Your paddle is critical......

What a day! Today was the first time I have been able to take the kayak out in about a month. I spent about an hour getting my tackle ready last night. New line, new treble hooks, and a fresh charge on my battery. Get to the launch, put the Redfish in the water. Head back to the truck to grab my PFD, anchor, tackle, rods, paddle...........

I left it in the garage. One hour away. $20 worth of gas away.

I ended up buying a wooden canoe paddle at a marine parts store nearby. It got me through the day, but folks, try not to leave your paddle in the garage. The Redfish is a fishing machine, but you need your paddle.

Thanks for the reminder...I'm always paranoid that I'll forget something important.

LOL, Don't feel bad. Got almost to Possum Kingdom when I realized I forgot mine. Had to rent one for the weekend that weight 10lbs. Made me go out and get a back up and leave it in the kayak.

I did that not too long ago, luckily the lake is roughly a 20 min drive.

I feel your pain, its happen to me before.

Been there, done that. Now I keep a spare in the truck at all times.

Man, that sucks. I have this feeling that I'll do it a time or more in the future as well. I'm going do write up a staging sheet and laminate it. I used to work on video productions, and the equipment was critical. we used a staging format and still forgot stuff, but it's a lot easier to manage by yourself and with your own gear. Of course I will be doing a lot of laminating as my gear inevitably grows.

Also, in case anyone was wondering ... its also hard to fish without your rods.

Must have been something in the air yesterday ... also had everything laid out Monday night, loaded up as soon as I got home from work ... and got to the launch and started to unload when I realized it. Luckily I am only about 20 minutes away, but I was kicking myself the whole way back home and back to the launch.

Of course ... not that it mattered much ... Denton Creek was a muddy mess and bite was nil ... everyone I talked to seemed to have had the same luck. At least I got some exercise ... and it was nice paddling for the first time in weeks without having to battle the wind.

Been there, done that a few times, thankfully I remember about 5 minutes down the road and not when I get to the lake. Due to my cruddy memory at times I have a laminated check list of all the basics I take with me when I go on the lake from PDF, Paddle to my Mirage Drive. Kinda of nerdy but I have not forgotten anything in about the last year so It has worked out a bit

I can relate! I've had to use 2 x 4's and branches as paddles due to my absent mindedness.

I did that but what was worse was I had unloaded put my kayak on my cart and hiked a 1/4 mile to the pond. Not sure how I made it that far before I realized I didn't have it but I did. It was a private pond so I just left my stuff there and drove home. I wanted to hit the water before the sun was up but it was well over the trees by the time I got back.

I used to live in an apartment and had a bass boat at the time......I always took the SS prop off when i got home....You know where I'm going with this.... Yup...Got to the lake one time and even backed up to the launch and then..Drove back and got the prop..

Haha, I've done that with the keys on multiple occasions when I had mine.

Yeah, well, I've NEVER done something like that