Tag Archives: Pure Watersports

Trip News

03.22.23 New Zealand Kayak Mothership Trip Seminars at Bart Hall

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Next week we will be supporting Hobie and Pure Watersports by hosting daily seminars on the topic of New Zealand kayak mothership trips. The first seminar will begin on Thursday 3/30 @ 2 PM PST. Please see the schedule below for all seminar times.

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Tickets are $20 for most, $15 for seniors and military

I will explain how this trip works with insights into the overall trip itinerary, the safety measures in place and of course details about the fishery. We will also talk about the partnership with BerleyPro and how they have built arguably the best kayak mothership trip program out there. Marty brings a lot to the table and it shows when you experience this adventure for yourself.

So come join me and pull up a chair so we can talk about the sport we all love dearly… kayak fishing!

For details about the Bart Hall Show in Long Beach (formerly known as the Fred Hall Show), please click here.

Event News

11.03.22 HOW Battle on the Bay 11/12

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The Mad Anglers and the Heroes on the Water Oceanside California Chapter presents the 1st Annual Veterans weekend Battle on the Bay coming to Shelter Island next weekend.

Spend the day with the Mad Angler crew, us and our friends down at Shelter Island. This is a great opportunity for us to get together and heal through aquatic therapy, fishing and food. The Oceanside chapter will also have food and a bunch of booths and raffle gifts to give away. So, bring your family and friends and beach stuff and let\’s go and have some fun.

For those new to kayak fishing or simply just don\’t have the gear… the Heroes on the Water Oceanside chapter provides all the gear required to kayak fish in the event that day. If you do not have any gear don\’t worry about it. Just show up with your family and get ready to have a good time.

To register, head to their Facebook event page (click here). Registration is free.

Event Details

  • $10 is the entry fee that will be collected at the table when you arrive.
  • Shotgun start at 7 AM PST
  • Biggest bass and weirdest fish are the categories.
  • Fishing will end at 2pm winner will be announced at 3pm
  • Raffle tickets will be $1 each (no limit) with raffle prizes from West Marine, Pure Watersports, Fish Village
[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps?q=2192%20Shelter%20Island%20Drive%2CSan%20Diego%2C92106%2CUS&output=embed&hl=en-US&z=13&w=425&h=350]

Let\’s show this incredible organization some support by participating in this event or donating prizes to their raffle. We want to see more events from them supporting their military and first responder brothers and sisters. We look forward to seeing you there. We will be the ones with the cameras. Say hello.

Event News

07.26.22 A HOW event coming to the San Diego Bay area this Saturday 7/30

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We have the distinct honor of calling the guys that make up the Heroes on the Water – Oceanside California Chapter our friends. The organization that sits behind this chapter is called the Mad Anglers… funny thing is, they are all nice (sorry, bad Dad joke). This organization formed as a means to support each other and it is no surprise that they now are part of the Heroes on the Water (HOW) organization.

They are hosting their first event this Saturday in National City (San Diego Bay area).

Back on the Bay

Veterans and First Responders are encouraged to join. They will have an opportunity to heal while kayak fishing with fellow Vets and First Responders. We will provide kayaks and gear for the veterans and First Responders. There will be food and beverages for families as well.

When

Saturday, July 30, 2022 7:00 AM – 3:00 PM PDT

Where

Pepper Park (3299 Tidelands Ave, National City, CA 91950)

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps?q=Pepper%20Park%20%203299%20Tidelands%20Avenue%20%20National%20City%2C%20CA%2091950&output=embed&hl=en-US&z=12&w=425&h=350]

Does kayak fishing interest you? Are a vet or first responder or a person that would like to help in any capacity… PLEASE, come on down. If this sounds like you, please register (IT IS FREE).

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/back-on-the-bay-tickets-383193872187?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb
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Trip News

01.17.22 SCI pre-booking is over… It is go time

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The San Clemente Island kayak mothership trip pre-booking period is now over. That means that if you are a newcomer to this trip or have joined us in the past (just not recently)… then now is the time to book. We are at about 60% overall sold. So the opportunity to join our trips is high if you act quickly.

Fresh & Salty Trips

Both dates are 100% sold out. We are accepting waiting list bookings in the event that someone cancels. Please contact the Fresh & Salty trip leaders via the Facebook group page to get on the waiting list.

  • 6/2/22 – 6/5/22 (100% booked)
  • 6/9/22 – 6/12/22 (100% booked)

CCKF Trips

This trip is oddly not sold out yet. This is usually one of our most contested trips.

  • 6/12/22 – 6/15/22 (65% booked)

2.5 Day Trips

These trips are not sold out yet. We expect these dates to book out within the next 48 hours.

