Why fish from a kayak?

So why do we want to fish from these tippy little boats? After all, there are much more comfortable boats one can fish from aren’t there? Boats which can carry a lot more gear, ice chests, bait tanks and people. So what’s the point of kayak fishing?

Well, an increasing number of folks have been discovering the joys of kayaking, and kayak touring. Fishing from your kayak is just one more facet to the sport. Imagine setting up camp at the end of a day of paddling and enjoying the sunset while dinning on fresh caught fish grilled over an open fire, perhaps with a side of wild rice and a nice glass of wine. Now that’s what life is all about. I pity those people who have not had the opportunity to enjoyed such an experience.

Besides being a wonderful addition to your camp meals, fishing can also help to extend what supplies you have should you be caught in a pinch. But probably the main reason we fish from our kayaks is because it’s a whole lot of fun. I fish; I kayak; I fish from my kayak. And why not? The kayak evolved as a hunting craft, and as such I feel it is particularly well suited for fishing. Have you seen those fishermen bobbing around in their float tubes? A kayak can do anything a float tube can do and then some. The kayak is silent, highly maneuverable, requires very little water to float, can be easily portaged and has a much greater range then some guy sitting in an inner tube.

This is not to say that there aren’t some drawbacks. You will have to lose that big boat mentality. That is, you cannot bring along six different rod and reel combinations, three tackle boxes and the large ice chest. Kayak fishing requires a minimalist approach. I have a friend who takes one lure with him when we go fishing from our kayaks. He says that if he loses that lure it will most likely be to big a fish and therefore he can write the day off as having been a good one. I’m a little less of a minimalist than he is, but you get the picture.

“Yeah, but just how big of fish can you actually take from a kayak?” Well, the Inuit used to hunt whales from their kayaks. Yeah, I know, a whale is not a fish! But how about a halibut which was estimated to be around 120 lbs. I have heard rumors of even larger fish caught from a kayak but the point is that with the right technique and a bit of luck anything is possible. My philosophy has always been that if I can hook it, I’ll try and land it.

Getting started

Probably the easiest way to get started is with a handline. A handline is simply a length of fishing line which is wrapped on a spool, or holder, to keep it neat and accessible. Your handline need not cost a lot of money, or require a great deal of time to put together. The spool can be made out of just about anything. I have one friend who prefers to use an empty beer can for the purpose. Indeed, a cylindrical holder has some advantages in that it allows the line to be cast some distance from the boat. The technique is simple; just throw the line out and point the end of the can after it allowing the line to play freely from the spool, much like a spinning reel. And the price is right for this piece equipment. If you can’t find an empty beer can you can give me a call, I just might have one or two around the house that I’m through with. Of course there are various handline designs that are available commercially as well. My own handline is one I carved from a piece of 1/2″ plywood.

Once you choose your spool you will want to wrap a hundred feet or two of fishing line around it. With a handline you will be playing the fish directly from the line so it will require a bit heavier line then you would use on a rod and reel. Fishing line is sold according to it’s breaking point. I prefer forty pound monofiliment, which means that the line should be able to withstand forty pounds of stress before breaking. This does not mean you can catch fish up to forty pounds with it. A ten to fifteen pound fish under the right circumstances could easily break your forty pound line. On the other hand, a skilled fisherman is capable of landing fish much larger then forty pounds with the same line. I also like to tie about five or six feet of thirty pound leader to the working end of my handline so if I get a snag on the bottom (or hook a fish too large to handle) and the line breaks it will break at the lighter leader rather then up by the spool minimizing my loss of line. Fishing line is not expensive, but it’s not cheap either.

The most common method is trolling. That is, dragging an artificial bait behind your boat hoping to fool something into taking it. In order to accomplish this the reel must be secured to the boat in some fashion. My buddy with the beer can liked to simply place it under the deck bunjies with the belief that he would be quick enough to grab it when a fish hit. I still remember the time he was just a little bit too slow, and we both watched his beer can with all his line skipping across the surface of the water and slowly disappear over the horizon.

