I've recently gotten very interested in sea kayaking, and I've been
taking lessons with an eye towards touring on the great lakes.

I haven't read much on kayak fishing, but it seems like most folks
mount poles on the hulls of their kayaks and fish while stationary in
the middle of some body of water. Could one fish while in motion, or
would paddle action disturb fish too much to expect to catch anything?
I guess I'm wondering if it's common to rig something up for trolling
behind the craft as you're busy trying to paddle from point A to point
B.

thanks,
-carl

Trolling is definitely a possibility. I catch hybrid striped bass by
trolling a streamer fly on a flyrod behind my kayak.

Conrad

"Carl Hirsch" wrote in message
om...
I've recently gotten very interested in sea kayaking, and I've been
taking lessons with an eye towards touring on the great lakes.

I haven't read much on kayak fishing, but it seems like most folks
mount poles on the hulls of their kayaks and fish while stationary in
the middle of some body of water. Could one fish while in motion, or
would paddle action disturb fish too much to expect to catch anything?
I guess I'm wondering if it's common to rig something up for trolling
behind the craft as you're busy trying to paddle from point A to point
B.

thanks,
-carl

I do it all the time on class III whitewater (chattooga sec. III). I don't
see why it won't work on flat water...


me

"Carl Hirsch" wrote in message
om...
I've recently gotten very interested in sea kayaking, and I've been
taking lessons with an eye towards touring on the great lakes.

I haven't read much on kayak fishing, but it seems like most folks
mount poles on the hulls of their kayaks and fish while stationary in
the middle of some body of water. Could one fish while in motion, or
would paddle action disturb fish too much to expect to catch anything?
I guess I'm wondering if it's common to rig something up for trolling
behind the craft as you're busy trying to paddle from point A to point

I'm not sure poles are that popular. You can troll or jig with just a spool
of line. I saw in Sea Kayaker magazine that someone was using a kite spool,
a "hoop spool", like the ones on this page:

http://www.intothewind.com/cgi-bin/d...=spo&sort=name

I haven't fished from a kayak myself, but it seems to make sense.

(Carl Hirsch) wrote:

I've recently gotten very interested in sea kayaking, and I've been
taking lessons with an eye towards touring on the great lakes.

I haven't read much on kayak fishing, but it seems like most folks
mount poles on the hulls of their kayaks and fish while stationary in
the middle of some body of water. Could one fish while in motion, or
would paddle action disturb fish too much to expect to catch anything?
I guess I'm wondering if it's common to rig something up for trolling
behind the craft as you're busy trying to paddle from point A to point
B.

Hi Carl,

If you get interested in more varieties of kayak fishing, consider the book
‘KayakFishing: The Revolution,’ by Ken Daubert. Ken covers trolling as a
sub category under three chapters: techniques, fly fishing, and lure
fishing. Mostly just general information about the advantages a kayak
offers over other boats, such as relative stealth, and conditions where
trolling is an advantage over other techniques. Ken does mention large
expanses of water where you don’t know where the fish are, or when you’re
traveling to a certain location anyway, as good times to troll, which does
validate your idea. Other chapters on gear, accessories, and fish handling
are sure to give you useful info.

You might do better when traveling upwind than down wind as your speed will
be lower. Though maybe those great lakes fish like a faster presentation,
who knows? (I’m used to lure fishing for trout near the surface in small
lakes in late fall.) Otherwise you might need to add a little weight a
couple feet up line from the lure to keep it down in the water. Ken
mentions drifting zig zag patterns down wind by pointing your kayak at an
angle relative to the wind, then paddleing up wind, though he’s thinking of
fishing as the primary objective, rather than getting from point A to point
B as the primary objective.

I liked the idea Conrad had about trolling a fly. I’ll have to try that
myself. I also agree with Randy that you’ll probably catch a fish when you
least expect it, sort of a manifestation of Ken Daubert’s theme of fishing
large expanses where you don’t know where the fish are.

For the case of trolling I like the idea of using a rod so you know by the
rod action if you have a fish on.

Good luck. Let us know if you catch anything.

--
Paul S.

Paul Stivers wrote:
For the case of trolling I like the idea of using a rod so you know
by the rod action if you have a fish on.

People use a bungie when the troll a hand-line.

http://members.aol.com/kiayker/fishing.htm

which is a lot like the method I've seen for offshore sailboats.