I can’t explain the excitement of hearing my new Jackson Kayak MayFly had been delivered. It was
like winning the lottery and the fish god’s blessing you with windless fishing
days for life. I had plans for the next
day but those were suddenly replaced with a new one.
The new agenda was to pick up my kayak the next morning and go
fly fishing with a buddy in Hot Springs, AR. Sleeping about an hour that night, I was awake
and on the road before 5 am. Ouachita Outdoor Outfitters(OOO) is a 3-hour drive from my home in Southeast Arkansas. I arrived before the store opened and had to
wait an agonizing 15 more minutes. About 8 minutes later, Jake from the kayak shop arrived. I loaded the kayak and departed with an Irish
goodbye. He understood!
The lake we fished was full of submerged vegetation that
housed a healthy population of southern pike (pickerel) and bass. With an 8wt and 6wt loaded, I paddled out in
search of anything that would eat a fly. The first thing I noticed was how easy it was to paddle. It took little effort to get started and maintained speed very well. It's not the fastest boat but certainly not slow. My buddy was paddling a JK Kilroy and I was able to keep up with him without any effort. It's not Cuda 12 fast but it only seemed a little slower.
The hull has a slight keel, which helps keep the kayak tracking true. I found that it started to veer to the port or starboard after about 2-3 kayak lengths. That gave me enough time to make a good presentation before having to correct.
The stability is excellent. Compared to my Cuda 12, which I would never turn around in, I can turn completely around in the MayFly. It's 35"s wide (Cuda 12 is 31") and offers stand and forget fly fishing. When the water warms, I'm going to test using my Orion cooler as a standing platform. I'm almost confident enough in the stability to attempt it now. Fishing was good but fly fishing from the MayFly was better.
We each caught several pickerel and a couple bass that afternoon. Ripping streamers through the grass has never been so much fun. The MayFly was super easy to fly fish from
with its stability and large clean casting area. The most frustrating part of kayak fly fishing are the snags. It was advertised to be a fly fishing friendly, snag free kayak and it lived up to the hype. In 8-hours of fly fishing, I didn't snag my fly line once. That's the best thing since fermentation. Enough with the written review. Here's a short edit I made from the trip. Watch it in action and decide for yourself. (Open the link in YouTube and watch in HD for best results)
I’m not sure if it was fishing with a friend, the
3-hour drive home, or fly fishing from a kayak for 8-hours without a snag but I
was disappointed to see the sun dropping.
The day had been a great one, leaving me excited about my future fly
fishing trips in my Jackson Kayak MayFly!
If you have any questions feel free to post them in the comments below and I'll answer them best I can.
The Orvis Recon 9'/10 wt /4 pc is simply a fly rod that covers the big game situations. Let me elaborate. Over the last 8 months, I’ve used it in three
unique environments to target big game fish with great results.
Say you are planning a solo, 16 hour road trip to Wisconsin to chase pike
and musky. You’re probably going to be throwing some rather large bugs. When you get into 10 weights and large arbor
reels, weight of the combo takes a back seat.
However, you’ll appreciate that the Recon has the right action to help
load and shot line easily. In comparison
to my Orvis Encounter (entry level set up) it wasn’t even in the same ball
park but this isn't an entry level combo. The Recon’s action is much
smoother and angler friendly. For
example, I didn’t have to get 30 feet of line out to really feel it
loading. Over three days of slinging 4/0
hooks over my head, I really appreciated that I had complete control of the
magic that was happening around me. I
say magic because it made me look way better than I actually am. Check out the video and see what I’m talking
about:
Now, I’m back in my home state of Arkansas and stumble upon
a school of giant gar. Gar aren’t
necessarily selective on what that want to eat but they don’t really chase
either. In my experience, sightfishing
them is far more productive than blind casting. Or maybe it’s that flinging a 10 wt from a
kayak all day can be exhausting.
Either way,
I prefer to cast at something I see first.
Here’s where the action of the Recon is worth its salt. In the summer, gar will rise and slurp air
from the surface. When his happens, you
have a few seconds to get a fly in front of it.
The Recon excels in its ability to get line out quickly and precisely. More importantly, it can get to fish rising
80 feet away or 20 feet away with accuracy.
