Israel Kayak Fishing Tournament 2009

Last week passed very slowly for me, I was waiting anxiously for the annual kayak fishing tournament of the Israel Kayak Fishing forum. This year the 1st prize was bigger than ever - a brand new composite fishing kayak - Kaskazi Dorado II :


The night before the tournement, I've met Nadav, a great friend of mine, and we arranged and prepared all the fishing equipment, kayaks, and our fishing strategy.
As a lesson from last year (we wasted long time paddling to the deep waters and futile attempts of jigging), this year it was clear to us that we're going to troll on the shallow reef.
When we got to the shore early morning, we heard and saw the waves - about 1.5m, and again we knew it's the right conditions for trolling, and not static fishing.
After some administration issues we launched, passed the waves, deployed our lures and headed south according to the GPS fixes of the reef. We paddled south, then turned north, and south again with no signs of fish. Nadav caught one heavy rock, but nothing more.
At that point we met Hadas and all the other Optimists, and she gave us her blessing, and what do you know, 20 minutes later I heard that wonderfull bbzzzz of the reel, and a nice 2 kg Comb Grouper came aboard:


20 minutes later, his twin brother followed. At that point, Nadav started turning green, and feeling sick. We found some anti-nautios peel for him, but it was too late, and after fighting the motion sickness for a while, he had to bail out to shore.
I kept on trolling on the same reef, while Nadav and other friends keep updating me about the other catches. I knew I'm leading, but my lead appeared fragile.
Just before I turned to shore, on my last attempt, the reel sang again, and a third grouper hopped in. When I called to register the catch, the man responsible for registering the fish told me, half laughing, that I can leave the groupers alone and head back as nobody else caught other fish close at size to mine.
I arrived to the shore, where most of the kayakers were already out, met my friends and family who came to congratulate me, and gave myself to the rain of questions, pictures and hugs.
Then came the great moment, recieving the prize - what a great feeling of joy and pride.
Shlomo, one of the living spirits behind the tournament took some pictures from the event:

Another paddler, Edris, edited this nice clip from the day:



That was all, I came with one kayak and went back with 2, plus a great feeling.
I would like to thank all the people who worked hard to get this tournament happening,
to SeaSpeed who generously donated the prizes,
to Nadav who helped a lot and his company is always wellcome,
and ofcourse all the Kayak Fishermen out there.

Once in a lifetime experience

Hi, Pesach was here last week, to remind us that the spring is almost over, and the summer awaits at the door.
Pesach is usually a holiday for fishermen - the fish prices are high due to high demands for fish at the dinners in holiday's eve. The full moon and spring time sends all the sea inhabitants to reproduce, and the sea is full with fish eggs, larvae and other plankton, and lots of fish that eat them.
I spent 3 days at sea, spearfishing. At the first day the visibility was nice, but not excelent, and I managed to catch a few fish for a nice BBQ, plus one big Spanish Mackarel that I saved for later meal with my family.

The next day the visibility was better, so I attached the camera to my speargun and took videos at every dive.
At the first warm-up dive I saw a group of groupers (maybe that's why they are named that way) but I was too far away and couldn't shoot. Later I managed to get close and spear a big male (4kg). During the dives I saw many string rays, and a few more groupers. I edited all those dives to a video:


After about an hour I was diving for another ambush on the reef, and after a minute or so, I saw a big shadow swimming into my sight. I couldn't believe it at first - it was a big, majestic, amazing, Bluefin Tuna, coming from behind me and swimming at my left. At first I was shocked, but then I took aim, held the gun in both hands and....
I let it swim into the blue.
I couldn't or wouldn't shoot it. It was too wild to capture, and maybe it belongs to the oceans and not to be eaten.
Besides, at that size, it would have taken me with it or ripping the gun from my hands, only to die later from its wounds.


After that I couldn't continue diving. I climbed to the kayak, stil trembling from excitement, and paddled to shore, trolling a lure behind me. Just before I reached the shore I caught an ugly puffer fish, an immigrant from the Red sea, I took its picture also and then I released it from the hooks.
Since then I haven't dived yet, but every night since I re-live that moment and thank the sea for letting me enter that secret world of his.

Some whitewater for a change

Last weekend there was a real storm, and at last, nearly at the last minute before spring, there was enough rain in the north to flood the Jordan river.
That Tuesday, the water reached 140 cms, x10 fold than it was a few days before.
Shachar Arieli took pictures that day, and you can watch in his Picassa album.
I had to wait patiently till the weekend, and at Thursday night I packed my gear, kayak, and girlfriend (at that order ;-) and drove north.
On Friday morning we met at the rafting site - kayakers and rafting guides. The river was still high - 45 cms, the highest I ever paddled in the Jordan, and I felt it in my stomach.
We started the first section - from Mezad Ateret to the electric Turbine, about 20 minutes ride. We stopped to play at the few waves that formed. At the turbine we splitted - some of us decided to stop due to the high water, but most of us went on to the rest of the river, all the way down to Dodot bridge, above the sea of Galilee.
The Jordan river is steep, narrow and fast, specially at that water level, and a couple of paddlers broke their paddles. One got injured and had to catch a ride to the hospital (fractured rib and injured shoulder), the other one managed to pass a few rapids with only one blade, before he stopped in an eddy, and climbed to the raft.
We ended that decent feeling great joy and pride, and a bit lucky after seeing what happened to that paddler.
Couple of days later, on sunday, I went back to the river with Rami Gil and Nava and met Itay and Noa there. The water level dropped in half (20+ cms), and we decided to paddle just the first section, focusing on playing the waves, taking pictures and videos as we go:

At the electric turbine we met Udi, the operator, and "God of the River" for us for he controls the river flow in the dry season. Udi made a great, hot coffee, and we enjoyed the sun, when a couple of fighter choppers came above us in assault maneuver, showing off.
Just before we left, we went to the small rapid in Ateret, where Nava got her first "whitewater skills" lesson.
Rami was there to take pictures (and thanks to Nava for shooting us in the river)

May it rain on us a bit more...