Took the new Jackson kayak out for her maiden voyage. It's amazingly stable and a great fishing platform. And just light enough that an old man like me can handle her. Which was important tonight since I portaged below a lowhead dam fished there a while then floated downstream to take out just above another lowhead. I caught a couple small shovelhead on a grub and a few smallies on a willowleaf spinnerbait below the dam. But the real quality smallmouth fishing came a mile or so downstream where the river bends digging out a deep hole that water pours into over chute in a riffle that has some very big rocks in it. Here some great smallmouth just absolutely hammered Vic's paddletail swimbait on a 1/4 ounce jighead. No guessing if you had a strike tonight. Just a solid thump and the rod bent double before you could hardly set the hook.
And then the weather hit. The sky got black and big nickel sized rain drops began splatting on the rocks. Dark was going to come early and I was still a ways up the river. Time to just secure everything solid to the yak and head for the take out. Which I made in time to load up the kayak with just enough light to see by. Very impressed with the Jackson Bite as a river boat. Not overly heavy like some boats more suited for lakes or float trips with a couple guys to help carry the load. At 72 pounds I can still unload and load the Bite by myself and launch it at less than ideal places. And the thing has cargo space like a floating pickup truck for overnight floats this summer.
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