Well 2009 is now behind us, and what a great year it was. We went to some great locations and fished and hung out with some wonderful people, I honestly feel like the luckiest guy in the world some times.
We started the year fishing with my friend Jeff Herman in Galveston Texas for some fun shallow water action on Reds, Trout and Flounder.

Jeff Herman with a nice Galveston Redfish

From Galveston we ran out to the Manske Ranch in Texas for the Heroes on the water event, where we had the opportunity to take some injured servicemen out fishing. This was a truly rewarding experience that I hope to be able to be part of again. Anyone interested in more information on this great organization should contact the guys at HOW. They are always looking for help.

Our next adventure for the year was fishing with Pesca Panama out of David Panama. We were able to fish areas that had never seen a kayak and would daily out fish the power boaters on the trip. The highlight of the trip was being the first kayak anglers ever to fish Hannibal bank and landing a 120lb yellowfin tuna. I would return to Panama and fish with these guys in a heart beat, it was truly a kayak fisherman's dream destination.

Jims 120 pound Tuna from Panama

In August I made my first foray into fly fishing with a trip to Montana, another dream destination. On this trip I was joined by my son Randy and once again by Jeff Herman and our new friend C.G. Feldman. CG was a great teacher for my son and I and was a huge help in getting us our first ever trout on a fly rod and many more after that. We stayed in a great cabin provided by Rainbow Valley Lodge in Ennis Montana which was in close proximity to lots of great rivers and lakes. I have never seen so much wildlife and I hope to visit Montana again with my family.

Jeff Herman with the Big Brown for the trip

In September I headed up north to Algonquin Park in Ottawa to do some more white water kayak fishing with Ken Whiting and Jamie Pestilli. This was a six day paddle trip down the Petawawa river right during the changing of colors of the leafs on the trees, one of the most beautiful places I have been. The fishing was not bad either as I caught my first Musky from my kayak and a lot more after that. Having a white water expert like Ken on the trip was a huge help and I learned a ton from him.

Ken giving some white water instruction

Jim with a smaller Musky

Our last stop for the year was Cedros Island off the Baja coast. This was a six day mothership trip aboard the sportfishing boat Islander for some incredible Yellowtail fishing. The weather was tough on this trip with lots of high winds but we still managed to get some great fish.

Jim with a Cedros Yellowtail

Baja Calico Bass at Cedros Island

Of course the highlight of the year for us was signing on with The World Fishing Network (WFN) for our own TV show.
We got all these great trips on film and they will each be an episode of Ocean Kayak presents The Kayak Fishing Show with Jim Sammons and on our movie Exofficio presents Kayak Fishing; Game On 2.

2009 was a great year and 2010 looks to be even better, if that is possible. We are currently working of some absolutely insane destinations that have not been fished by kayak, as well as visiting some of our good friends around the country. We will keep you all up to date on the blog, as well as on our NEW KAYAK FISHING SHOW Website.which is filled with videos, and information about our trips, sponsors, as well as the the guys we fished with. Look for this site to keep growing over the course of the upcoming year.

If you have any general questions on kayak fishing or just want to share a story please visit the forums on my site, you will find a wealth of knowledge there. We also have a list of kayak fishing records that you can look over, and hopefully contribute too.

Don't forget to look for our show on WFN starting next week.
The airing schedule is as follows.
WFN HD & SD (On Air) 10:30:00 PM Monday, January 11, 2010
WFN HD & SD (On Air) 6:30:00 AM Tuesday, January 12, 2010
WFN HD & SD (On Air) 2:30:00 PM Tuesday, January 12, 2010
WFN HD & SD (On Air) 8:30:00 PM Sunday, January 17, 2010
WFN HD ONLY (On Air) 4:30:00 AM Sunday, January 17, 2010
WFN HD & SD (On Air) 12:30:00 PM Monday, January 18, 2010

And please let your cable provider know you want WFN if they don't provide it already.

As always feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or have a great destination that you think we need to visit. I hope you all have a great 2010
Jim Sammons
Jim@kayak4fish.com

Before closing I have to give a huge thanks to my friends behind the scenes that make this happen and to my wonderful wife and kids for putting up with me being gone so much.

My great wife and kids who I love so much.

Director, Videographer, Editor, Drinker of good rum, Gets outfished on his own water, Will Richardson

Montana Still photographer, cook and bartender, Kendal Larson, on the left in the big fruity hat

Marketing, Sales, royal pain. Brendan Mark

Producer, life saver, poor fisherman, Ken Whiting

Still photographer and one mean Rower Lisa Utronki

Of course we couldn't of done any of this without our great sponsors. I hope you will visit their sites and give them the support they deserve.