Name is Ken... just moved to Redondo Beach in July. I just discovered this website/forum today while doing a search online...
A bit about myself:
54 years young. SoCal native... raised in San Diego, moved to L.A. for work in '84 after getting married. Pretty much stayed in and around the L.A. area for around 16 years, short 2 yr stint in Utah, then back to L.A. Moved to Long Island, NY for a job my wife took in Manhattan right before 9/11 - have lived there for almost 12 years before recently moving back to L.A. for her new job - landed in Redondo Beach and am very happy with the neighborhood.
Of all the years I lived in Southern California I've never lived this close to the beach (6 minute walk) so I'm really happy about that. 
I'm a stay-at-home-Dad who has raised two boys from infants - they are now teens at 13 & 15 yrs old. I'm also a ceramic artist/potter who is looking to get back to my pottery business now that my kids are older and becoming more independent. (Put my pottery business "on hold" when we started a family)
Besides being passionate about art, my other great passion is (and always has been fishing). Been fishing fresh and saltwater most of my life. In March of 2011 I took a business trip to Tampa and before a convention went down to SW Florida to fish with a friend (who also happens to be a world class angler) in Estero Bay. He took me out on a kayak for my first kayak fishing adventure... I caught my first snook, and redfish that day and was thrilled! When I returned from my trip I couldn't stop thinking about the experience of kayak fishing... I obsessed about it until that summer I finally ordered my first fishing kayak. I've been addicted to the sport every since!
While on Long Island, I joined a kayak fishing club called KFA-NY (Kayak Fishing Association of New York). I really enjoyed this club a great deal. A truly great group of guys that focused on sharing information, promoting safety to the sport, and a great many of them were a wealth of knowledge and experienced with kayak fishing - there were no egos, no clicks, just good guys who shared their love of the sport. We had indoor meetings every month (winter) usually with a guest speaker of some kind (very informative), and 6 on-the-water meetings each spring through fall, with a few tournaments thrown in as well. KFA-NY is one of the sponsors of the annual Jamaica Bay Kayak Fishing Classic in Brooklyn each year as well.
Moving here has been a good thing in many aspects, and the weather is perfect too... but relocating can be hard on a family as well. My teen boys are having a slow time adjusting socially as they know no one yet, and this takes time. My wife and I miss our good friends we became so close with in the small waterfront community where we lived of Port Washington, and we too are starting over trying to meet new friends, etc. I also am missing my fishing club and the camaraderie it provided for my passion of kayak fishing - and I'm hoping to maybe find a similar club here in my area, thus far I've found nada.
I found this website and thought this might be a good way to get to know my area, and meet some fellow kayak fisherman, as well as maybe find another club to join.
About my kayak:
Being from SoCal and used to fishing with live bait, I was immediately drawn to the Malibu Stealth series of kayaks when doing my research due to the built-in bait tank, as well as it's stability and ability to stand while fishing. There were no Malibu dealers in my area of New York, so I found myself talking to "CJ" at OEX Mission Bay in San Diego one day on the phone about kayaks. After many long discussions, CJ patiently answered all of my questions and I decided to have them rig me a Stealth 14 and ship it back to New York. It was a long process as I had some specific requests and wanted this kayak rigged a certain way. After a few months my kayak arrived and overall, I've been very happy with it. Because I'd planned to use it in mostly protected waters of the Long Island Sound, fishing relatively shallow areas (estuaries, bays, inlets, etc.) and the fact I wanted to try fly fishing from it, I had CJ add a "Stand N Fish" pontoon/leaning post set up. I also added a BassYaks motor as well. Rounding everything else out I included a Lowrance Elite 5 GPS/Chartplotter FF and some interior lighting, and navigational lights (because I'd planned to fish for Striped Bass at night). It's pretty sick, and tricked out for one's first fishing kayak I know... but for years I'd always wanted a fishing boat... and with the price of fuel, dockage, winterizing, and maintenance - I'd convinced my wife that this would be my "fishing boat" and in the long run ...it'd be cheaper than a regular powerboat.
Anyway, now that I'm here... I'm not sure just yet whether this is the perfect kayak for Southern California ocean waters or not... still trying to figure that one out... time will tell I guess. Inshore it'll be fine, open ocean, not so sure. This beast is heavy and weighs almost as much as a PA 14 I'm guessing (when you add in the batteries, motor, all that wiring, etc., etc.) and I use a Yakima trailer to haul it behind my SUV and usually launch it from a boat ramp. By myself, it's hard to pick up even to get it on my Wheeleze Beach cart. So when I saw that my local launch at King Harbor in Redondo was from a small boat dock, I was a little bit bummed. Definitely won't be so easy for me to launch and return from a dock by myself, verses sliding up a concrete ramp to my trailer. Oh well, I'll figure something out I guess.
Still a little bit more to do before I can get it out in the water yet, as I still need to get my trailer and my kayak registered at the DMV... and find where most of my fishing stuff is amongst the many moving boxes the movers packed that are sitting in my garage. Looking forward to getting out on the water here though, and targeting some halibut or something.
If anyone knows of any kayak fishing clubs in my area and could pass anything along, I'd be most grateful. Thanks in advance and looking forward to being here!
Tight lines!
- Ken
