Testing Testing 1 2 THREE…01/11/2013
Shifts and weather have been getting in the way, babysitting too so a bit of a delay on the anchored sea fishing I’m afraid. It was my hope to get out for codling, especially after a couple of days with perfect conditions but on the walk home the wind was building and there seemed no point going after them in the same conditions I’ve already tested. Wouldn’t have anything to write about really. Besides, Gary was coming out too with my scupper and I’d need an hour’s kip before I could even look in one direction. Question answered, out on the broad for some flat lake trolling after pike. Hopefully I’d find a good one as there are some decent fish in here, up to thirty pounds or so. Two of us to lift the Cuda off the roof, far more tolerable.
A foot or so to step down onto the floating kayak, nice and easy. Down into the seat, well, not down exactly but you know what I mean. With no time to sort my lures before leaving I’d grabbed everything and loaded the whole box into the front hatch along with my rods in the hull while I parked the car (loads of room and a nice, wide hatch), this was now in the rear tankwell, dry and with easy access that I could turn right around and sift through – two advantages over the tankwell on my Scupper Pro where everything needs drying afterwards. Rods were now out and with no flushmounts I had to use the supplied ram tubes.
Ram tubes are fitted behind the seat as standard. This is good, they’re there for storage, forward fishing and trolling at any angle and within reach. That, of course, is if you happen to like trolling from tubes. I don’t. I don't trust them and with experience of them slipping under pressure it is a recipe for lost rods, most likely on a snag rather than from a fish; I’d far rather have the solid, fixed, low flushmounts and feel safe in the knowledge that there will be no slippage. Of course with the tubes being new they gripped well and with a good bit of pressure applied I had them sufficiently tightened to withstand whatever pressures I could expect to contend with. In use though I found them too high and I had to turn and reach to drop the butts into place instead of doing it effortlessly. But they performed okay and the option of raising or lowering the tips to adjust the running depth of the lure could be useful at times.
The wind had dropped and the broad was flat so I’d at least get a better idea of how it paddled. It felt heavy on the water but cruised quite easily, tracking well but easy enough to steer (still not using the rudder). As I was trolling I was only paddling at a gentle walking pace, no need for speed, just a steady meander and this was fine right the way around the broad with no need to stop in the couple of hours we were out; no weariness, no aches, no pain…but it wasn’t going to go a lot faster. The one thing that really bugged me though was the front scupper, mostly on the port side. I was on fresh water so sitting lower than I would on the sea but this is where it’s designed principally to be used. Practically an empty boat, maybe a couple of kg of lures and rods, 82kg of me, maybe 5kg of clothing and kit so say a 90kg payload. 200lb give or take, about half the load capacity. So it was somewhat annoying to get constant gurgling and regular splashing through the scupper hole. Sure, I could block it with a bung (standard fit on the earlier model) but then I’d lose drainage. That’s a minus for me. At least with the weight and profile of the bow there’s no hull slap.
Occasionally I got some gusts of wind appear over the flat expanse of the broad that were a bit stronger than the rest and at others it was as still as the doldrums. At most the gusts were about 15mph as as we did a complete circuit they would have appeared from every angle. In these lighter winds there was no discernile effect on windage; no weathercocking, no slowing of the kayak, none of the annoyance of the windy river launch. That said, beam on I may have skidded sideways to some degree without noticing on the larger water with less points of register.
I was able to stick nice and tight to the banks and quay headings, run between mooring buoys and lines and steer wherever I fancied with ease. It was while I was tight in that my rod started to bend over and had I not noticed it I'd have lost it off the back. Snagged on the bottom, it had started to pull the ram tube back and would have pulled the rod in had I not grabbed it. I hadn't slackened the drag off at all and the rod wasn't leashed. Cleared, i then pulled up a waste paper basket filled with mud and mussels which weighed a ton.
Third pull though was fighting back, quite hard in fact. Considering the size and the time of year I was surprised I had noticed at all!!!
Shooting up towards the flats a boat pulled out a scraper double ahead of us. It had been waiting for me for a while and clearly got fed up. Poaching my pike he was, how rude! Water wasn't too murky but not as clear as the river had been - maybe 2ft visibility at best. The wind had clearly stirred things up a bit and not just in the water, the trees had taken a bit of a battering in the recent storms.
Not to mention the second of the three houseboats having fallen to bits and sunk.
Back round to the launch point and I hopped out, getting Gary to take my place in the Cuda. He's taller than me at over 6ft, heavier too at 16 stone or so and this was his third time out on the water - one choppy sea trip, one heay surf session and this light lake paddle, in my slimmer, lower and lighter Scupper Pro. How would he take to it?
He immediately noticed the differences, was quite positive on the whole but I'll ask him to type something up himself.
So summing things up to date (session by session):
1. Great stability moving and anchored on saltwater, suffers from wind, slow, watertight, self rescue not too difficult, suprisingly fun in surf.
2. Really struggles to make headway against strong wind in fresh water, weathercocks badly, skids across the water with side winds and is hard to correct tracking without the rudder. Secure and stable, great storage
3. Pleasant but heavy paddle on open freshwater with little to no wind. Tracks straight, course corrections easy, annoying disturbance from front scupper hole(s).
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