Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing Fly fishing from a Kayak?

Has anyone fly fished from a kayak enough to give out some advice on gear? I'm very close to buying a recreational kayak and I've picked one that looks like it will handle lakes and tidewater, and also Class II or III river rapids. It's the Velocity made by Sun (a branch of Riot Kayaks). I'll hunt and fish with it. I've fished for salmon and bottom fish in salt water from a racy solo sea kayak, and fly fished a lot from canoes. Fly fishing from a kayak?

Okanagan,<P>Multiply kayak beam in inches by length in feet by number of years you've paddled, then divide by 4 times the weight in pounds of the heaviest fish you think you'll catch. The answer will give you the cost of the equipment you should use for fishing ;-)<P>So, when I was in AK: 24" beam * 18' length * 5yrs /(50lbs*4) = $10.80<P>I significantly exceeded my gear cost, but never got into anything over 5 lbs, so it turned out ok. It was also my buddies rod, and he owes me money, so it was doubly ok.<P>The equation is based on not being able to retrieve any dropped gear. Of course there are other factors, either in favor of, or against using more expensive equipment. If you are faithful in using lanyards, then you can change the *4 fudge factor in the divisor to *2. Same if you only fish in shallow waters where a rod dropped overboard is retrieveable. If you do both, the the fudge factor goes away. This will then trick you into losing much more expensive gear, but if you can afford the expensive gear in the first place, you can probably afford to replace it when Neptune gets ahold of it.<P>So, someone using a beamy inflateable in a shallow high lake in the Sierras while using a lanyard:<P>30" * 12' * 10yrs / (2 lbs) = $1800<P>But it's going to hurt when you happen to catch the big brownie that eats all the fish shorter than a foot long, and the rod goes in the drink along with you, and the lanyard wasn't on, and you come to the realization that the water is deeper than you thought, and really freaking cold 2 feet below the surface, and where the hell did that fish drag that rod anyway ?<P>Realistically, if you think you can do it, then you can. While I haven't actually fly fished, I've used fairly heavy tackle from a kayak succesfully. And remember, casting or playing the fish won't be the hard part, but landing a sizeable fish will.<P>Regards,<BR>Scott

If you can flyfish you can flyfish from your kayak. I do it all the time on saltwater flats using 9 & 10wt. outfits throwing big saltwater flies. I do get out and wade periodically to relieve my back. I use a sit-on-top Ride kayak.

Thanks for the comments. Loved the formula for gear and cost, capt_e. After I read your piece I almost lost a cutom graphite rod and Daiwa reel overboard when I snagged while bottom bouncing for salmon in a swift channel. I have lanyards on a lot of stuff and must put the rod on a lease also. I pulled this same rod and reel off the bottom of the Kenai when I snagged it while salmon fishing. Might be a fitting end to it actually. <P>I bought the Velocity kayak. Love it. It is close to the oxymoron of a hot recreation boat. Light weight, fast and maneuverable compared to most recreational boats, handles sharp eddy lines and rapids well, tracks straight but cuts a turn with a lean. Remarkably stable with a big cockpit. Sometimes I paddle it wearing breathable waders and wading boots. I've paddled it at least 75 miles on the Fraser River between Agassi and Abbotsford, in several small trips. I've only fished from it a little, mainly getting out and fishing from gravel bars for salmon. My wonderful wife drops me off, goes shopping, and picks me up at dusk way down the river.<P>During a 15 day span in August I caught 32 salmon: sockeye, chinook, coho. The best was a 22 lb. chinook. (Had to release many of them). Over the Labor Day weekend I fished two evenings and caught two pinks (the only thing legal to keep in the Fraser right now) one chum and three big sockeye, three of those on a fly rod and two on a trout spin rod. One of the humpies (pinks)was the biggest I've ever seen, must have been 9 lbs. Many others gave me sizzling runs and leaping fights with a "long line release". <P>I still haven't fly fished lakes for trout from the kayak but that will come.<P>For salmon I'm using a nine weight rod, ten lb. leader of cheap mono (may go to 8) and a working line of lead core trolling line. The lead core line is tied to 75 yards of 20 lb. mono. (30 might be better for handling). I work out the 25-30 feet of lead core into the air, and use it to shoot a long cast of the mono which I've pulled off the reel into loops on the water where I'm wading. Under the mono is 100 yards of 20lb. dacron backing. <P> No finesse at all but it is effective. The lead core sinks like a rock in swift water, essential. At dusk or if no other fishermen are wading, often the salmon are just under the rod tip and I've hooked most on short casts, though the long cast capability is nice if needed. My reel is a cheap metal Martin, on/off clicker, no drag but an exposed rim I can palm. <P>To get the right amount of lead core, run line through the guides and start casting on a lawn. When the rod feels nicely loaded with enough line out to handle well, lay it down and cut the lead core line at the rod tip. Voila, a lead core shooting line.<P>I've been traveling a lot and fishing when home while the salmon are in. Also, the 24 Hour forum hasn't let me log in for about a month. I just discovered that this forum has apparently changed their log in software so that your computer has to allow cookies. I've always had my computer set to disable cookies and been able to post until recently. I set the computer to accept cookies just to post this and will erase them when done. I won't be posting much if I have to accept cookies. I'll read any comments though probably not respond. Good fishing.

