St Jude's Kayak Trip--2013 Report--Great time!

[tippit]

I'm back in Aiken but had to make sure all was well with family & friends in Boston before chiming in.  As Joe stated, most people are starting to think twice about allowing us to bid on any more St Judes Trips with our weather record.  The weather for kayaking was forecast with T-storms & wind which would have made for difficult conditions especially for two Rookie Kayakers!  But it turned out perfect...almost    More later...tippit

[awbowman]

I would suspect that a fly rod is about to be uncased!

[NOMAD88]

Wow awesome pics guys...That is a beautiful river. Do ya'll get to use any bows?  

[rastaman]

Great pictures!  It looks like an awesome trip!

[tippit]

Fred,
I left my fly rod at home thinking I'd be looking at the bottom of the river with a good double haul     Big mistake, a small fly rod would have worked well as the kayaks were very stable...at least most of them.  More on that later    I liked it so much I'm looking for a fishing kayak to take to the Bacon Strip and use for flats fishing around Beaufort & Charleston.  

New addition to the Aiken farm...I just got this kayak hauler & fly fishing rig for a little Southern Style Red fishing.  Really trying to get into this Southern Living. I no longer consider myself a Redneck Rookie...now trying to be Cracker in training!

 

 

Nomad88,
We did have a couple of Greg's bow fishing rigs with us but the area Greg was thinking we'd see some gar was real low.  No good opportunities to bow fish as you'd just see the occasional cruising gar from your kayak.

[Shaun]

Great to see friends enjoying such a wonderful adventure! Looking forward to the rest of the story. Good luck Joe with your turkey hunt.

[awbowman]

Jeff,

Just think of falling out of one in Florida as a quick dip in the pool to cool off.

Nice "Aiken" rig, but you are going to need to rig it with a few goodies.

[tippit]

I've got GPS & depth finder on it.  I don't want anything else to hang up my fly line...kinda like bow hunting keep it simple for your One String Instruments  

[Knawbone]

Fantastic!!!    Thanks for taking us along....great pics.  

[awbowman]

Originally posted by tippit:
I've got GPS & depth finder on it.  I don't want anything else to hang up my fly line...kinda like bow hunting keep it simple for your One String Instruments      

Those SC winds will necessitate a trolling motor and a good anchor system.  After that, you are good to go.

Good horsepower to get out of the weather too.  I LIKE!

[Big Ed]

Very nice!!!

[stabow]

Looks like a lot of fun........stabow

[Doug Campbell]

Looking fwd to these stories and like Jack I'm jealous for sure... I rode in one of those glass bottom boats back in the Spring of 77 Gregg. We spent most of that trip at Daytona Beach.      

[Alexander Traditional]

Neat pictures. Very pretty there.

Awesome! can't wait for more.

Bisch

[awbowman]

BTW, it just ain't fair that y'all didn't have any skeeters!

[Whip]

As I remember it from when the bidding for this trip was going on I think Gregg kind of soft sold it.  I hadn't realized he had been a professional boat capitan on this river!  He knew all the good spots, and the amount of wildlife we saw and were able to get within spittin distance was absolutely incredible!  

When we combined our photos at Gregg's home on Sunday night I think we ended up with 660+ pictures between us.  Most of them by Gregg, and he excels as a photographer as well as a guide.  As is the case most of the time, as beautiful as the pictures are, it is difficult to capture how fantastic it really is in real life.  

I am headed out for turkey hunting the rest of the week.  I will try to follow along on my phone, but might not be able to add much else to the thread myself.  Just make sure he doens't forget to tell you about Scout Junior....

[steadman]

Looks like a very cool trip! And warm  

[Whip]

[KOOK68]

very nice! It's amazing how close you can get to wildlife in a low profile, paddled boat.