Test your fishing reflexes

Tackle Talk

SA fishing reports  

Oz fishing reports

Good tackle gives your fishing experience an extra shine.  There is nothing worse than losing a fish because your rig was not up to the task.

I do not fish for sport.  For me it is a food-gathering exercise and so I use tackle which will land the fish.
Of course I release non-legal fish like any responsible person.

If you are going to catch-and-release, crush or remove the barbs on your hooks.  This may make it harder to land some fish but those that you do land will suffer less injury and will be easier to remove from the hook; increasing their survival chances on release. 

TIP:  When attaching your anchor to its line, attach it in two places.  Make the strongest attachment to the bottom of the anchor.  Tie the line to the top of the anchor with light line just strong enough to retrieve the anchor normally.  If the anchor snags, you can break the light line and then pull the anchor from the bottom.  The new pull angle should release the snag.

The secrets in kayak fishing are to take the minimum amount of gear and to prepare your tackle in advance.   I recommend Kistler to build the perfect multi-purpose rod for your kayak.

I take only two rods.  One is a light  rod about 5 feet 6 inches long with a a closed face reel and the other is a 5 feet long single piece with an eggbeater reel.

The light rod is has 6 pound line and the heavier rod has 25 pound line.  I use the closed face reel for bait and lure fishing for smaller fish and the heavier set-up for trolling.

The light set up is very quick and is great for fast attacking fish.  The flexible tip keeps the line tight and minimises hook throwing. 

The heavier set up is used for trolling because of the possibility of getting a strike from a sizeable fish.  

Fish Finder:
I picked my fish finder up new on eBay.  It runs off 4 AAA batteries and can handle depths up to 90 feet.  The whole shebang with batteries weighs about 4 ounces.  Even though it is so tiny, it can be used through the hull.  Rather than fix the transducer to the inside of the hull by silicon or other goop, I made a low (1/4 inch) well of silicon sealant just larger than the transducer on the floor of the hull.  All I need to do is fill the well with water and slip the transducer in.  If I want to use the fish finder somewhere else - no problem..  

You've only got a small amount of space in your kayak and so I recommend that you take the best tackle you can get so you are not carrying any useless gear.  You can get great lures over the internet from JLV lures.

To maximise the flexibility of your rig, attach a small snap swivel to each hook loop.  You can rearrange the bottom tackle quickly without the need for multiple pre-made rigs.  
Pre-tie loops on floats so they can be clipped into the snap swivels.  
Make up a series of bottom rigs with swivels but without hooks on one continuous line...wrap them around a cotton reel...cut a new one off each time you lose one.

Fishing techniques.
I use three main fishing techniques.

Anchoring:
When anchor fishing, I always use berley and fish for the smaller varieties of fish with my light rod.

Drifting:
Again I use the light rod and will drift with bait or lure depending on the location.

Trolling:
By having the rod in front of me, I can see as soon as there is a strike and can grab the rod quickly.  The speed of a fishing kayak is low and you need to adjust weight or length of line to get the same depth as power boat trolling.

Anchor technique:
When anchor fishing from a regular boat which end do you fish from?  The end away from the anchor of course!  Do the same in your kayak.  But, as you always face the front in your kayak you must anchor from the rear.  

How strong should your anchor line be?  It needs to be no stronger than the amount of pull you can generate from the kayak.