The continuously evolving sport of fishing sees new products and techniques surfacing with astounding regularity.
As can be expected, many innovations are no more than one-season wonders, but those that have proved themselves on the water have joined fishing’s impressive ‘tricks of the trade’ hall of fame.
One of the latest candidates for such lofty recognition has been kayak fishing. This relatively new aspect of the sport has enjoyed spectacular growth for a number of reasons, attracting many new recruits, many of whom have little or no previous fishing experience.
However, it does not take many fruitless outings before the realisation sinks in that a new kayak and a collection of expensive tackle does not automatically turn you into a fisherman. What is missing is the knowledge that seasoned boat fishers take for granted. It is the ‘what, when and how,’ because only that can convert all that hardware into fish in the bin.
Apart from the few who already ‘know it all,’ a lot of newcomers are either too shy or too proud to ask for advice. If that is you, then this is the biggest mistake you could ever make. It might cost you a bit of money, but one of the fastest ways to get into the fishing game is with a fishing charter. For a few dollars you will learn not only a lot about the fish you are chasing and the best way to use your tackle, but you will probably catch a few fish to offset some of your initial outlay as a bonus. While on board, you can bail up the skipper with all your questions, saving yourself months – if not years – of finding out the hard way.
You can also ‘fast-forward’ a few years of painful learning by buying a good fishing book, such as Mark Kitteridge’s Knots, Rigs and Baits or Tony Bishop’s Fishing Smarter.
You will soon find that many of the general boat fishing rules also apply to kayak fishing. But why stop there? There are other fishing modes worth considering, such as competition fishing, fly-fishing, coarse fishing, and – with a bit of lateral thinking – you can even learn a few useful tricks from the commercial-fishing trade. Now add to that the unique fishing advantages of a kayak, and the innovative possibilities are only limited by your ability to think beyond the conventional. Rest assured: in this game everybody feeds off everybody else, so don’t hesitate to shamelessly copy a good thing when you get so much as a whiff of it.
Once you know how a method works, try to improve it. Even if you can’t, you will probably learn from the experiment. Always thinking about the ‘why’ leads you to the ‘how’. That is the path to becoming one of the ‘ten percenters’ popularly said to catch ninety percent of the fish.
Fish your feet first
That advice comes from trout fishing, but is equally true for the sea. Far too many boat owners race for the horizon, leaving close-in fishing grounds almost untouched.
The fact that kayak fishers can’t, or shouldn’t, try to match powerboats isn’t really a handicap. There are plenty of fish inside a couple of kilometres from the shore no matter where you fish. Once you know your area, you will find them even closer – sometimes only just outside surfcasting range.
Unfortunately, the distance bug has begun to infect this sport, with increasing emphasis being placed on kayak speed at the expense of stability, surf handling and other useful features. By all means go for a 20km paddle if you need the exercise, or buy an electric motor if you want to get there ten minutes faster, but don’t ever believe you have to do that to catch a good feed of fish.
Do your homework
If you are just starting out or have moved to a new area, do your homework first before blindly launching off in the hope of a great fishing Lotto win. The surface of the sea is a featureless plain that hides fish and their habitats very effectively from your casual gaze. It is only when you study charts, talk to old salts and/or join a fishing club, that promising destinations start popping up. With the information you have mined, do a few exploratory trips to narrow down productive oases in the desert of sand and mud that covers much of the sea floor.
For your quest you will find a fish-finder and a GPS invaluable. The former will allow you to closely study the sub-sea topography for the most promising reefs, while the latter gives you the ability to return there with an amazing degree of accuracy at a future date.
Let fish find you
In many cases this makes more sense than trying to find them in the vastness of the sea. Once you have selected an area with fish-holding features such as a reef, drop-off or channel, the use of berley will attract fish from a much wider area. When you are anchored up-current from a structure, you need to ensure that the same currents will sweep the berley scent in the direction of where you think the fish are holding. If the wind and current are not moving in the same direction, where you anchor in relation to the fish becomes even more critical. The depth you deploy the berley at is just as important, as strong currents can easily sweep berley particles away before they can sink down to the targeted fish.
As a general rule, surface berleying works best in shallow water and in a weak current, while for deeper structures swept by faster currents, your berley dispenser needs to be closer to the bottom.
When you think you have got a good scent trail drifting off into the right depth and direction, bait up and send your offering along that very same berley trail. Sounds simple, but how often have you seen people setting up a berley trail and then casting baits out well away from it? If you are setting out to attract fish to your berley trail, then that is where your baits should be.
