Well when I first got my kayak, a Tsunami 120, I didn’t think I’d ever fish from it. But after realizing how many people here fish from kayaks all the time I figured, why not? Great way to combine two of my favorite outdoor hobbies 
So this weekend I was heading to Assunpink lake in South Central NJ to go for a paddle and decided to take one of my lightweight trout fishing rods and a box of rooster tails with me for a good time.
What a blast!! When I got tired of paddling, I just pulled into what looked like a good hole, and wet my line. It is a lot of fun fighting a fish on light tackle that close to the water line
At the end of the day I’d caught a 16" chain pickerel, a 6" largemouth, an 8" sunny, and a tiny 4" perch. I caught a 5th fish, that had to have been very large, and after fighting it for about 3 minutes my line snapped. I suspect it was a large pickerel, line looked like it had been cut by teeth, not a simple line breakage. What was disappointing was he took my favorite black rooster tail with him.
Definitely looking forward to spending more time fishing from my kayak in the future. I often go on short day outings solo and this is a great way to make those trips more entertaining.
It’s addictive
I’ve finally gotten my tackle choices narrowed down to be able to hit the river with one rod and a handful of lures and terminal tackle but still be able to have a lot of different presentations. I can go from scratch to having the car loaded to getting to the river and launching in about 0:40 now. Used to take me a good bit longer than that.
- Big D
Trust me I know
what you mean. I fell in love with bass fishing at a young age. My dad and I have a small (15’) bass fishing boat, and we go out we each have 6 rods, and a tackle box each. But I also grew up doing a lot of creek (pronounced crick darnit) fishing in my sneakers wading down the water. For that I learned to travel light, 1 or 2 rods at most, and whatever I could carry in a vest or small backpack. My best friend also makes me go trout fishing at least once a year - again have to travel light.
But I can see how it would be addicting! I think I’m hooked already, looking forward to my next opportunity to slip away.
Only way to go.
I started kayak fishing about 5 years ago and got totally hooked. No pun intended. Sold the power boat and now fish solely from kayaks. What’s really fun is when you hook a fish that is large enough to tow you around. It does get addictive.
Good luck fishing.
Today, I took six rods, had 5 in
the water at a time. But, then, catfishing is a bit different. The more bait in the water, the better…most of the time.
Super Addict
I started out using an SOT to get me to a few spots that couldn’t be reached from shore. These days it’s my main reason to go paddling. During the season I’m on the water 4 days a week with my kevlar canoe an ultralight spinning rod and a small box of flies and one with spoons and spinners. From May to October it’s what I live for.
Can’t eat just one…
or kayak fish once either. I’ve got a seriously fast power boat for fishing and after I started yak fishing, the power boat sees water a 10th of the time. It’s a whole different deal being able to slide right on top of the fish, paddle back in the trees where big boats can’t go, follow creeks, back into the reeds, etc. No registration, license, trailer fees, insurance, gas/oil or maintenance costs either.
Now paddle UP river to get there . . .
. . . and you get a great workout on your way to fishing.
;^)
Especially when the damn dam is
releasing 60,000CFS…normal is 3,000 or less. Damn rain in Texas. I wanna go river fishing, tired of the damn lake.
I’ve only been lake fishing a few times.
Much prefer the river. I find that every time I go out on the lake, the wind is a bigger factor than current.
That, and the snags are deeper, so I loose more line when it happens . . .
:~(
What river is releasing 60k cfs?
I’m just south of Dallas and our rivers (Trinity,Upper Brazos) are starting to slow down.
Are you talking about the Guad?
Lake Livingston dam. This morning
it was down to 56K. At Liberty, the river has been over 2 feet above flood stage for about 2 weeks. Above 9K, its a wild dangerous ride. Last year, we
planned a trip from the dam to US 59, about 10 miles, a quick 4-6 hours on the river. Had to cancel, the release rose because of rain upstream to 14K. But, one guy did it anyway in a Prowler 13. Made it in under 3 hours.
Opposite here . . . .
Our rivers are nearly dry. The river I frequent is typically 6-8ft at one particular gauge state station. It’s now about 3’. Flood stage is 20’.
Yep.
My usual float registers 2’ at this time of year usually and it is below 1’ right now. What are usually banks are 20’ up on dry land now.
A ledge that I usually paddle up past to get to a big pool above it is impassable except for portage. Not because the river is so fast, but because the ledge is about an 8" or 10" drop and the chutes are so narrow that there’s nowhere beside them for the paddle to get a grip. Fortunately, portage is easy because the fish are stacked up there. Unfortunately, it seems that every mother’s son in Maryland and Virginia knows it and it’s an easy run downriver from another ramp.
- Big D