JEM Watercraft

My family, friends, & I have had a great summer/fall in 2 great JEM yaks! Thank you Matt for such great designs!

Matt's new 17' hybrid sot/sit tandem is perfect for when I take friends/family-members fishing. She tracks amazingly well, glides thru the water, and is extremely stable. Perfect even for the many first-timers I've taken out. She's also handled rough conditions well and is large enough to accomodate my 230lb fishing buddy and I. A rare combination of assets!

My 12' fishing sot (Bluefin?) is perfect for when I go out alone. She is also fast, stable, tracks well, and is well-behaved in rough conditions. The perfect fishing platform whether I'm on the ocean or in the harbor. I love this little boat!

Both yaks have built-in/insulated/hatched fish storage areas behind the cockpit where I keep the fish you'll see below on ice. The fish stay super fresh that way and you can taste the difference!

17' tandem hybrid sot/sit fishing yak



12' solo sot fishing yak (Bluefin?)




Successful outing (Striped Bass) with my son on Boston Harbor in the tandem



Successful outing (Striped Bass) with my daughter on Boston Harbor in the tandem


Successful outing (Striped Bass) with my brother-in-law (his first time yaking/fishing) on Boston Harbor in the tandem


Successful outing (Striped Bass) with my 230lb fishing buddy on Boston Harbor in the tandem



Successful outing (Striped Bass & Bluefish/Tailor) on the ocean at Cape Cod in the 12' solo (Bluefin?)




I tried my hand at taking video of some of our outings.

This video is of the first time my wife caught a fish. We're in the tandem on Boston Harbor. It's a bit of a circus! She was more concerned about whether the fish would be ok than almost dropping the rod overboard!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZItubtL7pA

This video is me on Boston Harbor in the solo on a beautiful fall day. Right after the first rod gets a hit, note that the 2nd rod also gets a hit. I thought it was just hung up on a large boulder. It was which is why you'll see me paddling/manuevering to free it after I've dealt with the first fish. But then I get a surprise as to why it got hung-up on the rocks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO7xIe0SiP8

Lastly, here's video of me on a nasty fall day on the Harbor in the solo. The wind was steady 20mph with gusts up to 25 or so. The local ferry had to make 3 trys to get through the channel that day! The solo handled the conditions very well. Very little water over the bow and what did come in the cockpit drained right out (both yaks are very dry)! She tracked well upwind and down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOd3JjOz3XA

love the report...man!!! I sure wish I was able to fish for stripers, they look like a blast to fish.
What boat is the 12 footer??? I was thinking I'll build the wadefish but a 12 footer is right up my alley

Bellybuster,
Stripers are great fun and very good eating. We're lucky to have them up here from Spring-Fall. Where are you located?

Matt doesn't have my 12' fishing sot listed on the site yet. I'm on the small side (5'6" 145lbs) so this boat is perfect for me. I think it's capacity is around 230lbs. I love this boat! Several people have expressed an interest in this boat. Ask Matt about it.

Awesome outing! Thanks for sharing it all with us!

CONGRATS Great report and pics and most of all Great Builds

Scott,

Great report and nice looking fish.

What brand is the grey colored seat on your Bluefin and is it comfortable?

Scott,

I was just watching the first video and it appears that in the upper left corner, at about the 2 minute mark, you seem to have captured a UFO on video

What kind of camera do you have mounted on the front? That is some great video compared to a lot of other kayak fishing videos I have seen.

Craiggamesh,
I've since retired that grey seat because I didn't like it. It was something someone gave me. I can't remember what brand it was.

The video camera is a GoPro Helmet Hero Wide angle. It comes with all kinds of mounting gear. Here's a link to their site: http://www.goprocamera.com. The picture is pretty good. However, the sound is terrible as the camera comes with its own waterproof hard plastic case. Thus, I have a seperate digital sound recorder that I velcro onto my life preserver. I have to synch the sound and video to make it come together. You'll note that the rough weather video has no audio. The conditions were too wet for the sound recorder that day.

Thanks Scott. The last time I went out, I took a 12 mp Nikon digital camera that has a fairly decent video function on it so I could do some short videos. I have a fantastically watertight after market housing for this camera. Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking to clearly before going out and I didn't realize that not only was it waterproof, but sound proof as well.

I have been trying to decide what to get for video.

Craig,
I bought a digital voice recorder at RadioShack (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=3386236). When I edit the video I add in the sound from the recorder. I have to convert the audio file from WMA format to avi format first though. I use some freeware software called BeeThink MP3 WMA to WAV AVI converter