Bottom fishing Coos Bay in an inflatable board/kayak

[rogerdodger]

Abstract: The Hobie i11s presents as a super fun, easy to transport, 11' long Mirage drive based inflatable board (or flat kayak if you like). Initial testing by the author quickly confirmed this and added an impression that it is amazingly stable. But can it be configured, without losing it's character, as a fishing platform for conditions beyond just simple smooth water fishing? Can it, for example, be fitted up to bottom fish in or near the ocean?

Approach: My i11s fishing rigging is as follows: Yakattack BlackPac behind the seat with rod holders, cup holders, and 2 Scotty Rocket Launchers, and GoPro mount, Milk Crate behind that to toss fish in, Sonar mount board up front, fishing gear under seat in TraderJoes red insulated bag.



Testing: Launched 8am in lower part of Coos Bay (near the DQ), light winds but bar restricted to 30' boats so not a SAG day, fished Charleston side first between the red markers (landed several 'coppers' and one small 'black', all released), then headed across and retained 2 'blacks', and then landed my first ever Ling. (full disclosure: previous to today, assuming you have all your fingers, my hours spent bottom fishing could be counted on one hand- just my bumpy trips out of Sunset Bay this year, no charters or jetty fishing on my resume, I am a total newby to bottom fishing).
So my first Ling is on the deck, first check it is clearly over 20", better measurement it is 21", and two more measurement just to be sure, it is 21" and so it splashed back into the water with my regards, several more hours fishing then back to the launch cove at 5pm.



Conclusion: Is it possible to configure an i11s for bottom fishing, spend 8+ hours on the water and catch fish?
to quote my 25yo son: "hells yeah!"



Follow-up research: The first reasonably smooth ocean day, I plan to take my fishing configured i11s out of Sunset Bay and catch some fish*.

cheers, roger

*fish= keeper Lings!

 

[jamisonace]

New toy?

 

[rogerdodger]

New toy?

yes, I have made several reports on it at NWKA and some videos

https://youtu.be/h2gTZPhVE-g

https://youtu.be/JcJuTWlsfBY

...cheers, roger

 

[TimberTodd]

Glad you're getting out there Roger. That is one nice tricked out inflatable my friend.

 

[martin s.]

Hey rodger, how stable is it with the wind and tide rips at the red markers. do you get blown around.

 

[rogerdodger]

Hey rodger, how stable is it with the wind and tide rips at the red markers. do you get blown around.

I have been pleasantly surprised by how little the wind or tide/current effect the i11s, not having tall sides like a normal kayak helps, I was out Tuesday on Munsel in some decent wind and I could feel it pushing on the back due to the 2 boxes back there, without any gear on deck, the i11s feels almost invisible to the wind.

As for the tide, I was fishing on the outside of the submerged rock wall to the west of the Green 7 marker (you can see that in the video I just posted), up to just before the waves were breaking, and with the tide coming in, it was fairly strong there and was flowing over the rock wall (trying to push me into it), but the i11s is only slightly effected by it, moving water seems to mostly pass under the smooth hull, I was often within a few feet of nasty looking rocks just under the water, slowly moving against the tide, scrapped my rudder on a rock one time yesterday, that was my only close call....cheers, roger

 

[martin s.]

Id love to try a kayak this summer, but I hated canoes growing up, I can only assume that stability is about the same. being out on the salt in one puts my mind out of its comfort zone, but I will give it a try...

 

[Bikinjoe]

Cool report and kayaks are great tools for fun fishing.

My son and I picked up a new motor in Reedsport and are giving Coos Bay a try Thursday morning.

What do people use to fish with for the lings and other reef fish. It's new to us, we usually are bass or Kokanee fishing.

We have a full size boat and have access all over the Bay.

 

[~JM~]

Id love to try a kayak this summer, but I hated canoes growing up, I can only assume that stability is about the same. being out on the salt in one puts my mind out of its comfort zone, but I will give it a try...

I've always felt that kayaks were more stable than canoes. Lower center of gravity. Look for a shallow arch hull design.

