Some of you may have noticed discussions in the Forum about YakAngler 3.0 beta testers being needed, or my lack of participation in the forums and community. It’s because I’ve been hunkered down in front of my computer, rebuilding YakAngler.com from the ground up. Although not my first choice, our site’s architecture recently changed dramatically and a site migration or upgrade was not possible. This also gave me the opportunity to address several key issues I had with the current website.

On Friday, February 17, kayak anglers from around the country will descend on a little island in the Everglades. Now in its second year, the popular three-day weekend kayak fishing event is a joint venture of KayakFishingRadio.com and YakAngler.com. The get-together offers kayak anglers the opportunity to meet up and fish, and to share tips and techniques with like-minded individuals.

With the hustle of the holidays coming to an end and 2012 right round the corner, I took a step back to reflect on what a great year 2011 was for the YakAngler Nation. With many kayak fishing websites being five to ten or more years old, YakAngler is definitely the new kid on the block. October 19, 2011 marked our two-year anniversary. In that short time we have seen our community of active users double, and in 2011 we reached over 160,000 unique visitors.

What’s better than showing all your fishing buddies that trophy fish you caught on you kayak? Showing them the trophy fish with your big grinning mug in the background too! So how I get my large dome and fish in the same HERO shot? The YakAttack PanFish Portrait.

Last Thursday I got a txt from CoachJoe asking if I wanted to fish the infamous Fish Compound that Saturday. It had been raining all week and was in the mid 30’s, not the best weather to be out in your kayak fishing, but when your asked if you want to fish the Compound you just ask “what time are we meeting up”.

Last week two kayak fishermen fishing off the California coast had a hair raising encounter whit what they estimated to be a 15-16 foot long Great White shark! The shark hit Harry in his Hobie Outback so hard that the 6’2” 235lb kayaker was sent flying out of kayak and flipping the Outback. Check out the video and quote from their experiences below.

Today many of you many have noticed YakAngler.com was taken offline for a few minutes. I was updating the core community software for YakSocial. I tested it the best I could last week, but if you notice any bugs please post them in the help forum. Also there are still some minor cosmetic details I need to clean up but the core functionally should be good to go. So what’s new?

Versatility, many of today’s kayak fishermen need their boats to perform a multitude of tasks. The deck free of snags so they can land a Redfish on fly, an extra rod holder when trolling for Stripers, or several cameras mounted recording that trophy Largemouth. All these tasks can be accomplished with one system, the YakAttack Mighty Mount.

The 2011 IFA Kayak Fishing Tour finale is in the books. Kayak anglers from around the country battled it out in Chalmette Louisiana for a chance at being the 2011 IFA Kayak Fishing Tournament Champion. After two days of fishing Justin Carter emerged the victor with a combined total 105 inches winning him the championship and the 2011 Angler Of The Year.