“Kayak fishing is closer to a sea battle than a picnic”
WITH summer slipping quickly into autumn, I made the decision to get out by kayak at sea while the weather held.
It’s an added thrill to get out in your own small craft – something I’d been meaning to do months ago. Better late than never, I suppose.
There’s always a bit of heavy lifting and gritting of teeth in this type of angling. Lugging a two-man kayak around and launching it into the surf is bracing stuff. It’s closer to a sea battle than a picnic, testing your back as well as your brain.
Rule number one is that everything gets wet. It doesn’t matter how carefully you packed it or where you put it, every last sinker and tackle bag will get soaked. And you’d better know exactly where you put it, because it’s no fun playing hide and seek with the scissors or your favourite lure when a big wave hits.
While anyone can mess around on a kayak on calm seas, it’s fair to say that bass like a good tide and the less comfortable locations. On this occasion, the sweet spot was a big rocky corner, where the water was already flooding a large expanse of boulders.
Forget armchair fishing, it was a case of one man on the paddle to hold position in the swaying sea, with the other casting a lure towards the rocks. I was lucky to have my mate Jack Longden aboard, a strong paddler and swimmer who’s used to this sort of carnage. It goes without saying we had buoyancy aids, and had told loved ones where and when we were fishing.
Tellingly, it was just as the tide built and the butterflies kicked in that we got our first hits. Managing to land a prey fish lookalike right by the rocks, the line suddenly came alive and the rod plunged over.
It never ceases to amaze me how hard bass run on light tackle, and even at around 2lb, this one ripped the drag.
It was also a lesson in being in the right place at the right time, because a few yards along the shore, away from the commotion, we didn’t get a take. Yet every time we braved the rougher water, there’d be another heart-stopping thump.
The frustrating part was that it was almost impossible to get more than three or four casts just where you wanted them on any drift, before being swept out of position. This was often long enough, though, and we had two more bass, including a belting fish of around 3lb.
It was a rough journey home. Relaunching the kayak from a different beach nearly rolled us and it into the sea. If anything, the waves grew even bolder, and it was a genuine relief to be back on dry land. And while I wouldn’t like to fish like this every week, I’d managed better bass than on my last three shore fishing trips put together.
“It never ceases to amaze me how hard bass run on light tackle”