Kayak Fishing Gets Bigger and Better in Texas

KAYAKING IS NOT only here to stay, but opportunities are increasing annually for kayak anglers to fish competitively with anglers in motorboats.

Twenty years ago, coastal anglers in places such as Rockport, Seadrift and West Galveston Bay were just getting used to seeing kayakers on the bay. Now, kayak anglers are commonplace on the coast and are growing on the inland fishing scene. Enhanced technology and a die-hard attitude have spawned some unique kayak fisheries.

Modern kayaks can be rigged with an almost unlimited array of fishing accessories. Hobie’s Mirage Drive propulsion system for kayaks makes paddles nearly obsolete. Weighing in at under eight pounds, the MirageDrive 180 produces full power in both directions. Users can

pull one of two shift cables to pivot the fins 180 degrees, almost instantly from forward to reverse and back again. The dual fins provide shallow water access and easy shore landings by simply pushing one pedal forward.

Possibilities include backing fish out of cover; safely fishing closer to obstructions; or fishing downstream while holding in current. Hands-free propulsion in any direction means better control: to cast, to present baits, and to concentrate on landing bigger fish.

Motors are also available for kayaks, including the Torqeedo 402 electric motor from Hobie. It can operate for several hours on two knots but also allow anglers to move into bursts of speed. Kayaks can also be fitted with small outboard and standard trolling motors with price and efficiency varying greatly.

These innovations are allowing more anglers to use kayaks in the Gulf. On calm days, it’s common to see anglers launching from the beach and fishing the short rigs on the Upper Coast and moving up and down the jetty systems. The added “oomph” of electric propulsion helps anglers in those areas with powerful currents.

They are also great for fishing beyond the third sandbar where anglers often can’t reach without running lines out with a kayak.

“You’ll find good numbers of game fish such as speckled trout, redfish, flounders, Spanish mackerels, and snook lurking in the sudsy water roiled by waves breaking over the sandbars,” said TFG Saltwater Editor Cal Gonzalez. “Still, a few anglers look past the waves toward the calm seas reaching towards the horizon and wonder what swims out there. That’s where kayaks come in handy.

“The website Texas Kayak Fishers (texaskayakfishers.com) has dedicated an entire message board, titled ‘Beyond the Breakers,’ to the practice of fishing where few lines have gone before.”

 

 

“There’s a lot to fish for out there,” said Mark Lingo of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Coastal Fisheries Division. “You have an incredible variety of species. You have the typical game fish such as redfish and snook, but you also have king and Spanish mackerels, large jack crevalle, a variety of sharks, and tarpon. I’ve even spotted sailfish within 150 yards of the beach when we’ve had a stretch of calm days and the blue water comes in close.”

TF&G Boating Editor Lenny Rudow recently blogged about fishing for mahi-mahi (dolphin, dorado) in a kayak by taking the kayak in his bay boat and using the stealthy kayak to fish around key structures.

Always featuring safety first, Rudow noted the following about mahi and other large sportfish from a kayak.

• Safety measures: stay relatively close to the boat, and always wear your PFD. We rigged ours with a floating/waterproof VHF, as well.

• Landing a mahi in a kayak is virtually impossible. As soon as you get it in the boat it flips right back out. Instead, a much more effective method was to hook up the fish, bring it in close, and paddle back to the “mothership” boat. Then someone on board could scoop it in the net.

• We found that fewer fish were lost if we never took out the hook and instead handed the rod up, as the fish was taken aboard. Once the fish was in the boat, only then did we remove the hook.

• Mahi are not usually spooky fish. Having the kayak directly overhead didn’t affect them one bit. In fact, we caught 11 from the school before they began getting hesitant about taking baits.

Fishing from a “mothership” as Rudow mentions is growing in popularity. It gives anglers an opportunity to fish with stealth along weedlines for often spooky tripletails. It gets you right over locations at rigs where fish are bonded to a specific piece of structure that’s not easy to reach from a larger boat.

Sonar is now easily accessible, and tailor made for kayak owners and is great for fishing around rigs, but it really increases the level of participation from bass fishermen. Take the Humminbird Fishin’ Buddy Max Sonar for example. A multidirectional mount allows it to be clipped virtually anywhere. There’s no rigging, wiring or transducer to mount. Depth capability to 600 feet allows you to identify cover and structure.

Kayak bass tournaments are on the rise. A new generation of bass fishermen are cutting their teeth on paddling, but perhaps a little modern tech to help them along.

In some situations, the stealth of kayaks along with sonar might offer an advantage, especially on heavily pressured lakes. If anyone thinks bass don’t know the sound of a motorboat, they are mistaken.

Paddling in during the coming prespawn or easing up toward nests on some of Texas’s best bass lakes makes the marriage between tech and tenacity a deadly combination for bass fishermen or for those who wish to venture beyond the breakers.

 

—TFG Staff Report

 

 

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