EXTREME KAYAK FISHING TOURNAMENT
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Extreme Kayak Fishing inc. was born

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By Steve Waters, Sun Sentinel 8:03 p.m. EDT, June 17, 2009

Joe Hector and Nathan Special have a term for when they paddle three to five miles offshore in their kayaks to catch kingfish, dolphin, tunas, sharks and amberjacks:


"You test your limits," said Hector, a personal trainer and graphic designer who lives in Pompano Beach. "Your endurance, your strength not only are you fighting fish, you're fighting yourself."

Those physical and mental challenges are far different from the ones the muscular 28-year-old encounters in the gym. The challenges begin in the early morning heat when Hector and Special lug their 12-foot kayaks and all their fishing gear across State Road A1A to launch off the beach north of Pompano Pier.

As they paddle out, they battle the wind and the waves as well as the heat and the current, which can be taxing even on calm days.

Add having to fight a big fish to the mix, especially one that tows you farther offshore, and you've got yourself a workout. One that will have your body aching and your brain questioning the sanity of kayak fishing.

"You don't really know how light these kayaks are until you get stuck in a current in the Gulf Stream," Hector said. "I'll tell you, we've got swung all the way to Deerfield before we knew it, to the point that we had to paddle onshore and walk. But it's all worth it."

"I like the kayak fishing because you can cover it all," added Special, 23, a Fort Lauderdale resident who said fishing is his full-time hobby. "You can do anything from inshore to the first reef, mid-depth to all the way offshore, depending on how crazy you are."

The two men got into extreme kayak fishing by accident. They went out to fish for snappers and groupers on the reef, not too far from shore. They didn't take into account the west wind and the current, which carried them offshore, where they caught huge kingfish. That's all it took to get them extremely hooked.

"We caught it on the outgoing tide, and the next thing you know we're sitting about two miles off, catching 30-, 40-pound fish, and we were only going for little snapper and grouper," Special said. "That was a breakthrough for us."

That was about a year ago. Hector and Special now fish out of their kayaks three or four days a week.

When they're not offshore, they fish at night by Hillsboro Inlet for snook and tarpon, but most of the time they're on the ocean. Among their goals is to catch sailfish from their kayaks this coming winter.

"I've fished all my life on a boat, Nathan's fished on boats," said Hector, who grew up saltwater fishing in New Jersey. "You're just always looking for something new and you kind of just tweak your hobby around a little bit. You get a kayak and here we are. We're out here, miles off, [enjoying] insane fishing. It's what we do, man, it's what we do."

Special used to fish out of a kayak when he lived in Melbourne, going after redfish and sea trout in local rivers. After moving to South Florida, he was talking about fishing to a friend when Hector overhead him, said he had a couple of kayaks and invited him to go with him.

They were out last Friday off Pompano Beach, paddling southeast, then north, each of them trolling live pilchards from two spinning rods. Special caught an undersized grouper on the way out. Hector caught a Spanish mackerel about three miles offshore and landed a barracuda on the way in.

For them, that was a slow day. Most days they catch at least a kingfish or two, and some days leave them counting their blessings.

A few weeks ago, Special got stuck under a funnel cloud while the two were fishing the reef at night for snappers and groupers. Although he could see the water start to swirl around him, the waterspout did not touch down.

Another time, an 11-foot hammerhead shark came to the surface and circled Special.

"He was curious," Special said. "He was seeing what I was doing in his territory."

Powerboaters also can be curious. Both men said boaters usually steer clear of them, but sometimes they run by just to wave at them and occasionally they come extremely close just to see what extreme kayak fishing is all about.