My handline was designed with enough space between the two large notches at the ends so that it could be secured between the deck bunjies. Since then I have stolen what I believe to be a much better way of doing it from a group of kayak fishermen who regularly paddle out Great Lakes. It requires an additional piece of equipment; a deck hook. My deck hook is fashioned from an old stainless steel spoon handle. It is bent into a hook and a hole is drilled into the base to which I attach a loop of 1/8″ bunjie. This is then fastened to the deck of the boat. When you go out fishing you will let out a sufficient length of line and then double a section of your line over and tie a simple overhand knot in it making a loop in your line. This loop is then slipped over the deck hook which will secure your line, yet is quick and easy to release your line from when you need it. In addition, the bunjie will provide some shock absorption in the event of a really violent strike.

I feel that handlines are particularly well suited to kayaks. They are inexpensive, rugged, light weight and compact. I consider my handline to be a piece of my basic kayaking equipment. I was out paddling offshore one time when I encountered a boil of baitfish being driven to the surface by a school of Bonito underneath. At the time I didn’t have any fishing tackle in the boat – that will never happen again! I even carry my handline as a backup when I’m fishing with a rod and reel.

Using a rod and reel

For sheer sport you just can’t beat a rod and reel. Fighting a tenacious game fish on the end of some light tackle is just too much fun. Since the rod will absorb much of the stress on the line, and the reels drag should release more line before it reaches it’s breaking point it is possible to land much larger fish on lighter line then could be possible with a handline. Lighter line is less likely to scare spooky fish, imparts a more delicate feel to the fisherman, and a livelier action to your bait.

A fishing pole also has the advantage of being able to cast the line some distance away from your position. This can be useful if you encounter a school of fish that is remaining in one place. You can sit off to the side and cast into it rather then have to constantly paddle back and forth over it, possibly spooking the fish. A rod and reel also makes fishing from the shore possible, which would be difficult at best with a handline.

But using a rod and reel in a kayak has it’s disadvantages as well. A good rod and reel is expensive and requires a fair amount of TLC. You will have to take precautions to avoid damaging your equipment as it gets shuffled around in the kayak. The reel will require that you rinse it off with clean fresh water at the end of the day, and an occasional oiling between trips.

And then there’s the question of what to do with the rod while your trolling? Some people have told me that they will just hold it with their paddle. I find this terribly awkward and it interferes with my paddling technique, which is something that I take very seriously. One fellow told me how he adds an extension to the butt of his rod so he can tuck it down his back underneath his pfd. The vast majority of kayak fisherpersons, using a rod and reel, however, will resort to some kind of rod holder.

There are a number of rod holders which are available commercially. Some are designed to clamp onto your boat, usually at the cockpit, while others require some installation in the form of drilling and mounting to your deck. My own rod holder is simply a piece of PVC pipe fiberglassed into a plexiglas base (what can I say, I’m cheap).

So once you settle on a rod holder where will you mount it? Well, let me come right out and tell you that there is not a good place on a kayak to put a rod holder. If you mount it on the front deck you can keep an eye on it, and it is readily available. However, it will get in the way of your paddling. You can mount it further forward so as to be out of the way, but now it’s difficult to reach. I carry mine secured by the deck bunjies behind the cockpit. On the rear deck it is out of the way, but requires practice to get the rod in and out of, and I don’t always know when I’ve got a hook up. My advice to you is to rig up some kind of temporary rod holder to move around and practice with before you go and attach anything permanently to your boat.

Okay, so what do we want to use for a rod and reel? I prefer a medium weight spinning reel with 12lb. monofiliment line for general ocean fishing. Of course, you may want to go a bit lighter, or heavier depending on what kind of fishing you intend to do. This is just what I use and is not intended to be the last word on what to use in a kayak. As for the rod, I know a number of people who like to make a short three or four foot “kayak” rod. For the last ten years or so I have been using a telescoping seven and a half foot rod which I find well suited for this kind of fishing. Extended I have a full length rod, and collapsed it is only about eighteen inches which makes it easy to stow out of the way.