Okanagan - Wow !!! sounds like more fun than should be leagal !<P>And I do hope you took my "formula" in the spirit it was meant - in other words it was pure B.S.<P>As for the boat - Riot build Whitewater boats primarily right ? It would be interesting to see how that background plays into a recreational design, rather than most companies that do primarily do sea kayaks.<P><BR>As for the cookie dilemma - May I suggest Opera? This is the "other, other browser". It utterly screams on a broadband connection. It just leaves NS and IE in the dust. It is also very tiny. I think the download for it is under 3 MB. It is also customizeable, including security. To the point that you can set it to accept cookies from certain servers, not accept cookies, or even delete cookies on exit. I've been using it for 6 months now, with no real complaints, except for a couple e-commerce sites that just won't work with it. I have IE installed for that purpose (I gave up on NS when I got Opera) but only use it a couple times a month, and only for a few minutes at a time.<BR> <A HREF="http://www.opera.com" TARGET=_blank>http://www.opera.com</A> <P>Good paddling!<BR>Scott

Scott, thanks for the tip on Opera. I asked Rick, the webmaster here about the cookies and he gave me a reply that I bought. He said they upgraded software and he can't figure out how to turn off the demand for cookies himself. They don't like them either. So I'll stick around and just erase them.<P>You are right about the Velocity kayak coming out of the Riot white water origins. I think it shows all over the boat. It is more a river boat with concessions to sea kayak than vice versa. It has a huge cockpit and body space inside, a bit like the new whitewater play boats with all the room in the middle and tapered quickly to both ends. <P> It is about the only recreational boat I sat in that would allow me to have my legs straight in front with my feet not splayed. Flat deck, room to wear boots, over 300 lbs. load capacity, cuts a turn when you put it on edge, tracks on flatwater and shoots serious whitewater. <P>I just want a boat for ocean inlets, and for fishing steelhead rivers, with flyfishing lakes near logging roads as the mainstay between. This is it. With well over 300 lbs. load capacity, it will easily take a boned out deer in one of the two cargo compartments.<P>The salmon run has been fabulous this year. Wish I was out at Neah Bay, WA catching silvers. Or in Afghanistan calling in airstrikes.

Well, I shouldn't have been a smart ass about rods going over the side. My wife dropped one off of her kayak today. Luckily I had my mask and snorkel back in the truck ( see "Really Blasphemous Fishing Technique" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ) and it was only in about 10-12 feet of water.



This was up at a really interesting lake. It's at 6400 feet, but it's shallow, so it's a warm water fishery. A self sustaining population of largemouth bass, in what would appear to be perfect trout lake territory. In fact, just a mile away is such a trout lake. This lake happens to be fed from the bottom of a much larger reservoir, so it's real cold water all year round.



Oh, and since I first posted, I've been doing quite a bit of fishing for bass from my kayaks. Certainly not as good a platform as a float tube, but on the other hand, it's no big deal to access water miles away in the kayak. Places that would be impossible to reach by float tube.



Regards,

Scott

Hey Hoyt,

I was deliberating all summer about a sea kayak for fishing. I'm looking forward to getting one for spring now. I think I settled on a Malabu Kayak eXtreme ( www.malibukayaks.com ). Any opinions on these kayak's??

TM

I was really checking out the kayak fishing scene earlier this summer. Here's a good site with comparisons of the most popular boats. Kayak Fishing Stuff

There's a forum there, similar to this one, with folks that do a lot of fishing from kayaks.

Regards,
Scott

Thanks Scott! This is a great site!

TM

Fly fisking from a kayak sounds really fun. I kayaked on the Dechuets an it was really fun, I can imagin how fun it would be with fly fishing added to it.