Multiply your chances
Pre-feeding several sites has been successfully done in fishing competitions. This practice is tailor-made for kayak fishing. It involves suspending a number of berley bombs a couple of metres over reefs or other promising features.
The gear is as simple as can be: you need some sort of cheap anchor/weight, a thin line and a buoy – which can be anything from a plastic Coke bottle (any bottle with a waist will do) partly filled with sand, to an inflated wine-cask bladder. Put your frozen berley into an onion bag or similar and tie it on a couple of metres above the weight. Toss the whole lot overboard when the fish-finder indicates you are up-current of the target area. On its way down, the weight will rotate the bottle, but when it hits the bottom the sand will prevent the line unrolling further. Mark the position on your GPS.
Now find other promising features some distance away and plant more bombs, also marking them on your GPS. As each bomb then proceeds to suck nearby fish into its own berley trail, your chances for success are increasing several-fold.
By the time you have planted the last bomb, your first one is ready for a visit. Try anchoring briefly up-current and tossing out a strayline or, better still, drifting down-current flicking soft-plastics into the trail. The latter is particularly deadly because you can cover each berley fan very quickly and efficiently. With a stealthy kayak you can really sneak up on each trail from the side and then toss your SPs around without actually drifting over the fish.
Even the cheapest GPS allows you to create a route with the various waypoints marked on it. With an accuracy of five metres, you should not have problems finding your buoys. Come to think of it, tie a white plastic ribbon on your buoys to quickly find the direction of the prevailing current and hence your drift area.
Drift fishing with a drogue
Most of my drift fishing has been done by dragging a large bucket to slow my ‘yak down when the wind pushed us too fast. However, that is not to say I have not thought of buying a proper drogue. I have not done so because I think that most kayak drogues are overly bulky and seem more suitable for a dinghy than a kayak. My idea of a kayak drogue is a chute made from light but strong nylon material, with an adjustable rear aperture that allows my drift speed to be adjusted. In light winds I open the aperture, and reduce it again if the wind gets up.
Another idea I have been toying around with is to thread a light bungee around the periphery of the main opening so that it can expand when the wind/water pressure increases and contract when it dies away. Now, why hasn’t somebody thought of that before? Worth a try, don’t you think?
The main reason for drift-fishing (providing you have found a fish holding area) is so you are presenting bait, jigs or SPs to new fish all the time. What’s more, your offering is always moving, which adds considerably to its appeal. Drift-fishing can be as relaxing as dreaming away with the rods in the rod holders. It can also be quite scientific, with constant drogue adjustments to maintain a set course and drifting at optimum speed, all the while manipulating the rod to give extra life to the moving lure. If you are worried about getting your anchor stuck on some nasty reef, try drifting over it.
Try live bait
This is one of the favoured ways of catching fish on the West Coast of the US. Just about every kayak has a live-bait tank in its tank well. I don’t think you need to go to such trouble, unless you regularly use this method, as normally you can catch livies where you fish by dropping a sabiki rig into a surface berley trail. Keep them alive in a net bag hung over the side or fish them dead. Snapper and a whole lot of other fish don’t care, as long as the sprats are fresh. I have a friend who has invested in a throw net to stock up on sprats before going out for a fish.
Soft-plastics
This fishing method has been covered so exhaustively that I won’t waste space to repeat what better fishers than I have contributed. Jigging with SPs is a deadly way of enticing fish and is not just popular because it leaves your hands clean and your kayak free of bait smell. It is particularly suitable for kayak fishing.
Putting it all together for a successful trip
All successful fishing boils down to doing the basics right before you put in the fancy bits. Kayak fishing is no different, except that compared with powerboats you can’t range as far, can’t take a lot of gear and can’t (shouldn’t) go out in risky weather.
Don’t despair – you can overcome most of these perceived handicaps with good trip planning.
Know your destination, have bad- weather alternatives and know your target fish. Also, make sure that your gear is in good working order and that you know how to use it.
However, fishing smarter does not just mean catching more fish; weather-wise it also means being savvy enough to know when to go and when to stay home. Great fishing days don’t usually come about by accident – you really need to use your head to make them happen.
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This article is reproduced with permission of
New Zealand Fishing News
Nov 2007 - by Herb Spannagl
RE-PUBLISHING ELSEWHERE IS PROHIBITED
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