 

[rogerdodger]

Cool report and kayaks are great tools for fun fishing.

My son and I picked up a new motor in Reedsport and are giving Coos Bay a try Thursday morning.

What do people use to fish with for the lings and other reef fish. It's new to us, we usually are bass or Kokanee fishing.

We have a full size boat and have access all over the Bay.

I have been experimenting with several things but by far have caught the most bottom fish on Gulp Alive 6" grub in white, glow white, and pink shine. (BiMart sells these, Amazon has them cheaper, Cabela's also I'm sure..)



I run these at the bottom of my rigging on a 3oz jig head (make sure and sharpen the hook!).

Second best, and I run these higher up in my rigging as a second or third bait, on 1oz jig head or just a plain siwash hook, are 4" mullet in white



In Coos Bay, either around the railroad bridge piers or rock walls OFF of Charleson, I try to fish the sandy bottom close to those rocks or piers. 'blacks' will school and show up on sonar much like the kokanee schools do, I have watched them change depths as my rig drops through the school...

the Gulp Alive baits need to be kept in their scent liquid or they dry up, the pouches comes with some liquid in them, the tubs are great, once you have one of them, you can recharge/store any of them in there, you can also buy bottles of the scent liquid, it smells to me like mostly a shrimp and maybe craw scent...

cheers, roger

 

[martin s.]

rodger gave an excellent post regarding lings in coos bay, id like to add[ weather permitting] drift with the tide off the north jetty. find where the rocks meet the sand. I use 4 to 6 oz. jig heads with squid on the incoming tides. white plastics or sea trout on the outgoing. as you are drifting bounce the jigs off the bottom. keep the jigs moving up and down, if left on the bottom you will loose you jigs. I use 30 # test with 30 # floro leader. stout jigging rod, be careful out there and good luck

 

[rogerdodger]

Id love to try a kayak this summer, but I hated canoes growing up, I can only assume that stability is about the same. being out on the salt in one puts my mind out of its comfort zone, but I will give it a try...

fishing kayaks are very different from canoes, whitewater kayaks, and small v-hull boats.

almost all fishing kayaks are 'sit on top' (SOT) design, so you are sitting on some sort of seat, most have low padded seats with back support, many now have a mesh chair with adjustable height. the common characteristics for almost all fishing kayaks are: they are self draining (most have 'scupper'holes or self draining deck designs) and some sort of enclosed hull flotation (cannot sink). In addition, they tend to be wider, making them difficult to roll over, and the self-draining design keeps them stable as they cannot fill up with water...people that 'leave' an SOT kayak on the water normally hop over after losing their balance, the boat doesn't roll over, and they just climb back on board (because they have practiced doing that, right..:thumb: )

I view it as right between boating (you expect to stay mostly dry and definitely stay out of the water) and surfing (you are going to be in the water most of the time). Every time I go out, I am prepared to be in the water and so what I wear is based on the weather and water temperature. Almost every time I go out, I do not end up in the water but I usually get plenty of water on me from waves, spray, and rain...

as for the ocean, I feel much safer out there compared to the guys in the 20' powerboat because if a big rogue wave comes along and flips us all over, I will be floating in my dry suit (with VHF radio attached), I am leashed to my boat and have practiced rolling it upright and climbing back in. I will lose a whole bunch of stuff but be just fine. On the other hand, the guys (or family) in the flipped over powerboat are potentially in a very dangerous situation, especially if they were not wearing PDFs....

best of all, basic SOT fishing kayaks start at just a couple hundred bucks, really good ones are more like $1K and the Hobies with Mirage pedal drives run $2K to $5K....cheers, roger

 

[rogerdodger]

quick follow-up: headed back to the same location today in the i11s to target Lings and I got to retain my first legal one, right at 22" this time, plus a 16" Black and I had several other Lings on that spit the hook...these are tasty but gnarly fish...





wind came up about 11am and I needed to cover about 3/4 mile through decent whitecaps and into the outgoing tide- pedaled along easily at about 4mph fully loaded, drinking coffee and check messages on my phone...