I survived!!!!

But Holy cow! This boy is out of shape!  So the weather was nice but a little windier than I liked blowing 8-10mph gusting to 15 mph.  Spent most of the time on the water paddling against the wind.  I'd position then by the time I was ready to go, I would have drifted a 100 yards and I'd have to paddle back upwind again since there was another shrimp pot 150 to 200 yards away I wanted to stay away from.

I think several things were unexpected.  The biggest think I noticed was how slow the pots drop.  I guess I would have thought the line would be flying off the downrigger but it just kind of lazily turned while the pot fell.  I tried to paddle slowly upwind so that the line wasn't at a big angle as it was dropping.  Dropped one at 350 initially and 300 ft.  I pulled the one at 350 ft after a 90 minute soak and you saw the results.  I repositioned it in 425 feet of water.

If I was more experience I bet I could do it WITHOUT an outrigger.  But switching positions so often I felt safer.  The velcro adhesive to the kayak came off.  The velcro on the rings I think are fine but long term I would beef it up.  I had one time when the outrigger arm slid in and the reason i noticed was the kayak felt tippier all the sudden so the outrigger was at least holding the kayak level.

The other thing was that it was twice as hard to reel in the line than I expected.  But i think a lot of that was due to paddling for a couple of hours and the half a dozen times I repositioned and then picked up the one pot at the end.  Somebody in better shape could do it no problem.  It wasn't too hard to crank, it just took longer.  There is no way I would try this with a reel though.  Until i am in better shape, I think one pull in the morning, and one at night and I swill stick to two pots, maybe three.

When pulling it up, I could have the boom pointed pretty much straight backwards.  So I didn't feel tippy at all, but I can't say how much was the outriggers.  Just wanted to get it done.  Will analyze more as I continue to develop the technique.

As is often the case, the only time the wind calmed down was when I paddled to shore for break.  Beautiful scenery!  Too bad I didn't enjoy as I was too focused on staying alive!  lol.  I am sure it will get easier but not bad for a first effort I think!!!!!

But in a 90minute soak, I lifted one pot and there were 4 shrimp! 2 spots prawns and 2 coons or one coon and one humpy.  Not sure....