Additional equipment

I don’t like to carry a lot of junk with me in my boat. Nevertheless there are a few other pieces of equipment you might consider for fishing from your kayak. First and foremost, the most important thing you need to have along is your fishing license. Besides that you will find a pair of stainless steel needle nose pliers to be indispensable. The pliers are used for unhooking your catch, among other things. Try to remove your favorite lure from some toothy sea critter with your fingers and you will learn to much appreciate your pliers.

I also like to carry a small tackle box with me. I have tried a variety of boxes over the years and I am still looking for the right one. I think the box should be water proof, otherwise your hooks and such will constantly need to be replaced since the salt water will turn them into a clump of rust. I generally carry a half dozen swivels, some hooks, a few sinkers, a small spool of leader line, a couple of wire leaders and a couple of bonito feathers, spoons and perhaps a couple of diamond jigs or buzz bombs (fishing lures).

A paddle leash can be real handy when fishing from a kayak. A paddle leash is simply a line, one end of which is tied to your boat, the other end to your paddle. With a paddle leash I can drop my paddle in the event of a hook up without having to worry about my paddle drifting away. In fact I like to tie most of my fishing equipment to my boat. I tape my reel to the rod just to make sure it will not come loose. Then I attach a line to my rod which fastens to the boat. I have tied one end of a line to my tackle box with the other end on my pliers. This line is then passed under my front deck bunjies. In the event of an accident my equipment will stay with the boat. Of course, with all of these various lines providing a potential for entanglement I also carry a knife fixed to my pfd.

A number of kayak fisherpersons like to carry a gaff or a net for landing their catch. I have never found this to be necessary. I will occasionally carry a net bag, or a burlap sack to carry my catch in. I have used stringers dangling over the side of the boat as well. Mostly, though, I just throw my catch into the cockpit with me.

Technique

Probably the most consistent method to catch fish is by bait fishing. This is simply a matter of rigging your line with a hook and a sinker, sticking some kind of fish food on the hook, and throwing it out in the water. The best bait is usually whatever is available locally that the fish are familiar with. On a trip I caught some nice fat surfperch from the shore, one morning, on sand crabs that I dug up on the spot as I needed them. Bait can be found by digging in the sand, exploring tide pools and looking under rocks. Of course before collecting any bait make sure that it’s legal where you are and please replace any rocks you look under back the way you found them. I have also managed to catch fish on more unconventional baits such as lunch meat, cheese and corn.

Generally I consider carrying bait in my kayak to be too much of a hassle, not to mention a mess, so I pretty much concentrate on artificial lures. One method which has worked well for fishing the bottom is to sink a lead head hook to the bottom with either a marabou feather tied to it or a rubber tail and simply let the boat drift. This works particularly well in bays and harbors. Along the coast I like to work the edges of kelp beds and rocky points with either a diamond jig or a buzz bomb and just “jig” it up and down, bouncing it off the bottom. Of course, when I’m moving then I like to troll either a bonito feather or a spoon.

Different situations and different kinds of fish may require other techniques. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Of course the easiest way to find out what’s catching fish is to stop in at the local bait and tackle shop and ask.

In conclusion

Years ago I was wandering about Baja when I came across a rock jetty outside of town with a number of “gringo” tourists fishing from it. Well I had to go out to see if they were catching anything. About this time a young boy, perhaps twelve years old, came strolling out to join the fishermen. The boy had a stick with a wad of line wrapped around it which looked like it had been tied together from the discarded pieces he had found lying about. Dangling from the end was a piece of chrome that had probably once belonged to a car, with a hook fastened to it.

The boy proceeded to throw his homemade jig out into the water and then retrieve it with a series of jerks. By about the third cast he brought in about a fifteen inch sand bass. Several casts later he brought in another fish slightly larger then the first one. I watched him bring in one more, much to the utter dismay of the other fishermen who were not catching a thing, despite all of their fancy high priced equipment. The point is that the fish don’t care how much your equipment costs. Much of the fishing tackle you see for sale in your local retail outlet is designed to catch fishermen – not fish. Think about it.

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