ANGLER OR PADDLER?
Those who own a kayak and like fishing have developed a strong sense of their place on the water… they enjoy being different
Kayakers find their place in sea fishing.
Aquestion often asked among kayak anglers is whether, individually, we’re kayakers or anglers first. A natural question and one which changes over time, depending on where your love develops most.
It’s fair to say that the bulk of the kayak fishing community in the UK has come from the angling side of things, predominantly from disillusioned beach anglers, with a smaller number of freshwater anglers wanting to access hard-to-reach swims, or former boat owners wanting to fish with lower costs.
We’re becoming more visible both on the water and the internet. We have, as a community, developed a culture of mixed media reporting involving narrative, photography and video. We’re friendly – the demographic is mostly in the 30-50 age range – and are people that are a bit more outgoing and wanting to live outside their daily life.
We share opinions on kayaks, tackle and techniques. We meet up, show each other the ropes, travel across the country for specific fish and throw open our home areas for meets.
The secrecy of some other cliques of anglers is almost non-existent and, in this area, we perhaps resemble more the kayaking scene, but we’re between both camps and a distinctly separate group, and that’s why we seem to question where we fit.
GADGET SEARCH
The typical scenario is that we mostly decide to buy an angling kayak in order to increase the range of our fishing. We want to get our baits out into the deeper water offshore, on to the banks and into the gullies and not just fish blind.
Fishing wild is hunting a needle in a haystack at the best of times, especially in the sea, and any advantage that sees fish on the hook is keenly sought. Then we start on the gadgets. One of the first purchases after kayak and paddle is a fishfinder, perhaps with GPS and chartplotter too. We want to see what’s beneath us and around us...we want to pinpoint our spots and save our successful locations for next time.
We usually decide we’re anglers first…and then it starts to blur. It’s no longer a kayak – it’s fast or a barge, too slow or too tippy, too short or unstable. It needs a rudder. Which paddle is better? Or pedals? Name brand or foreign import? What should I wear?
We begin our quest to find what we want and what suits our waters. Many begin with something wide and stable. Six months later their feet want to run, not amble, and they get a longer, slimmer model. Then the question turns to composite, and one kayak isn’t enough. I need one for this and one for that.
When I began, the choices were fewer. I was a mature student, skint, and had to get it right first time. Had it not been for the one I chose being out of stock I would have had a compromise. I found myself with an Ocean Kayak Prowler 15, two feet longer and a fair bit faster than the model I’d persuaded myself to buy.
A year on I still loved it and I still rate it highly, though it’s now been sunk, rammed by a riverboat after a friend had persuaded me to sell. I was offered my first sponsorship deal with Ocean Kayak. The Trident 15 was a new concept, designed for offshore fishing with a centre hatch to stow rods for rough landings or fish, tackle, bait and anchors. I was happy with that too…for about two years.
I decided I wanted to cut down on weight and go more streamlined to help with battling the strong tidal flows. This pointed straight at the original Ocean Kayak design, the Scupper Pro. A marvellous kayak, a responsive hull with plenty of rocker and a low centre of gravity, I was even starting to talk like a paddler. And it surfed, but not quite enough. Along came another Ocean Kayak, a Yakboard, and I played every time the sea got big. My handling skills went through the roof.
KAYAK CURIOSITY
With two in the armoury that did most of what I wanted, I got rid of the Trident and Prowler. But sometimes there wasn’t any fishing to be done and I got curious. What’s real paddling like, then? A composite sea kayak was next on the list and along came a Necky Chatham 17 in composite, and I paddled to my heart’s content.
However, I was bored covering miles of sea without a purpose, and it became neglected; it wasn’t suitable for fishing. Then the Yakboard became limiting and I started looking for something that performed better. I tried an Ocean Kayak Yahoo briefly, a sit-on-top designed for white water and okay for short fishing sessions. It wasn’t quite right, but the also-discontinued stablemate was. Here at last was my surf toy, an Ocean Kayak RRRapido. Now I could really hit the surf properly.
For a few years I left the Ocean Kayak Fishing Team and decided to switch brands a year later. To do so I had to find the equal, as a
minimum, of the Scupper Pro.
Kaskazi and Stealth both did cracking kayaks, but they wouldn’t do for my winter, rough sea, anchored cod fishing. I field-tested the Cuda 14 from Jackson Kayaks...too slow and too heavy for me. Comfortable, though (and I managed to surf it). Perception and Wilderness both had nice kayaks too, but were not quite right for me.
That left Rotomod. This company had two brands that interested me – RTM and DAG. The RTM Tempo, based upon the Scupper Pro, was a definite. Then I saw the DAG MidWay. That looked like the one for me to develop things another notch, a paddler’s angling kayak.
I approached Totaloption, the UK distributor, and got the go-ahead to form an RTM fishing team for the UK, as well as collecting my two new kayaks, a white DAG MidWay Angler and a black RTM Tempo. I started increasing my boundaries, pushing out to the four-mile mark, hitting areas of stronger tides and rougher water; the right boats for a hardcore and experienced year-round sit-on-top kayaker…to go fishing.
ADDED MOBILITY
Of course, there is a flipside to the coin. Coming from an angling background that was predominantly shore or bank-based, the fishing side develops in tandem with the kayaking.
Beginning to kayak fish, I made full use of the mobility. My lures were coupled with my existing rods and reels designed for different purposes. I predominantly trolled for pike on the rivers and Broads where I lived, with some success.
Once my attention turned to the sea, I used the same equipment but fished with shore rigs, namely two-hook paternosters with heavy lead weights. You can guess that this was not all that successful, so I had to develop better tactics and improve my skills.
I invested in shorter rods, which are more manageable on a kayak. Gone were my 10-footers, replaced by 7ft rods that were short enough to allow me to catch hold of fish once alongside, while long enough to lead them around the bow. Paternosters were replaced with flowing traces that fished the baits hard on the bottom.
These rods also made trolling simpler on the rivers. Wintertime catches improved, but this wasn’t suitable year-round. Come the summer, my attentions turned firstly to fishng with feathers and then to trolling lures at sea, the same lures I used on the river.
The rods, designed for casting heavy lead weights, soon got replaced with lighter spinning rods, the reels with lighter baitcasting reels. Even-lighter rods were acquired for hunting small species in the river. Then my attentions turned to species hunting. Soon I was finding even more species and adding rigs and tactics, experimenting with baits and changing styles.
I started using the light freshwater equipment on the sea and discovered mini species. I added pirks and began drifting over open water and then wreck fishing. The species count went up.
I signed up for a sponsorship agreement with a tackle company and my arsenal of kit became more varied. I began specimen hunting as well, always looking for larger fish. I started to travel further fin the hope of catching specific species of fish.
I tried fly-fishing, light rock fishing and spinning and sought unfished and perhaps unfishable waters. I’m now expanding my horizons outside of the kayak to try out other areas and different tackle from the shore and local charter boats, translating skills and advice learnt to the kayak. None of this would have happened had I not begun using a kayak to fish.
That brings me back to the original question – am I a kayaker or angler? I’m not. I’m a kayak angler. We’re a breed apart, constrained only by our imagination, attitude and determination. ■