A Top Tope recently caught by East Yorkshire Kayak Fisherman Ken Oliver ... 23/07/08

                      Cod ahoy at Skinningrove..

Since starting kayak fishing a few months a go with my father in law, George, we’ve been mainly fishing off Skinningrove, a lovely spot at the north of the North Yorkshire Coast, where I lived until recently. It’s only a short walk of 100m from the boat park on the east side of the beck to the beach and our c-tugs can handle usually handle the first little stretch of cobble down to the sand. From the launch you can head down the coast to a to fish the gullies and scar of Hummersea and Boulby, where I’m told the bass hang out, or head west to fish of Cattersty sands or under Huntcliffe. Today and the last few times though we headed straight out north from the jetty, about 1.5 miles into about 60 foot of water.

Fishing and paddling at Flamborough, East Yorkshire is always a pleasure ... deep clear waters - kelp beds - stunning scenery and wildlife and plenty of fish. Launch points are typically South landing or the slightly steeper North landing shown below ...

Depending on the weather conditions launching is relatively easy. There is a strong tidal flow just outside of the landing mouth which on the flood will quite quickly take you south on the drift. It is an area for the more experienced and stronger paddler. Always take full safety equipment including VHF radio. Once set up for fishing the preferred setup is a light boat rod and reel. I use 15lb class Abu gear with braid. If the water is clear using Hokki lures is all that is really needed. This will catch several species including Codling - Pollock - Wrasse - Mackerel - Bass etc. North Landing is also a great place to take the family. While you paddle put and do some fishing the family can laze on the nice sandy beach or explore the various cave systems and view the huge amount of bird wildlife. The caves are only accessible at low tide. Here are some photos from a recent trip out from North landing ..

Bridlington Funday with the Mokai ..
4/07/07 ..

The first of many Funday's were held at Bridlington South Shore beach recently. The event was quite well represented by kayakfishing.co.uk members  - some whom had travelled over 250 miles to attend .. The Weather unfortunately wasn't at its best for this time of year with choppy seas and quite strong winds ...  but still we were determined to enjoy ourselves. It brought together several members who had only ever met on the forum .. so a nice change to see members face to face ..! We all got on very well and shared some friendly chat ..

First thing on the days list was to see the Mokai getting rigged up for the test ride   
.. next was watching Phil rig the engine and petrol system in place ...
  
Engine in and hatch on .... and ready for action .. ! The setup takes less than 10 minutes from unhooking to engine in to ready for launch ... that is amazingly fast. The Makai comes equipped with full padded seats  - paddle and a few other accessories .. The Honda 4 stroke engine and trim jet system are low maintenance with little to go wrong.
 
We were pleasantly surprised at how quick off the mark the Mokai was ... It quickly got up to about 15mph - even in the rough conditions ... The Mokai was very easy to turn with the built in twist and go system which also coupled as its steering too ... so very easy to use .!
  

 
The Mokai handled extremely well considering the sea conditions it had to battle against and was very stable indeed ... The Mokai is also capable of covering up to 80 miles on a tank of petrol and is perfect for those long River and Lake trips while out Angling ..  Anyone interested in the Mokai can contact Phil at www.mokai.co.uk .. After the Mokai test we ventured to North Landing at Flamborough for a fun paddle and the all important BBQ ... This gave us all time to brush up on our kayaking techniques like re-entry and also some standing up - or rather trying to stand up techniques ..

 
Raymo doing his standing Arnie pose - impressive or what ..! also in attendance were Pete ( phoenixpete ) .. Steve ( Nofear ) George ( Spud ) Alan & Pam ( Sparkatron ) Ray ( Raymo ) etc .. all forum members ..


All in all a good fun day was had by all .... and we can't wait till the next bigger and better Funday later in the year ..!

Kayak diving in Torbay.

Article by : Paul Sleep ( Forum member SCRAMBLER )

A few years ago a friend of mine had a small inflatable boat that he used for inshore Scuba and Freediving from.  This was great fun but was not used very often because of the time it took to prepare and launch the craft.  It was subsequently sold and an Ocean Scrambler XT was purchased.  At around the same time I had an urge to start kayaking myself and bought and RTM Mambo.  We had some good fun paddling and learning what our kayaks were capable of when the idea came up to have a trip out with some freediving kit, with the view to doing some Scuba diving from them soon.
  
After a search of the Internet we soon found all the information we needed to turn our kayaks into diving platforms.  After a few added lines for clipping on equipment and anchoring the kayaks we had our diving platforms.  There were many modifications out there we could have done, but decided for the type of diving we had planned on doing many were not needed.  Simple bow and stern lines were added for anchoring and clipping the kayaks together when at anchor.  A small 1.5kg anchor connected to an SMB reel.  A few well-placed lines with clips for securing our dive kit when entering and exiting the water and a flag holder to hold the all important ‘divers down’ A-flag.  With this done we were ready for our first trip kayak diving.
 
As it was going to be our first trip out we decided on nice easy start.  We headed for Meadfoot beach, with the view to paddling around the corner to London Arch.  We loaded our kayaks and headed off around the corner.  The conditions were almost perfect.  There was a slight offshore wind that made the paddle down the coast a little harder but was not too much of a problem.  London arch is a natural archway coming off the cliff face.  Scuba divers often refer to this place as the pipes due to the large pile of concrete pipes scattered around the seabed from a Dutch tugboat that lost its cargo here.

Once on site we set the anchor in the small cove so they were out of the way and didn’t risk boats hitting them while unattended.  Then the process of kitting up began.  As we were only snorkelling it was quite a simple process.  The first thing to go on was the mask, followed by the weight belt and finally the fins.  Entry to the water was by simply sliding off the side.  It became apparent very early on just how stable these small crafts were and we could move around a lot without any fear of tipping over.

This site is a great scuba dive and was interesting to do it as snorkel.  There is a cave to swim through underneath the archway, with a second passage that we later found out comes out where we had anchored the kayaks, although it was very narrow so we didn’t try it with just our snorkels!  The depth around here is about 6m to the bottom, which is very clean sand with deep rocky gullies.  The pipes themselves lie slightly offshore from the point so we didn’t venture out to them.  After about an hour in the water we headed back for the kayaks.  Getting back on was easy especially with our fins on.  A quick kick and we back in the seat removing our kit.
 
The paddle back to the beach was much easier with the wind behind us and we were soon pulling our kayaks up the beach and back to the car.  The trip did highlight a few points about our kayaks.  The Mambo although an excellent platform is quite small and storage space for the kit required was very limited.  Also because of its shorter length it was a struggle to keep up with the longer Scrambler XT.  For our short snorkelling trips this isn’t an issue, but for any longer paddles it can be quite tiring.  The trip had been a success and proved that we could use our kayaks as a simple and safe diving platform.  With the first kayak dive under our belt and a pint in our hands we were already starting to plan where we could go next
 
Thanks to my dive and kayak buddy Dan Bolt and his websites www.underwaterpics.co.uk and www.divetorbay.co.uk for the kind use of the pictures.

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