So, the truck has new tires all around, new U-Joints up front (that eliminates that noisy "clacking" sound), a new high-flow water pump from FlowKooler.com, and a brand new Magnaflow Stainless Steel Cat-Back muffler. These few parts will be a vast improvement over stock performance and gas mileage as well.
Well, the start of 2016 is off to a good start. We had a pretty "mild" winter. The warmer weather is quickly approaching with temps reaching 60º - 70º respectively for early March. The "New England Saltwater Show 2016" that's held at the Providence Convention Center in Rhode Island is the area's largest saltwater show in the region and annually draws in 15,000+ visitors every year. This year, we had the best attendance ever - for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! The show is put on by my fishing club, the "Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association", and has help from its club members (89 attended this year) in various areas of the show. A show this huge has nearly 100 vendors!
For the second year in a row, I was asked by the club's president Steven Medeiros, to do a few free seminars each day - 1 on Friday, 3 on Saturday, and 1 on Sunday. My topic was: "Rigging a Kayak for Saltwater Fishing", where I go over how I set up my personal kayak for saltwater fishing. Another member of our group, Mona Rodriguez was with me, and we took turns discussing the different things we've done to our kayaks - both in modifications and expressed certain safety aspects that every kayak angler needs to know (and might never have known in the first place). Below is a pic of Me & Mona during a busy Sunday afternoon where people attended our 12:30 pm seminar.
This pic was taken last year and shows both my kayak & Mona's kayak and the mods we've done to our kayaks over the past 3 years. This year, I decided to have some "reminder" cards made up so people wouldn't have to ask me for my blog page and have me write it down. The cards were a hit!
Within our fishing club, we have a group formed the "Kayak Committee" that has special days set aside for those of us who fish out of kayaks. Earlier this year, I had the chance to sit in with a few other members and plan out the new dates in 2016 to fish this year. There were some places we omitted due to lousy fishing conditions as they weren't producing the same catch results that we've had in the past.
This year, there were 8 of us on the board, and we all agreed to meet at our chairman's house for coffee & coffee cake, and discuss this year's agenda for outings. A few of us had explored other launch spots that were major "hot spots" and are now part of this year's itinerary for the season.
At first, our season usually ended the middle of September. This year, we extending all way into the middle of October! The other members in our group were excited at the newer places and launch spots that we will be launching from, as well as, more dates in September, and more Saturdays to accommodate those who can't make it during the week due to work schedules - this was often brought up in the past at our dinner meetings during the end of the season.
All in all, this year will be a great year for fishing, and exploration of new spots for different species of fish. Hoping to see some new faces this year!