Last week I took it to Southeast Louisiana to chase redfish
in the marsh. If you’ve read this far you
know it will hold up to the rigors of catching large predatory fish. Pike, gar and reds will test your gear (more
on that later) and the Recon has been up to the challenge. Salt is a whole other world and I was
interested in seeing if it would keep its sheen. Out in the marsh there isn’t a place to
escape from the wind. My fear was that
the action wouldn’t be helpful in the winds I would face. Keep in mind that I’m in a kayak, so winds
above 15 mph aren’t going to be tested. I’m ok with that because the kayak isn’t a stationary platform. As soon as I drop the paddle, the winds have
an impact on my ability to cast. In
these conditions, I need a rod that has some flex but enough power to drive a
fly through the wind. You’ll appreciate
it when the kayak starts to turn to the starboard and your backcast has reached
its point of return. Yeah, lets just
say generating line speed becomes an important consideration and the Recon had
my back.
The Recon is paired with the new Hydros SL “super large”
arbor reel. I immediately recognized the
worth of a fast retrieve and smooth drag.
Kayak fishing has a certain amount of inherent chaos built in. When these big fish start moving, they also
move the kayak. Now you’re fighting the fish
and dealing with a moving kayak. Often that means
handling the rod with one hand while you have the other hand on the paddle. A smooth powerful drag and the ability to get
line back quickly is huge.
The drag on the
Hydros SL allows me to control the kayak without fear of losing the fish. After I’ve gotten the kayak under control, I
can get back to playing the fish. The fast
retrieve of the Hydros SL gets all that lost line back quickly. These features are sweet to have when a
redfish decides to jump three marsh islands and you have to go chase it
down. Like I said earlier, I have to do
the paddling and the fishing.
Kayak fly fishing can be very demanding. Often times the angler’s success is directly
related to the tools you have and you’ll need every tool you can get your hands
on when you target big game fish. There’s
nobody on the other end of the boat to help you when things start to get
intense. Case in point, while freeing a redfish from the grass it decided to make a sudden run under the kayak breaking the Recon. Yep, that really
happened.
Chaos dialed up to intense levels
The culprit - no smiles, but I'm not concerned.
That’s why you need a good
warranty from a company you can trust.
Orvis’ customer service is well known for being great to its
customers. It’s another tool that you’ll likely need at
some point if you fly fish from a kayak.
Smooth drag, there when you need it. Like an unexpected burst right beside the kayak (watch the video).
When I’ve paddled two miles out, I want gear that is reliable. Gear that will aid me in my
pursuit of big fish and that’s what I have found in my Orvis Recon and Hydros
SL. When bad things happen, and they
will, knowing your equipment will be fixed is very important. As a kayak angler, I need tools that help
quiet the chaos when it starts to get intense and that’s what I’ve found in my
Orvis gear.
My only real concern is not with the rod but with the rod tube. I wish the it had a handle or something to clip the reel case to. I like to keep my reels attached to the rod tubes. Helps me not forget them when I packing for a big trip. Be cool if they incorporated something like that in the future.
There are a lot of action cameras on the market now and more launching everyday. When I was shopping for one in December 2015, I was overwhelmed with all the choices. Ultimately, I decided on the GoPro Hero4 Silver because of the touch display and Hilight tagging feature. I did my usual intense, borderline lunatic, up all night reading every review I could find for days. Even the ones written in a foreign language, from countries I can't locate on a map.
What I found was skepticism. Some reviewers found the touch display useful. Others not so much. One review mentioned just making a "thumbs up" when you want to find something later. That doesn't sound any easier than finding the frame I actually need. I also came across several used GoPro's for sale. A recurring theme was not enough time to use/edit.
When you’re creating an edit, you’re working with short 5-10
second clips (edits) pieced together to make an interesting 1-3 minute video. It makes no sense to spend hours finding,
editing and creating a 3 minute video edit. In my 7 months of use, I've found editing is where the GoPro Hero4 Silver shines. The Hilight tagging feature and touch display save you time later when your searching for your hero moment. That time saved is worth being added to some clandestine groups watch list. I'm sure I'll regret it when I'm explaining my internet search history 3,000 miles from home but it's coming with me if I go!
I've been extremely surprised by how useful I find the Hilight tagging feature and touch display. They have cut my editing time in half. I know this because the first month I'd forget to tag and then spend hours looking for the highlight in my video. I quickly learned to use the tagging feature. It's really simple. Push the tagging button on the side of the camera and later find the yellow tag (you'll see).
Press here to TAG that special moment
I haven't used every setting on the camera. There are a ton. I stay in the 1080, superview, 60/fps most of the time because the highest video quality Youtube will play is 1080. The frames per second (fps) basically (from what I read/understand) you get less video blurring with more fps.
