I used to wonder this same question, why use a kayak for fishing?  I always thought they were too small, that you couldn’t get to the areas that you wanted to fish, uncomfortable, pain to load and unload, etc.  I was completely wrong, in every sense.  It did take me a little while to get the hang of kayak fishing, but once I did, everything else fell into place.  My goal is to help you, so that it doesn’t take you as long as it took me to start catching more fish!

One reason to use a kayak for fishing is that you are only able to bring a certain amount of gear.  This forces you to become a better fishermen because you learn what baits work, and leave the fluff at home.  You can only bring a couple rods as well, not a full rod locker of 10-12 rods like you would find on a bass boat.  This all helps you become a better angler, by teaching you techniques that work.  You can then take these back to your bass boat buddies, and be the man.

I also thought that using a kayak for fishing would be very, very uncomfortable.  This was the case for a little while.  One of the things that almost pushed me away from kayak fishing all together.  I couldn’t imagine how people could sit in these things for 8 hours at a time, in the blistering heat.  After a few outings, having raw legs, sore back, banged up elbows, and generally in pain, I really almost gave up the sport.  Taking a 2 month hiatus (through the cold season, hey, I’m a fair weather fishermen!)  I learned a few things that I could use in the next season.  One of these things was comfort, and how to make your fishing kayak more comfortable.   When the weather started heating up again, my drive took over, and back to kayak fishing I went.  This time with a renewed vigor, and a few mods to my kayak to make it more comfortable.

When most people think about fishing, they automatically think about the perfect areas to fish.  They will travel all day long, searching for the honey hole, not realizing that they have passed up more fish than they have ever caught in their life, by boating around all day.  When you use a kayak for fishing, you can’t travel 100 miles in a day, so you are forced to anchor up, and fish a spot, move a few hundred yards, and repeat.  This will advance your fishing skill more than you can imagine.  Fishing after all requires patience, and driving around in a boat all day searching for fish isn’t my definition of patience.  Once you realize that you don’t have to travel 2 miles to catch fish, you will start catching more.  I have had more hookups next to the dock waiting for my friends to load their boats in the water, than I can count.  Just slow down!

Using a kayak for fishing does add a little more work to it, than just throwing the rods in the boat, and backing the truck up.  In my case, I use a small Toyota Corolla to tote my boat, tackle, gear, and everything else I can fit on the boat with me.  When you get to the spot that you are going to launch at, you do have to put all the gear onto the kayak.  Otherwise, it would just be a kayak, and not a fishing kayak!  It usually takes me 10-15 minutes to put the boat together, and about 20 minutes total, before I am on the water.  This is a little inconvenient, but if you built all of your gear like I have, or have taken pride in rigging your kayak, it is just another thing.

Using a kayak for fishing means stealth and silence.  When you are out fishing on a stinkpot boat, people are talking, banging rods, stepping down hard.  All of these vibrations and noises may seem like they don’t matter above the water, but once that noise hits the waters surface through the boat, it is amplified.  Even small noises are bad.  They may not scare fish away, but you will put them on alert, and make them nervous.  When was the last time you ate something thrown in front of you while you were nervous?  Fish are the same way.  So if you wondered why you should use a kayak for fishing I hope I have summed it up for you!