Steve Waters can be reached at 954-356-4648 or swaters@SunSentinel.com


Offshore kayak fishing an adventure
Joe Hector has caught everything from snappers and sailfish to dolphin and wahoo

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By Steve Waters, Sun Sentinel 11:10 p.m. EDT, August 30, 2012

When Joe Hector first paddled offshore in a kayak, little did he know the adventures that awaited.
An avid fisherman, he had moved to South Florida from New Jersey, leaving his boat behind. He wanted to fish in the ocean, but he didn't want to fish from a pier.
"I was so obsessed with getting out there, I figured I'd get a kayak," Hector said. "I went out shallow and hooked a big tarpon."
Each time after that, he'd paddle a little farther and his catches became more impressive: Spanish mackerel and snappers; kingfish, tunas and sailfish; a 30-pound dolphin. Last month, the graphic designer and personal trainer had his best catch yet, a 47-pound wahoo, which came two days after he guided his sister Nicole to a 45-pounder.

The success that he and his growing circle of kayak fishing friends enjoyed resulted in Hector starting the Extreme Kayak Fishing kayak and paddle board tournament series. The September Slam, the third event in the series, is Sept. 15 out of Pompano Beach (visit ExtremeKayakFishing.com).

Just as Hector's catches have improved, so have his tournaments. The inaugural tournament last August had 60 kayaks and was won with a 38.5-pound kingfish. The next event, held out of Pompano in March, had more than 70 anglers and was won with a 49.4-pound amberjack.

The September Slam has 48 anglers registered already, which has Hector anticipating a field of 80-100 anglers. He's had inquiries from kayakers as far away as Tampa and Orlando who are fascinated by the opportunity to catch pelagic species just a few miles offshore.

"None of these guys knew you could catch wahoo or big mahi from a kayak," Hector said. "They're all redfish guys."

Hector says that kayakers have an advantage over powerboaters when fishing offshore because of their stealth and he has fine-tuned his tactics over the past couple of years.

"What I've learned is you use the kayak as a tool to catch the fish," said Hector, who does all his fishing in 180-200 feet (he uses a Navionics chart app on his iPhone that pinpoints his location). "I mainly drift and slowly let out [a live pilchard] on a free line. What happens is that bait swims super natural.

"Say a wahoo's coming by. I think they see a shadow, they'll check it out to see what it is, just like any other board in the water, then they see the bait and eat it."

Hector also has tweaked his tackle. He went from a 4/0 J-hook to a stinger rig with a 2/0 hook attached by a short piece of wire to a No. 4 or 5 treble hook that dangles free of the pilchard.

The small hooks allow the bait to swim even more naturally and are plenty big enough to catch big fish.

"I think it's really upped my catches, especially with the wahoo," said Hector, who has also caught several big kingfish on the stinger rig. "I have about 15 friends who have lost every wahoo they hooked in a kayak. The reason is they don't have a stinger. My big wahoo was hooked in the throat by the stinger."

Hector said vertical jigging also is effective, especially for blackfin tunas and amberjacks. And he has a friend who catches kingfish 30-40 feet below the surface using a downrigger made for kayaks.

Hector and other locals will provide kayak fishing tips at the captains meeting, which is 6-9 p.m. Sept. 14 at Bru's Room Sports Grill in Pompano Beach. The entry fee is $85 per angler, which includes food that night and at the 2 p.m. weigh-in on the beach the following day.

The angler catching the heaviest total weight of fish wins $2,000. Second and third place win Hobie kayaks from Nautical Ventures and fourth wins an Ascend kayak from Bass Pro Shops. The angler catching the biggest kingfish, dolphin, wahoo, tuna or cobia wins a Bote stand up fishing paddle board.

There's also a junior division for anglers 15 and under and calcuttas for the biggest dolphin and for catching a wahoo, amberjack and kingfish. For an extra $20, anglers can compete in the sailfish division, which awards an all-expenses-paid trip and entry to the Battle of Champions in June out of Flamingo Bay Hotel and Marina on Grand Bahama Island.

"My goal was to get this the size of a boat tournament with the same amount of prizes," said Hector, whose sponsors range from Dick's Sporting Goods, Custom Rod & Reel and West Marine to Guy Harvey Inc., Costa sunglasses and Starbucks.


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