and shape of the playsport, it will definitely take some getting used to as far as the proper angle to hold my head to capture what exactly I want the camera to see. Today was the first trial run and I was lucky enough to have a snook guest star in my first short film.

 

As you can see I did have a tough time aiming the camera where I wanted to, but I assume with some practice it will become second nature. I have also been toying with an old monopod, mounting it in my milk crate behind me in the kayak for an interesting perspective. My ultimate goal is to be able to accumulate a series of video highlights to string together with still photos each year as a sort of digital scrapbook of my fishing trips. I hope this post was informal and if anybody has any experience with camera mounting for kayak fishing please feel free to share!

A Day of Firsts

For the first time since January, I was able to take my kayak on a fishing excursion. For the first time in saltwater, I brought my 8 wt TFO BVK along for the ride. For the first time ever, I caught a saltwater fish on the fly. For the first time this year, I caught a redfish. Firsts all around. And hopefully many seconds to follow.

I nicknamed this fish the Gargantuan. I must have looked like a lunatic celebrating the catch and release of a piece of "bait." My first salty species on the fly, and hopefully the first of many.

My first saltwater game fish on a fly, although this one didn't play that game too hard.

I switched over to spinning gear once my arm became tired and my fly casting mechanics began to suffer. A few more trout fell for my soft plastic offerings, but none of them were of very impressive stature. This redfish that barely cleared the 20 inch mark turned out to be the highlight of the day. My first redfish of 2012, and in all honesty, my first fish of 2012 that was a worthy opponent for the drag on my Stradic.

Bream Fishing with a Pro

I had the good fortune of fishing with Steve Gibson of Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing this week. Steve has been fishing the west coast of Florida for many years and provides a wealth of knowledge on all types of fishing found in our area. He offers kayak fishing charters targeting many different species, and his website can be found at http://www.kayakfishingsarasota.com/

We set out to target bream on the Coco Plum waterway in North Port. We used fly rods exclusively and struck early with #10 poppers. My largest bluegill of the day came right after sun up, and measured in at 9 and 3/4 inches.

Paddling along the way and exchanging information with Steve, I kept pointing out a specific palm tree on the shoreline that I had caught my personal best bluegill for this body of water underneath. Slowly but surely I made my way there, and like clockwork had a nice hand sized fish swallow my popping bug on my first cast to that spot. He measured 9 and 1/4 inches.

Almost immediately after that fish I hooked up with my only largemouth bass for the day, a small but scrappy fish that put up a fun fight on a light fly rod.

After the topwater bite subsided, the fish became very selective. Steve found good success after downsizing to a #14 scud. I had a hard time being convinced to downsize as I generally tend to stick to popping bugs and wooly buggers and other various #8-#10 size flies for bluegill. However, the proof was in the pudding when Steve continued to catch fish while I struggled, and finally I joined in on the finesse tactics with a #14 bead head nymph. The fish got smaller throughout the day but still kept our rods bent consistently. 

I finished the day with 26 bluegill, 5 stumpknockers, 1 shellcracker, and 1 largemouth bass for a total of 33 fish. Steve had an even better day than I did catching more of the same assortment of species plus one surprise tilapia. Schedules permitting we will be taking a trip in the next few weeks to fish along either the Manatee River or Lake Manatee targeting all of the same species, so look forward to a report on that! 

A few of my favorite things...

Went out this morning with a new fly reel spooled with sinking line. This was my first time using a sinking line so there was a bit of a learning curve. An olive colored wooly bugger variation that I tied was the ticket today. I managed to snap a photo that captured the kayak, my fly rod, and hand a sized bluegill, three things that make for a good morning no matter where you are.

The tally for the day was 15 bluegill to 8.5 inches, one small largemouth bass that hardly pushed 5 inches, and I added a new species to my fly rod catch list with a 4 inch spotted sunfish. I enjoyed using the sinking fly line and am very excited to try it in various applications in the future.

Myakka Morning

I set out yesterday morning to fish and drift the Myakka river. I put in at the Carlton Reserve kayak launch which is located on Border Rd. in Venice. This was the first time I have fished this section of the river. My plan was to paddle up river and fish and drift my way back to the launch. I brought my fly rod with intentions of targeting bream and bass.

I made it about 3/4 of a mile before I decided I wanted to start fishing. The current was slow if not non existent, but I still did manage to catch a few fish. I found this one cruising a rocky edge along the west side of the river bank.

I paddled on picking off bream here and there from fishy looking spots. There wasn't much surface action as far as boils or bait movement so I had to rely on intuition as to where to cast. Being in the kayak forces me to be more thorough in each spot as the ability to rapidly motor on to the next spot is non-existent. I had to pick and choose my spots. I found that most of the fish I caught were hanging out in the shade under overhanging branches. The biggest fish came where there was cover over the river as well as submerged branches. I did manage two small bass today. The larger of the two struck my bug ferociously along a weedy stretch of shoreline.

It wasn't a large fish but did manage to startle me by striking right as I looked the other way towards a mullet splash. All of the fish except for one were caught on a #10 BoogleBug popper. These are rapidly becoming my favorite topwater fly. The fish are rough on them but they hold up very impressively. I purchased two to test out, and I will definitely be buying more.

Most of the bluegill were in the 6-8 inch range with about six of them over the 8 inch benchmark. The bass liked a faster popper retrieve while the bream seemed to prefer a motionless popper twitched on about a 10 count.

I really enjoyed this stretch of river and spent just as much time enjoying scenery as I did fishing. I saw turtles, pileated woodpeckers, many species of wading birds, and a few raccoons. I surprisingly did not see a single alligator, likely due to the colder weather. Overall I managed two small bass to go with around two dozen bluegill in 4 hours of fishing/sightseeing. 

Babcock/Webb WMA

I recently made a trip to the Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management Area with my brother to fish Webb Lake for bass and panfish. While it is more touted for its hunting grounds and shooting range, this Wildlife Management Area is home to a very productive lake that holds bass and panfish among other species. Three boat ramps speckle the west side of this 395 acre lake, which east to west is no wider than 1500 feet at any point. We launched our kayaks (no gasoline motors allowed) at the middle ramp and had luck with bass 1-2 pounds early on topwater plugs. The water level was very high so good shorelines to fish were hard to find. I also had luck with my fly rod, casting a #10 BoogleBug popper I managed two bass to two pounds and a half dozen or so bluegill. I only managed to snap a picture of the first bass of the day before we had camera issues...

This is definitely an area I would visit again. For those interested, the park requires a daily use permit for access, which is paid at the entrance of the park. Fees and other info can be found on the link I included in this post to FWC's WMA page.

Catching Up

I haven't had too many memorable fishing trips of late, a lot of catching but nothing unique or unexpected. Mainly smaller trout from 13-17 inches with a few touching 20. The trout are easy to target this time of year, soft plastics fished in 4-6 feet of water with grassy bottom in the vicinity will keep a rod bent most mornings. Otherwise I haven't had a great deal of success in my saltwater excursions, mainly because I have been focusing on flyrodding for bass and panfish mostly of late. I did manage my first snook in a few months however.