Product Review: Bixpy kayak electric motor

August 26, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

I’ve used the Bixpy rudder-mounted electric motor on my Trident Ultra 4.3 seven times since the initial trip in April. It’s worked flawlessly except for the time I didn’t attach the power cable to the motor properly and the cable got loose in choppy seas. I had to paddle unaided 2.5 miles back to shore and it really made me appreciate the boost I get from the Bixpy.

The motor and lithium battery pack add about 9lbs and an extra 5 to 10 mins to my setup, depending how sleepy I am, and a little bit of drag if I’m paddling without running the motor, but man, does it extend my paddling range.

In the normal, slightly bumpy seas, I average about 3.5 – 4 mph with the motor on, paddling along to ease over the bumps. 4 mph is my top burst speed if I paddled without the motor, but with it, I can arrive at my deep spot 2 miles out without feeling tired at all.

I’ve been able to fish further, longer, and that has resulted in more fish caught. The motor, controlled by the remote on my wrist, also lets me stay in position, against the current, so I can fish right over a mark. And when I have to rerig I keep the motor running at low speed so I’m slowly getting to my destination.

The Bixpy turned my very seaworthy paddle kayak into a hands free fishing kayak. I love it and can’t imagine fishing the deep without it now.

If you have any questions about the Bixpy, send me a message through the Contact page, and I’ll be happy to share more about my experiences.

Back to the South Side to kayak hunt for preds

July 27, 2020 By Scott 5 Comments

Since the summer brought bigger surf to the South Side, we had been taking advantage of the small surf on the East Side when the wind allowed. In general, there were more fish than what we encounter in the South, but the fish were not the predators like uku and pelagics we were hoping to run into. We found protected, sandy bottomed areas that held tasty fish like nabeta and juvenile opakapaka but not the rocky drop offs that attract the bigger fish.

Surf and wind dropped on the South Side this past week, and Frank and I went back to one of our favorite spots. We started off looking for bait but couldn’t find any sizable bait balls, so it was time for Plan B. In 100ft of water, I dropped down a frozen, well preserved, year-old local opelu, about 7 inches long. Within a minute, I felt the taps, then the tugs, and then line peeled off my reel. Hanapa’a, but the fish felt really weird. No sustained runs, instead, quick downward pulls.

After a jerky 2 minute fight, this popped up. I thought it was a big omilu but noticed the 4 yellow spots on the side and the down turned mouth. Stoked, I let Frank know of the catch and he set up to drop bait.

Yellow spot / yellow dot / island jack papio are often caught in very shallow water as they feed on crabs and shrimp. Fly fishers seem to get them more often than whippers, since their flies do a better shrimp imitation. Yellow spot are one of the best tasting papio because their diet gives them a fatty, less fishy taste.

My next drop got tap, tap, tapped, then picked up. Initially I thought it was a big jack but when it slowed and felt heavy I knew it was a shark. Even with the 2-speed Avet SX reel in low gear, I had to endure a 20 minute bicep burn. Man I hate these things. It had taken me from 100ft to 200ft, with Frank keeping watch, before I could raise it high enough to cut it free. On the way back to shallower water, we dropped our damashi on deep bait marks, and when that failed, dropped opelu down but nothing bit.

I rested my arms and let the Bixpy motor take me back to where the yellow spot bit, but all our bottom fished and trolled baits eventually got ripped off without hooking anything. I even tried dropping a small 60gm tungsten jig to hook the bait stealers but they were wise to it. The yellow spot and shark had hit on the slack low tide, and the bite oddly slowed as the tide rushed in. Maybe it was midday slowdown?

Frank caught a nice sized nabeta on the damashi, and I caught some taape and moana just to feel some tugs, but that was it.

The shorter paddle on the South Side was appreciated, and it was nice to hear the ratchet sing but I could do without the shark-isometrics.

Hanapa’a writer Kelly caught a 7lb yellow spot in 4 feet of water a few years back, so I weighed mine to see if it was close. A few ounces less at 6lb 9oz! Here’s Kelly’s write up. I thought these fish don’t eat other fish much, but I guess a tasty frozen opelu was too much to resist. Glad the yellow spot bit before the shark shut things down for us.

Badly sliced yellow spot about to be eaten as sashimi

Kelly and Hanapa’a writer Coach Haru said to clean the fish right away, remove the head, gills, and blood, and wrap the fish in paper towels to extract the blood. Let the muscle tissue loosen over 2 to 3 days, then eat as sashimi. On Day 2 I ate the fish as sashimi and poke and found the meat to be soft but not too soft, and very mild tasting. It was better as poke, with the sesame oil adding some richness as well as flavor.