  • 6/23/22 – 6/26/22 (65% booked)
  • 6/30/22 – 7/3/22 (50% booked)

3.5 Day Trips

These trips are not sold out yet. We expect these dates to book out within the next 48 hours.

  • 6/26/22 – 6/30/22 (50% booked)
  • 7/6/22 – 7/10/22 (75% booked)

Ready to Book?

Head to the trip page to complete a booking form:

Trip News

01.11.22 Was someone asking about dates?

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Sorry about the delay folks… we had a bout of COVID run through our homes that brought everything to a halt. Fortunately, we are all better now and ready to get right back at it.

We mentioned in our last major post that we were changing how we are managing these kayak mothership trips to improve the customer experience, both behind the scenes and while you are out there fishing. As the demand grows for this trip, so do the administrative tasks such as booking, managing the roster, managing cancellations, payments, preparing our customers for their adventure and much more. We are prepared and in a good place to make the 2022 kayak mothership season the best season yet.

This is a reminder that we are not accepting any bookings from our website, DMs or text messages at this time. We are in the process of contacting every single guest from the 2021 season, including those that pushed their reservation to 2022. If you were on any of our 2021 SCI kayak mothership trips (including the trips that converted to tuna), you will have first right of refusal. Once we have contacted every single person, we will open up booking to the public.

Central Coast Kayak Fishing (CCKF) Trip

  • 6/12/22 – 6/15/22 (2.5 day) — Ryan Howell
  • Second trip is available if the demand is there

We have three community group trips this year. These trips are for their community… for their folks. This creates an environment where the group supports each other and helps each other be successful.

Ryan Howell has been running community group trips for Fish Village for years now and they consistently report back great fishing, fun times and incredible first time experiences. His Central Coast Kayak Fishing (CCKF) community is a solid group of kayak anglers that support each other, support Fish Village and support the overall kayak fishing community.

RETURNING GUESTS: We will contact you and give you first chance to book before we open up to the public. If the dates don\’t work out for you and you want to go on another trip, you certainly can choose to do that.

Fresh & Salty (Fns) Trips

  • 6/2/22 – 6/5/22 (2.5 day) — Cameron & Kei
  • 6/9/22 – 6/12/22 (2.5 day) — Junior & Ricky

Last year we introduced norCal\’s Fresh n Salty to our kayak mothership trip with Robert Field, host of YouTube\’s Field Trips show, and they absolutely loved it. They had the highest fish count of any trip.

The loved it so much, that we had to secure two (2) trips for their group because over 120 FnS anglers tried to book one (1) trip last year… so we had to up to ante for them. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

BOOKING PROCESS: Due to the high demand for these trips, we felt that it would be best to have FnS leaders organize the trip roster and help facilitate communications between Fish Village and the group. This means that Cameron, Kei, Junior and Ricky will be organizing the roster and Fish Village will manage the billing and payments.

This is a reminder that we are not accepting any bookings from our website, DMs or text messages at this time. We are in the process of contacting every single guest from the 2021 season including those that pushed their reservation to 2022. If you were on any of our 2021 SCI kayak mothership trips (including the trips that converted to tuna), you will have first right of refusal. Once we have contacted every single person, we will open up booking to the public.

2.5 day Kayak Mothership Trips

  • 6/23/22 – 6/26/22
  • 6/30/22 – 7/3/22

3.5 day Kayak Mothership Trips

  • 6/26/22 – 6/30/22
  • 7/6/22 – 7/10/22

Fish Village will once again be partnering up with Pure Watersports of Dana Point and Oceanside to bring southern California anglers four (4) more kayak mothership trips for the 2022 season. Last year we introduced the 3.5 day format which quickly sold out and ended up being one of the best trips of the season. Having the honor of marrying two people on a perfect sun kissed evening was one of the highlights of 2021. An incredible memory for all involved. Sooo… we had to add another 3.5 day trip.

RETURNING GUESTS: We will contact you and give you a chance to book before we open up to the public.

In closing, if you have been on our trips and want to come back… WECLOME BACK! We sure do appreciate your patronage and support over the years. If you have never been on this trip and want to join in on the fun, hold tight your shot is coming.

More SCI news coming on Thursday 1/13. We always post to our website first… so keep your eyes peeled for another update.

Trip News

01.05.22 We missed you… WE ARE BACK!

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To say that we have missed you is an understatement. We miss you, we miss your stories about our trips, we miss the trips, we miss Australia, we miss New Zealand and we miss everything that makes us all feel normal. I know for a fact that you all feel the same way.

Bottom line, we got our ass kicked by the results of a changing economy, government rules regarding travel and endless rounds of COVID. Our entire trajectory changed after March 2020.

