1/30 - Question - Why Kayak Fish?

[eastonkayaker]

What started you down the path of kayak fishing?

My interest was peaked when I was forced to spend a summer working in Hawaii, company also made me rent a waterfront house, I tried to get out of it but they made me go!

While I was there started watching a kayak fishing TV show and saw kayakers fishing the bay I lived on.

I had fished from a boat many times but didn't feel it was worth the hassle to own a boat. Kayak seemed to be a good alternative. When I got back to MD borrowed a kayak from in-laws, first catch was a 18" rockfish, I was hooked.

[MetroMan]

Countless days of fishing the pier and wondering if the fish were even in the vicinity of the pier! Let alone all that comes along with pier fishing on a nice weekend. It's all about the access (minus the hassles that come with owning a boat).

[surfdog]

i wanted to get away from the crowded piers and trashy places while getting some exercise.

[Foursteps24]

First and foremost getting away from the piers and the crowds. You really have to time when and where you go but with a kayak you just go when you are ready. As easy access it is it's definately worth it. A lot of the rivers and also bay bridge that we fish we don't have to travel that far to find fish. When it's all said and done a boat is very nice but the low maintenance and price of a kayak makes it worth it. It's also great exercise.

[Memory Maker]

A better question for me is why not .......... I've always loved great fish from small boats because you can get into places you can't with a big boat, they require less care and it's definitely more fun to land a big fish when you are closer to the water ....... problem has been taking a small boat safely into big water ........ weather changes and you're in big trouble ......

Kayak first is fun, allows you to get right into fish cover with no noise, you can launch anywhere so you don't have to travel far ...... virtually no cost as compared to a larger boat ...... allows you to get to places where the fish are undisturbed and unfished ......... and best of all ........ you can use lighter tackle to land huge fish by taking a sleigh ride ..........

My goal is to land a Tarpon on VA Eastern Shore from a YAK and film it ......... hopefully I will have the time to make it down there a bunch of times this summer with some of you guys .......... the back bays on the eastern shore side where the Tarpon lie are treacherous for even small boats because the tides can leave them stranded from the oyster bars at low tide ......... won't do that with a yak ......... also the cuts between the barrier islands and the ocean are dangerous to larger boats because there are no charted channels and the sand bars change all the time ........ perfect for a yak .........

etc etc etc etc .......

[DOGFISH]

Fun, stealth and challenging. I have done the boat thing. I have never had one boat that I could use on the upper potomac, the bay and in the ocean. Oh, there may be some, but not like a kayak. It is also that a kayak brings out the inner child. Fishing from a kayak, for me, takes me back to my early days of fishing, when I would paddle a canoe out in the rivers and bay, thats right a canoe, or to use oars and a small row boat to get out to fish.* Its exciting! It is also a very effective and efficient way to fish, casting, drifting, chumming, trolling and any other way to fish. ...and among all, it is quiet.

When kayak fishing, one is in harmony with their environment, almost spiritual.



*I don't always use an electric motor.

[crawdad]

I went to the Potomac, Virginia side one time in a rented sit in.Following couple weeks bought an Ocean kayak prowler.Don't have the slightest idea why it took so long.I wonder why kayaking is just becomming what it is,Its a great way" functional" to go fishing just about anywhere.

[Yak Fish]

I love it for the same reason I love to mountain bike. It's a man and his machine, no motor, no noise, just you, your thoughts and nature.

I had a boat and while I enjoyed it for the speed to get where I wanted to go, it was a pain to upkeep. It cost more money than I thought and it wasn't the simplistic thing that I wanted.

My kayak gives me the chance to fish the way I think it should be done. I can load it up in my truck and take it wherever I want. I can go out with friends and still fish together, shooting the breeze like you would on a pier. You can do that on a boat too, but when you are both in kayaks, you are both in control of what you want to do.

Ah, the more I think about it, the more I want to get out there....soon enough I guess.

[mmanolis2001]

I have always fished from the shore or waded. 6 years ago i bought a canoe and tried it for a while. It was fine as long as the wind was not kicking up. 2 years ago I was trolling around some forums looking for info on small skiffs and i stumbled across a Kayak fishing forum. I read every post on that board over the next week.

I decided to give it a go and bought a Tarpon 120. I was hooked on my first trip. I was also angry at my self for never thinking of using a Kayak as a fishing platform. All those years spent stumbling down river banks and searching google earth for secluded fishing spots. All the times i made it to the Pier to late and was forced to leave because there was no open spots.

I still enjoy fishing from shore and the laid back aspect of it but it pales in comparison to fishing from a Kayak and the freedom it provides.

[DOGFISH]

I have always fished from the shore or waded. 6 years ago i bought a canoe and tried it for a while. It was fine as long as the wind was not kicking up. 2 years ago I was trolling around some forums looking for info on small skiffs and i stumbled across a Kayak fishing forum. I read every post on that board over the next week.

I decided to give it a go and bought a Tarpon 120. I was hooked on my first trip. I was also angry at my self for never thinking of using a Kayak as a fishing platform. All those years spent stumbling down river banks and searching google earth for secluded fishing spots. All the times i made it to the Pier to late and was forced to leave because there was no open spots.

I still enjoy fishing from shore and the laid back aspect of it but it pales in comparison to fishing from a Kayak and the freedom it provides.

When I retired I wanted to get back, or more into fishing. I wasn't ready to get back into the boat thing, and thought I had an original idea of using a kayak to fish. I did a google search and everything on kayak fishing came up. I went from there. It has become an addiction. It is such a different way to fish, even larger bodies of water. That is what makes it so intriguing.

[ictalurus]

Kayaks are the perfect balance of mobility and cost. My father and I used to fish nearly every Saturday in the summer from when I was 8 until I went to college. We started off fishing from shore, but then we saw that the reservoir we fished at rented boats, so we started doing that. That was at $10 a pop. We could've bought a jon boat after couple summers.

Since this was pre-internet, we didn't know about anything besides canoes and white water kayaks. Since my father and I are both spazzes, a canoe seemed like a bad idea. I went out in a canoe with a buddy a few times while getting my master's degree, but it was kind of awkward since both of us were tall. I still didn't know there was such a thing as sit on tops then, but my buddy insisted there were kayaks besides white water kayaks. I just didn't know where to find them. Even if I did buy one, I didn't have a place to store it because I lived in an apartment.

When I first moved to SoMD, another buddy took me out to Allen's Fresh to fish for perch and let me use his Pungo. Then I was hooked. I started searching for different models and discovered sit on tops. My father was about to retire, and we decided to buy a pair of yaks to celebrate. It was hard finding places to try them out, but we found a demo day at Piscataway Park and tried a Drifter and a Prowler. I loved the Prowler, but it would be too hard to store, and we both were sitting in big puddles in the Drifter. We caught Hank Parker on a fishing show fishing from a Hobie Outback and decided to go with that without trying them out. I ordered them from a place in Oregon that offered free shipping. This is back when Outbacks only cost $1250 and came with the paddle, seat, seat bag, rudder, cooler, anchor, tackle box, and cart, which made it a good bang for the buck compared to conventional yaks where a seat, paddle, rudder, and cart were extra. We took them to the same place where we rented the jon boats, and we covered the same distance in less than a 1/3 of the time it took to row the jon boat. We were kicking ourselves for not doing it sooner.

[mmanolis2001]

wow did the drive come with the $1250 outback?

I need a time machine

[ictalurus]

It sure did. It was a pretty sweet deal considering a new Tarpon at the time was still around $600 with a non-cushioned seat and no rudder, cart, or paddle.