by Matt Teter, February 27, 2006

I was first introduced to kayak fishing several years ago after I had sold my jet boat and was persuaded to leave Walla Walla county for sunny and smoggy Southern California.

Well after being there a few months I found myself cruising the coastal area from Huntington Beach to San Diego with my job, just in the hopes that I would see someone fishing.

One day as I was looking for a place to have my lunch along the Sunset highway in Huntington beach I came across a small shop called Malibu kayaks with a few of these big, plastic, kayak looking things sitting on a small beach in the harbor next to the shop. I parked the truck and stepped out, finishing my fish taco, I walked over to two teenage boys that were getting ready to take off in one of the kayaks from the beach that had two seats in it.

I asked them if they were going out to paddle around the harbor. No they said, were going fishing. ‘FISHING’. My eyes lit up like two flashing red lights on an L.A.P.D. cruiser on a Saturday night. Fishing I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster with out choking on my fish taco. You fish off that thing? Do you have any luck? Go inside the shop and check out the fishing photos man. We kill em.

Well it didn’t take much arm twisting to get me to go inside the shop and look around a little. And what I saw made my jaw drop. 13’ kayaks set up with some of the coolest fishing accessories as anyone has ever seen.
After about 10 minutes of checking things out the sales person came over and asked me if I needed any help. I told him that I was interested in the fishing kayaks, and if he could tell me a little about them. "I could", he said, but its always better to try one yourself. That way you know first hand what it feels like. With that he handed me a life vest and a paddle and told me to take the yellow "pro explorer" out and just come back when I was done. "I’m still on the job" I said. He turns to face me, smiles and says "aren’t we all, no worries man I won’t tell". Well the rest is history. I tried it, I loved it, I bought two and never looked back.

These are great tools to fish with and the versatility is endless. The rigging of your fishing kayak is limited only by your imagination. There are fisherman out there that stick to the basics, and some that go all out. Depending on what, and where you fish dictates a lot too. If fishing on the ocean is your thing a GPS, VHF radio and a cell are almost and essential. On a lake you might just stick to a depth/fish finder and tackle. But as I said before it is endless what you can do in the way of rigging for a kayak. And there are so many to choose from, different styles, function, as well as size and speed design.

Fishing from a kayak can at first seem a little daunting and unstable, but that goes away as you gain confidence. They are really a great fishing platform. They put you right at waters edge like a float tube but are 200 times faster. Just not fast enough that you may paddle by fishing areas that traditional boaters may over look. The thing about fishing from a kayak is that you got to really love to fish because you are going to get wet, no two ways about it. It can be as extreme as you want it to be, or as mellow as a Sunday drive. Last summer I fished lake Chelan couple of times for lake trout. Dropping my kayak in the water right off the rocks at lake Chelan state park (kayaks make for easy launching, no waiting in line at the launch.) and paddled right out to one of the deep holes north west of the beach. And just like in a boat, I start to watch my sonar for depth and fish. (yes I have a fish finder on my kayak, another story.) I find that jigging works best from a kayak. You can troll if you don’t mind carrying all that extra weight.( I don’t think there is a method of fishing you CAN’T do from a kayak) A down rigger would be a little cumbersome, so you would have to resort to using whistle drops or a sinker release. Carrying around all those sinkers can get to troublesome. When jigging I like to use split tailed grubs or 5" curly tails on at least a 2oz lead head. If you can find the keel headed jigs they use for walleyes in a river situation in 2oz those work nice too. Using an night crawler streamer helps. Squawfish filets work great too. After I started marking fish I dropped straight to the bottom. I was 207’ at the time. I just started to work the jig with 15" to 18" drops letting it hit bottom each time. After about 20 minutes of jigging I started to bring it back to the surface check the bait when I got hit. I thought that it was snagged on a rock. It was just dead weight. Then the tugs began. After almost 10 minutes of reeling I bring to surface a 5 lb Burbot. The first one for me ever. Kind of ugly critters too. But make good tacos. After about two hours of fishing I ended up with one Burbot, and one 8# lake trout. The burbot I just grabbed and unhooked it and stowed it. The laker I used my net. Now on a yak there is always the balance issue. This is where the wet part comes in. The idea is to minimize it. Hanging your legs off the side, straddle style helps to keep your balance. Then work the net just like you would in a boat. I found that after I got the fish in the net the best thing to do is to bleed it out in the net. Makes for easier handling. The thing about a yak is that you get to use it to your advantage when playing fish. Letting the fish wear itself out is a common thing to do. Taking a sleigh ride, that is having the fish pull you around a little if it’s big enough is not that uncommon in the yak fishing world. And when you catch that first fish of the day the feeling is a little different. Its feels more like an accomplishment then just catching a fish. And the bigger the fish the better the feeling. And now that I have moved up here to Chelan county I have had that feeling several times on lake Chelan. And I look forward to having that feeling all year long. From here to the coast. The opportunity’s abound for kayak fisherman.

So lets look at the advantages of a kayak to float tubes. Oh so much faster, less effort. No more leg cramps from kicking. A lot more storage for tackle and hardware. As for boats, no motors, no gas, no boat registration, no waiting in line to launch, no worries. So come join me, I am always looking for someone to fish with and a reason to get out of the house.

FISH-ON!
Matt Teter The floating cowboy.

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