And over the course of a few years of these annual treks I started dreaming of a small boat or even canoeing or kayaking through these wonderful habitats when we retire to some bucolic coastal town. The daydreams continued over the course of a few years on every vacation drive...I could learn to fish in peace since the kids will be grown and gone, heck I could probably fish while I canoe or kayak in these mysterious tidal flats and bays. Finally on one such vacation I broke my silence, "You know, I think I'd love to just paddle around these grassy waters when we retire. I think that would be really peaceful." I think we were on I-10 near Mobile Bay at the time. "Yes it would, you do that after you buy me a nice little retirement home on the water" was about the response I got. The three kids with earphones and bags of chips in back paid no attention to this short exchange between me and my wife.
After having invented the idea of fishing in shallow brackish water from a kayak on these annual drives, arriving home from one such vacation I decided to 'Google it up' as my youngest child would say. After about 10 minutes letting Google show me the way I had the horrible realization that I didn't just invent a new pastime afterall - there was already a large and growing community of kayak fishermen in nearly every coastal area both rural and urban! They beat me to it by decades and I didn't even know it had been happening. I found canoe and kayak shops online, websites dedicated to kayak anglers, and even online forums where these interesting fishermen exchanged ideas, stories, asked questions, and even traded and sold equipment. I did all this online reading after the kids were in bed and the wife was usually reading a good book. I became fascinated by this new world far different than my urban neighborhood full of SUV's hauling kids around and my 8-5 office workplace. It was pulling me in - a new vocabulary with new acronyms to learn, interesting activities I'd never done let alone heard of. The minutia of what type of knot worked best for certain types of fishing line tied to another material for the leader was discussed on the forums with great opinion and custom. I was sliding into this crazy hobby without even owning anything that floats nor did I own a rod that was suited for a person over 10 years old. I hadn't caught so much as a real gamefish but once in the last 25 years. My sleuthy research continued after that particular vacation for a few weeks.
Then one day...
"Me and Harry are going to go look at a tandem kayak - some guy just in the next neighborhood over is selling one for about half the price of a new one and it has all the stuff already on it for fishing".
"WHAT? I thought this was something you were going to do later...like when we retire or something" said the dear wife.
"Yea, well I think I'm a little interested in this kayak fishing thing now. It would be good for us. Let's go Harry. We won't be long, this guy is just in the next neighborhood over."
And the rest as they say, is history. The next day I was the proud owner of a Hobie Oddysey tandem kayak with two paddles, an anchor trolley, both Scotty and flushmount rod holders, a customized milk crate, and a cooler set up for live bait in half and cold drinks in the other half. My new friend even delivered it since I hadn't thought far enough ahead to consider transporting my new prized possession home.
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| The Hobie Oddysesy tandem fishing kayak |
And that is how it was in the beginning.
Dave
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