Our soul was gutted, our drive emptied and with our heads hanging low we found inspiration in our family members, our friends and our fans of Fish Village. We weren\’t sure how to proceed, however many of you felt that we weren\’t done with our journey. I have had countless conversations with people telling us how we inspire them to get out, fish, meet new people. The kayak fishing community has come to appreciate what we are trying to build and this is the reason we can\’t just say sorry… we are done.

We thank you for the love, support and understanding about how COVID has impacted us. We know that YOU have been impacted, that you have felt the pain too. We feel for each and every one of you for the pain and suffering you have all endured… it seems that no one has been spared except for Jeff Bezos, he seems to be doing alright.

So, what does 2022 look like. For starters… I hope 2022 is infinitely better than the last two years for everyone. With that being said… we have a say in some of this and we are saying… FUCK IT. Let\’s grow our trip trip offering where we can. Let\’s reach for the stars and continue to push the limits of kayak fishing adventures ONE freaking trip at a time.

San Clemente Island Kayak Mothership Trips

  • Stepping up to seven (7) trips this season
  • Five (5) x 2.5 days trips
    • 1 x Central Coast Kayak Fishing
    • 2 x Fresh n Salty
    • 2 x Pure Watersports
  • Two (2) x 3.5 days trips
    • 2 x Friends of Fish Village
  • 2.5 day – $955 w/ $300 deposit
  • 3.5 day – $1,390 w/ $400 deposit
  • Credit and debit cards will be accepted with no additional fees.
  • If deposit is not received within seven (7) days, we will cancel your booking

2022 Booking Process Changes

The biggest change in 2022 is…

If you went on our trip in 2021, you will have first right of refusal AFTER we place people that pushed their reservation from 2021 to 2022 due to trip changes last year. We have a small number of folks that meet this criteria. We will reach out to them first and then reach out to every single person that booked with us last year.

As a result of having some people spillover from last year, we could end up overbooked. If this scenario occurs, we will remove the last booked person(s) from the 2021 roster. We don\’t anticipate much contention here.

With the exception of Central Coast Kayak Fishing (CCKF) and Fresh & Salty trips, if the weather is not permitting of kayak fishing operations at the islands, we will convert to tuna trips. Refunds will not be offered unless the Islander cannot run the boat at all.

CCKF and FNS community trips will be managed by their community leaders with payments handled by Fish Village.

So what does this mean to you? Well if you booked and were on the final roster last year, there is an incredibly high probability that you will end up on another trip. We will contact you within the next ten (10) days.

If you did not book with us last year or cancelled, you will have a chance to book after our customers have responded.

We are moving towards this approach to reward the patronage and loyalty of our customers. We had too many problems with people telling us that they didn\’t receive our email, thus we feel this is no longer the right approach. This won\’t be our approach for every trip we create and sell, but it feels right for our San Clemente Island kayak mothership trips.

This is the first communication of many regarding our SCI kayak mothership trips. Please be patient as we reach out to everyone and start the booking process.

We thank you for your support and look forward to an incredible SCI season in June and early July.

Village Talk

02.01.21 An octopus walked into a bar…

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This story is about our dumb luck friend Charlie… for the record, he even named his new boat Dumb Luck. This story took place easily five (5) years ago, if not longer while fishing the kelp beds off of the Strands out of Dana Point California.

The day started off as usual, we rolled into the Pure Watersports parking lot late (thanks Joe), Charlie was impatient and nothing went to plan. At some point we launched and charged north towards the headlands. We were in search of sheephead and big bass.

See… we do a lot of shit talking. I am pretty confident that the majority of the banter exchanged between Joe, Charlie, Tommy and I is largely nonsense. So with that knowledge… imagine how this would go down:

Charlie blurts out \”I got something\” over the radio. For the most part, we didn\’t think much of it. Then we heard him start screaming… not the big fish kind of screaming, more like laughing and terrified at the same time.

We couldn\’t understand what was going on… not that it mattered because he started heading our direction. As Chuckles started to get closer, we realized that he had an octopus on his line. This is where it gets hilarious.

Apparently Charlie does NOT like octopuses… As he was trying to figure out how to remove an animal with 8 arms, a beak and squirts ink on ya we chimed in and said… \”Whatever you do, don\’t let it touch your kayak!\” SMACK!

That was the sound of the octopus sticking onto Charlie\’s kayak which provoked Charlie to climb onto his seat and threaten to abandon ship and swim back. We laughed so hard. Fortunately for Charlie… the big bad mini octopus (yeah that is right, it was small) worked it\’s way to the bottom of his kayak and eventually let go and swam off. Both Charlie and the octopus (that is a good title for a book) were safe and unharmed.

Thanks again Charlie for a good laugh!

Village Talk

01.14.21 Charlie\’s dumb luck stole my money

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Re-told from the events that occurred on July 15th back in 2017.

