I love fishing out of a kayak. I have a Wavewalk 500 and it's a joy to use. I bought my wife a cheap Kayak from Menards so she can join me. My new boat has sat a lot lately and here are some reasons:
- It's just easier to load up the yak and put it in the water. No worries about battery life.
- When it's windy, boat position can be difficult. Yak positioning is a bit easier.
- I don't have to bring my truck to the lake to load and unload. I can put the yak on top of my wife's Subaru. Yes, the great folks at the resort where I park my RV allow me to use their truck but then I am restricted to one lake.
- I really like the ability to go to one of the many lakes in the area. The lake where I stay does have some bigger bass but it seems they are few and far between.
All this has got me wondering if I should just sell my boat. My wife tells me to be patient. One day we will have a vehicle that can tow the boat and is easy on gas. I'm sure she's right but every time I look over at my boat, I feel silly for making monthly payments on something I don't use all that often.
Lately I've been fishing the same way most mornings. I start with top water lures. More specifically a Strike King Sexy Dawg in blue gill and a popper (numerous brands). I also throw a Stanley Ribbit frog on occasion. Then once the top water bite is done, I'll go to the spots where I'm pretty sure there are fish and I toss around a drop shot for the last hour or two. I use a VMC spinshot hook and a Zoom trick worm in some form of green pumpkin or watermelon. The weight is dependent on the conditions but I go as light as I can.
I usually bring 3 rods on the yak.
- A Daiwa Lexa 100 (7:1:1) matched with an old 6 ft medium Quantum rod spooled with 10 lb mono that I got years ago with a cheap bait cast combo. I use this rod for poppers. The rod is pretty parabolic and seems to allow me to get the treble hooks set without ripping the popper out of the fish's mouth.
- A BPS Pro Qualifier (6:4:1) matched with a 6ft 8 in (approx) St. Croix Triumph MH rod spooled with 12 lb mono. I use this combo for walking baits and as a utility rod of sorts after the top water bite is done.
- The third rod depends on what I plan to do that day but lately it's been my drop shot rod and reel. This is a Cabelas brand spin cast reel and a Scheels brand MH rod spooled with 12 lb fluorocarbon.
Some other items that I've added to the gear this year include:
- A small mouth spreader for the occasional Northern
- A clicker like they use at events to count people. This works great for counting fish. I attached it to my PFD
- A small plastic container I use to carry pliers, braid scissors, used plastics etc. I used Velcro to affix it to the saddle in my yak.
- I did buy a Lowrance Elite 4X HDI fish finder to the bow of my boat. It's a nice little color fish finder and I installed it myself. I like the down scan imaging feature for sure.
The season so far has been pretty awesome. The spawn featured some 30-40 fish mornings and the post spawn was pretty ridiculous as well. One day my son, his friend and I probably caught over 200 fish one morning during the post spawn. The bass were stacked up in a couple locations and were very hungry. Now we are in the basic summer pattern up north here and most mornings I'm averaging 15 fish or so and the evenings I would say I average about 6-8 fish. Some days are better than others but as long as I go to waters that hold fish, I get bit. My biggest bass of the year has been 5 lbs. I have caught probably a dozen or so fish over the 4 lb mark. That's pretty good for this area.
One thing that has been interesting is using the lures I've made myself. I started out using several lures I made and did catch fish on them. But since then I've been opting to purchase lures and use them. Why am I doing that? Well, the fish around here in the clear water I fish seem to want a top water lure that is translucent and blue gill or a shadow minnow pattern is key. I just don't have any lures that fit the bill. Also the popper bite has been focused on a smaller profile lure than what I made last winter. I will take these things into consideration next winter when I get back to building lures!
That's all for now. Tight lines everyone!
