new kayak owner jackson big tuna yak attack

[Mreyes6442]

hi everyone mike here in chicago and i recently bought a jackson big tuna yak attack edition! brian over at delewarepaddlesports was awesome and said he even store it for me till april! today in chicago we have sleet and i currently live in a condo downtown so i thought this was above and beyond awesome.

anyways I'm new to kayak fishing (i have never even been on a kayak) but remember fishing growing up as a kids with my dad. it was a very cool experience this summer to take my lil guy 4 yrs old out fishing the first time. i would cast and pass him the pole. first cast he got a catfish! after that we where killing it everytime we went out and he's as hooked as i am. we took my dad and rented a lil boat it was so expensive i felt yeah this is chicago. driving over the north branch of the river i saw a kayak tour and thought how cool is that and i bet we could fish off of it too. i found out someone already had this same idea. lol after some research i thought a tandem was the best option it could be used as a single or tandem position. i think the main selling point on the big tuna was the live bait well / cooler section. the fact that delaware paddle sports had a yak attack edition made me just jump on it.

seeing that this kayak already has some upgraded features, rudder rod holders live tank/bait well upgraded seats
what are some necessities for the first few times getting it out. besides the obvious paddles and pfd. i was looking at a anchor trolly and obviously anchor and maybe a drag chain? just not sure what i will encounter on the first few outings or what to expect. any advise will be much appreciated. i know ill go with the fish finder eventually but I'm talking about the lil stuff that gets overlooked and you go out and ruins a good outing like no anchor or paddle leashes.

[Salty Dog]

Welcome to the forum. Seems you are on the right track assuming you are moving to the area from Chicago. Seems you have most of the info to get started so to not sound smart, my first suggestion is to find water and go from there. Good luck.

[Jman]

See if you can launch with some members with what you have. You'll learn a lot from each person and it will be easy to pick up on the smaller tips from them to fine tune your tactics.

[Pat Smith]

My advice as a new kayak fisherman is don't drill ANYTHING into your new yak until you had it out a couple times. That includes anchor trollies, tie down loops, what have you. You will be amazed how much your decision process changes as you use the kayak. Go out with it once to see where your natural paddle swing is, make note if it and don't put anything there. The last thing you want is to be wildly flailing your paddle about (my own personal description of my paddle style) in a stiff wind and find out that the pad-eye you thought would never get in your way is racking your knuckle each stroke, and now you have to cover a hole to remove it.

Other than that, great choice on the kayak. I SO wanted a big tuna, not for the bait well but for the two seats. It would be great to have my son out with me. It was way out of my budget though so.. I got a 14 cheaper kayak that is big enough to handle both of us, just not quite as well as the tuna would have.

Definitely post when you are going out in the spring, hook up with some people and tag along. Everyone here has been real nice and helpful during my first few months.

[Mreyes6442]

Hi again. Thanks everyone! I like the advise of not screwing anything down. That makes total sense. That was exactly what I want to avoid. Bolt stuff down and find out I'm
Hitting it with my hand or it's too far out of reach. Thanks again for the advise and I forsure will update and post more when I get my yak. I was showing my son videos on YouTube last night and he was so excited. Totally makes it well worth it.

Pat smith awesome advise again. If Brian over at Delawarepaddlesports wasn't so good I would have never got the yak. He really made a hard decision easy.

[imagine29028]

DPS crew is great.

[Pc4sun]

Hello Mreyers, and welcome to Snaggedline. You will find terrific people here sharing their talents on kayak fishing. I hope to fish with you one day.