My normal settings
The next setting I use is time lapse photo set for 1 photo/second. Why would you want a dedicated photo over a screen grab? Check out these pictures and you'll see the quality is slightly better with the time lapse photo.
Screen grab. Notice the nose is slightly blurred b/c the gar was moving.
Time lapse photo - The tail of the fish is moving but still has great detail, lines and edges (no blur)
It's especially noticeable if you zoom in or have any movement in the shot. I've found that if there's some movement, the screen shot will likely have some blurring. Time lapse provides better detail and quality when there's movement in the frame. Also really useful for close up and action shots, when more detail is desired. However, the screen grab is great when detail and clarity aren't needed, such as landscape and wide angle shots. See below...
No detail really, no hard lines, can't see smallmouth bass, but the color and perspective are great!
Again, great perspective, but the fly line is grainy
Still need to learn the other features but I can quickly move from video to time lapse in seconds without removing the camera from the protective housing. The touch display allows easy and quick camera adjustments. You can change settings, review/delete footage, switch views and so much more.
Just hit the "mode" button until you see time lapse
touch display shows your view and settings
HiLight on the water use.
You're fishing and at some point you decide you have something that you want to share with the world. Time to be a hero. You can try the "thumbs up" find it later approach or press the Hilight button and tag your masterpiece. I highly recommend using the button. I struggled with this the first few trips and ended up pressing the off button, there's a lot of buttons, like 3. I later incorporated what I call the "shut-off" in my process. More on that later.
Now here's where it gets good. You've been out a few hours and captured everything. Not every moment is hero quality. Let's be honest, not everything that happens in the world, or on the water, needs to be put on YouTube. Lets just pretend we all agree and move on. Here's how the touch display and tagging features really help.
This isn't hero quality- amateur hour
Time to talk about the "shut-off." I mentioned earlier about accidentally turning the camera off when I first started using it. I discovered a great reason for doing it intentionally. It keeps your video clips manageable. If you leave the camera on the entire time, you'll have one really long clip and unable to delete the filler between tagged clips (*GoPro will segment the clips when you download them later). Example, you've been fishing for an hour. You suddenly catch a fish. It takes 2 minutes of video to show the catch. You basically have 2 minutes of hero quality and an hour of near misses, break offs and texting your buddy that you're "killing it." You're ready to delete that junk. If you've been shutting off every 20-30 minutes and after every tagged moment, you'll have twice as many clips and able to delete the filler if desired. See below...
What you see: 2 tagged videos, 1 time lapse photo, and 6:18 of most likely junk that I'll delete
There is a looping feature that will record at an interval of time (say 20 min) then start recording over itself until you stop it. I'm not sold on it because you can't see everything and the camera never misses a moment. While reviewing a video I once came across an alligator floating in the grass that I hadn't seen during my trip. Plus if you forget you're looping it'll record over your hero moment. I just let it run all day and scrub out what I don't like later.
Off the water use:
It was a good day. You race home excited to see the video from the day. Here's a screen shot of GoPro studio and 2 clips I have loaded (upper left side of screen). The first is the Hilight tagged clip shown with a yellow chevron. The 2nd isn't tagged. These tags quickly allow me to see which clips have something I want to look at first. I still look at each clip, if I have time, because maybe you forgot to tag or just missed something cool.
This yellow tag gets you right to the action. I've gotten good at tagging my clips. Ciphering through video that hasn't been tagged is as excruciating as waiting to check out of Walmart when the person in front of you requests a price check on The Backstreet Boys Christmas CD because it's on sale for $6.97 not $7.97. Don't be a victim of a poor decision, tag and tag often.
Delete it's junk
I read concerns over battery life. I don't have experience with other cameras and battery life so I don't feel like I'm in a position to make an educated and informed comment on it. What I have found is I need 3 batteries for a 8-10 hours of non-stop recording. In reality, I feel like that's more than most will ever do. I picked up a re-fuel charger for extended trips (kept me recording during my 2 week road trip). I'll do a follow-up review on it but initial results are very positive.
The micro sd card I use and get ~240 minutes (4hrs) of record time on it
If you're trying to decide between action cameras take a close look at the GoPro Hero4 Silver. In my limited use I've been impressed with the results. It has captured my fishing adventures from the Florida Keys, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin. You can check out my YouTube channel and see the results. The quality is great but the real benefit is time savings when it comes to editing and creating a video like the one below.