A friend who enjoys uku received the fish on Day 3 and his wife Joanna made a Thai vinaigrette sauce so they could eat the fish over mixed greens. Joanna doesn’t like fishy raw fish and loved the yellow spot.

Kayak fishing improvements worked!

April 10, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

2 problems have been plaguing me kayaking the deep: 1) It’s been very hard to paddle against the current and stay on the productive spots, and I’ve had a recurring stiff right shoulder. 2) Been hooking more sharks than fish, and they don’t bite through the line like you’d think they would. After trying to raise a shark or two so I can cut it free, I’m spent, especially my left arm that holds the conventional rod.

To solve Problem #1, I’ve put a Bixpy electric motor on my Trident Ultra 4.3’s rudder. I just had to replace my rudder with theirs that held the compact jet motor, and was still able to use my existing rudder controls. The lithium ion battery that powers the motor sits on my fishbag in the rear tankwell and only weighs 7lbs. I can select the 12 forward speeds and 3 reverse speeds from the remote control I wear on my wrist.

Problem #2 was made worse because I’ve been using a high speed, gold Trinidad 14. Awesome smooth reel but the gearing of 6.2:1 doesn’t generate much torque and it’s been hard to turn the handle on heavy sharks. I met Avet rep Ben Frazier at the Fred Hall Show this year (right before they suspended the future shows due to Covid-19), and told him that I was having issues going from freespool to strike drag on my star drag Trinidad, and when I ended up fighting a shark, it was hard to lift and crank with my rig. He recommended the small (17 oz) SX Raptor lever drag reel with a low and high gear and max drag of 26lbs!

Look at the wake the Bixpy is producing!

Well the light wind day came to test both out, and my kayak fishing buddy Frank was able to join me. Very light WSW winds started the day and I cranked the Bixpy up to full speed at 5mph. Not bad since I can’t paddle that fast myself. I ran it on the 3rd or 4th speed while paddling along at a relaxed pace to get to our bait spot, and was easily getting 3.0 to 3.5 mph.

We couldn’t find bait and trolled out to 300ft for nada. I tried bottom fishing out there but the current was ripping near the bottom and my bait never hit solid ground. Soon we realized the west wind and west current had taken us more than a mile downwind. Frank coordinated his pedaling and paddling on his Hobie Revo 13, and made great progress heading back to our safe zone. I gave him a head start and used the Bixpy up to max speed at times, and finally caught him. Frank trolled frozen opelu and I bottom fished a fat opelu chunk after having two smaller frozen opelu pulled off by bait stealers.

Besides a humpback whale showing us his dorsal fin, it was a slow slog until I had my burrito sized chunk taken for about 5 seconds before the hooks pulled out. I dropped the tail half of that chunk down and a shark was on. Going from free spool to strike on the Avet lever drag was very easy and the shark slowed down. When it took line again I inched the lever drag up toward the max but made sure I could still pull off a little line with my hand so it wasn’t so tight the shark could yank me overboard too easily. In high gear I couldn’t gain much line so I dropped down to low gear and was amazed at how easy it was too turn the reel handle. When the shark ran, the drag would slip smoothly while I cranked but otherwise I could just crank and put a little line back on the reel. The shark really did’t run too far, and I put the rod butt down in front of my lap, like I was in a fighting chair and started to lean back and crank.

That was working well but when the shark lunged, I had to make sure the rod tip was parallel with the bow. I ended up getting the shark up in less than 15 mins, which is much faster than I have with other sharks. The low gear definitely helped a lot.

I was worried the shark would pull me over when it came up broadside so I braced my feet on the rails of the yak and kept moving them as the shark came within inches.

Judging from its pudgy shape and high triangular dorsal fin, I think this was a sandbar shark which isn’t supposed to be a man eater. Still it was spooky to have such a heavy animal with sharp teeth so close.

The south west winds started chopping up the water and it was time to head in. The rudder mounted Bixpy popped out of the water a few times as the kayak bow dipped into a small wave, but otherwise the motor, supplemented with my paddling, got me in at 3 mph. I had 2 of the 6 battery levels left after the 5 hrs outing.

I was very pleased with how the Avet SX Raptor and the Bixpy motor performed and look forward to fishing more productively with both.