I\’ll set the stage for ya… it is the July Fishing w/ Friends kayak fishing tournament that is held out of Pure Watersports in Dana Point, California. The event is merely a small gathering of like minded individuals that like to place a small friendly wager to see who can catch the biggest fish. Truth be told… we probably all do it for the feast afterwards.

So Charlie, Tommy, Joe and I started our day like usual… late, slow and always annoying Charlie. See… I am an anxious person, but I am nothing compared to Charlie. No matter what we do… he is annoyed with us, yet he likes to hang out with us. We don\’t get it.

We lazily pointed our yaks towards the \”Pipe\”, a known underwater rock structure just outside Dana Point harbor and Doheny Beach. We fished it with our usual amount of banter, breakfast beers and Pop-Tarts. At some point we were over it and moved on to another spot closer to shore. As we worked our way back towards the harbor mouth we stopped to bullshit some more.

An extremely lazy Charlie had a Shimano Waxwing dangling just below his kayak when something started to happen. Now… let me be clear. Charlie was NOT fishing. Now the photos may suggest otherwise, but this f\’n guy wasn\’t even fishing.

Charlie was screaming, cursing, laughing and perhaps in a slight panic (we all know the truth). He was hooked big. We all backed away and let him do his thing. A short fight later… this freaking guy has a giant White sea bass draped across his lap with that shit eating grin on his face.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I mean look at that freaking tail.

Though we may be talking shit on Charlie and making fun of how he landed that giant White sea bass… he got the last laugh that day as he giggled all the way back to the dock and took all of our money.

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Trip News

12.22.20 Our 2021 SCI schedule is open to the public

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Well… after a week of the busiest booking period we have ever seen here at Fish Village we can finally announce the trips to the public.

We have received feedback (both positive and negative) from many people regarding our booking process for the 2021 San Clemente Island kayak mothership season. Please know it is never our intent to exclude anyone. We are in the business of selling fishing trips and want to sell as many trips as possible. We are actively researching ways to improve our process and have already identified several areas to be improved.

Our mailer was initially intended to provide an easy way to keep you guys actively aware of our trip offering. Our website has since evolved to the point where we can drive trip news to specific trip pages. The mailer gets lost in spam folders, email servers with over zealous delivery rules and sometimes the email is delivered to an endless pit of other promotional emails. It is inefficient and as we have learned… it may cause frustration with our customers. We can\’t have that!

If anyone is wondering how we sold out so fast, we received over 250 emails in less than three (3) hours of sending out our first email. For our customers that have been on this trip before and didn\’t get a chance to get on these trips… I am sorry. We added another trip and we almost sold out of that one too. We simply were not prepared for that kind of response. We will NEVER make that mistake again.

2.5 Day San Clemente Island Kayak Mothership Trip

  • $875 per person
  • $300 deposit ($100 due within seven (7) business days, remaining $200 deposit due on or before 1/29/21)
  • Final balances due on our before 4/30/21

3.5 Day San Clemente Island Kayak Mothership Trip

  • $1,300 per person
  • $400 deposit ($100 due within seven (7) business days, remaining $300 deposit due on or before 1/29/21)
  • Final balances due on our before 4/30/21

A friendly reminder that we do not allow Hobie Pro Anglers or ultra-wide kayaks on these trips.

If you want to book a trip or be added to the waiting list, please click on the link(s) above and fill out a Trip Inquiry Form.

DaysDatesStatus
2.5 days6/10 – 6/13 (CCKF)Sold out
2.5 days6/17 – 6/20 (Fresh n Salty)Sold out
2.5 days6/24 – 6/27Sold out
2.5 days7/1 – 7/4Sold out
3.5 days7/4 – 7/84 spots
Trip News

12.19.20 Another day, another trip added to the schedule

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Another 2021 San Clemente Island kayak mothership trip update.

We were serious when we told you that we were going to hustle to get more trips. We were serious when we said YOU are our #1 priority. Today we made it happen.

We added a NEW San Clemente Island 3.5 day kayak mothership trip to our schedule. That is right… not just another trip… but LONGER. Why? BECAUSE MORE FISHING IS MOST DEFINTELY BETTER.

Earlier today we sent out emails to everyone that tried to book with us, but ultimately missed out. They have priority right now to get on our newly offered trip. We had to make sure that they at least had a chance to score a spot on what many call a bucket list trip. These trips provide unique opportunities to fish an incredible island fishery in your own kayak.

Over the next few days we will be working with our booked guests to provide them with an opportunity to move their reservation to our newly offered 3.5 day trip which could result in newly open spots. We will have this wrapped up by Tuesday. If spots are still available, we will go public with our dates and a waiting list for sold out trips. Cancellations still occur… so it is wise to jump on the waiting list when the trip is sold out.