Senior Kayak Angler

Fishing trips with grandchildren on board your kayak

senior kayak angler — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:24:04 +0000

As one grows older, one usually grows wiser, and more cautious. Many elderly anglers who have fished from a kayak realize it’s a no go, because even the stablest sit-in, SOT or hybrid fishing kayak does not offer adequate comfort and sufficient stability. You don’t have to suffer from any particular physical condition to realize that.

These requirements limit your choice to basically one kayak, the W.

If you add on top of that a requirement that your kayak should enable you to take your grand kids on board comfortably and safely, although kids are known to behave unpredictably (and unsafely), you end up doing what this eighty year old grandfather from Tasmania (Australia) did, and you get yourself a W kayak:

Eighty year old grandfather with three grandchildren paddling a stable fishing kayak – Tasmania, Australia

Needless to say that teaching your young passengers to paddle together as a team, is another thing, and results may vary

Don Snags Impressive Bass from Fishing Kayak Despite Arthritis

senior kayak angler — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 00:28:46 +0000

I own a [brand name kayak distributed by a nationwide fishing gear chain store].
I tried out my son Clint’s Wavewalk kayak and caught this 6 lb-4oz largemouth flipping jigs in the heavy weeds. I have arthritic knees and the stand up fishing in the Wavewalk kayak is awesome, so I ordered one for myself.

Don

Gary Rankel Tour Tampa Bay in his W Fishing Kayak

senior kayak angler — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 23:38:41 +0000

Neil, kayak fishing guide extraordinaire, took me on a 2-day fishing tour of the Tampa Bay area this week, and took these pictures of some of the snook and redfish we caught. We had nice overcast weather and the Wavewalk fishing kayak performed great as usual. Thanks to Neil, I’ll now have a few more places to check out when fishing slows down in Ozello.

Gary

Rox Catches Some Bass from her Fishing Kayak

senior kayak angler — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 23:33:04 +0000

July has been a slow month for kayak fishing for me.
I was wading the Ct River for some awesome Small Mouth Bass fishing, and was rewarded with some fine Bass.
The only problem with fishing the river is slippery bottoms, especially around the ledges. I lost my footing after a long morning of wading, slipped off a boulder, and wedged my left ankle in between two rocks…
I didn’t break anything, I don’t bounce like I used to. But I had some bad cuts from the rocks’ sharp edges…. and the car was three miles down river…
I walked back, went to the ER, and they cleaned up my cuts, but the 4 1/2 lb Small Mouth Bass I caught before the fall, made the whole trip worth it.

I didn’t get back out till just last week, I was going stir crazy with no fishing since the 3rd of July.

Here are some pictures from the wading to the old yellow W300 kayak pond hopping, and from a fishing trip with my buddy to Congamond Lake in Massachusetts.

The Battles were fast and furious, Med/Hvy rod with 40lb Fireline braid made quick work pulling the bass out of the lilies and weeds.

Rox

Ricky Heads out With his ‘Personal Trout Assault Vehicle’

senior kayak angler — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 23:27:08 +0000

Headed out at 5:45 AM, hoping to beat the expected 108 degree temperatures.
We are fishing the Norfork River, a small but storied tailwater beginning at the base of the Norfork Dam and ending four and one half miles later at the confluence with the White at the little town of Norfork, Arkansas. The dam’s two generators are shut down, and the river is extremely low, gin clear but cool. These conditions require a specialized floatation tool, the Wavewalk, very thin tippets, and long casts with pinhead size flies, size 18 and 20.
The fish are easily spooked, and getting to them requires traversing eight shoal areas, that dissect the stream and limit access. Without a craft capable of moving well through skinny water, light enough to be manhandled, and tough enough to be dragged through rocky terrain, one simply fishes the public areas, does a lot of wading on slippery rocks, or fishes somewhere else.

My “Personal Trout Assault Vehicle” allowed such a trip and it paid off handsomely with many fine rainbow, aggressive browns, and resplendent cutthroat trout being brought to hand during our six hour day.

My paddling skills are improving, and my ability to read the fast water allowed me to have to exit the vessel less frequently, remembering that I test the recommended single occupancy of our vessel. My much lighter companion rarely if ever had to push off, but did manage to nail a large rock in a swift shoal and stick. He jumped out, the boat eased off, and he reentered, hardly deterred.

This fishing kayak gives me access to water that before would have not been available to me. That’s why I fish in a kayak, my trout assault vehicle.

Rickey

Fish On Yaks

Gary Catches Some Nice Fish from his Fishing Kayak

senior kayak angler — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 23:24:00 +0000

I had a great day today catching bluefish, jack crevalle and ladyfish on just about every cast for an hour or so. The only problem was a few sharks in the area also took an interest in these fish resulting in me reeling in one bluefish head, one tailless trout (see pictures) and a second bluefish sawed in half. I also got big a lizard fish, a small sea bass and a catfish and jack crevalle which both hit my lure and got hooked at the same time. All the fish blood was coloring my yellow noodles red, but I managed to clean them up when I got home. I lost about $40 worth of lures to the toothy critters today, but was it worth it – Oh Yeh.
Bob Smaldone and his wife spotted me and came over to say hi in his power boat – said he lost an anchor today. Oh well, we’ll see what the next trip hold for us.

Gary
More about kayak fishing trips >

Kayaking for the Next Generation

senior kayak angler — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 14:34:18 +0000

Kayak fishing is a tried and true sport that many senior anglers have had years to master. However, kayak fishing has never been very popular with kids and teens, who might find it lackluster and tedious. However, the W Fishing Kayak has proven to be a solution to this issue, for its ease of use, super stability which allows stand up paddling, and aesthetic appeal has made it a hit among younger users. Youth kayak fishing, a new blog dedicated to highlighting the younger segment of the kayaking and kayak fishing community, is now up and running with plenty of great content. Check it out!

Advanced Fishing Kayaks

senior kayak angler — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:55:30 +0000

A cool new site dedicated to kayak fishing has just been set up: Advanced Fishing Kayaks… everyone should give it a visit if they want to read more about kayak fishing!

Kayak Fishing in the USA

senior kayak angler — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 19:36:53 +0000

This blog is filled with plenty of kayak fishing content, but the more the merrier! A new website with even more articles and reviews, USA Kayak Fishing Magazine, is now up and running, check it out.

First WaveWalk Paddle Trip, Kayak Review By Retired Gentleman From Texas

senior kayak angler — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 14:05:31 +0000

Took my WaveWalk out this morning for my first paddle and decided to take a trip thru some of our marshes down here. According to a google earth retracing of my steps I covered about 5.7 miles in 2 hours at a leisurely pace (as would be expected from a Retired Gentleman of Leisure).
The wind was blowing about 8 mph when I started and picked up to 15 to 20 towards the last half of the trip. We had a thunder storm moving in with the usual increase in winds, cloudiness and slight drop in temperature. Literally “no sweat.”
This gave me a chance to compare how the WaveWalk handled the wind as compared to my experiences with both sit in and sit on top kayaks. I think that I can sum it up as WOW! All I had to do was shift my position to raise the bow or stern enough to give me enough weather vane effect to keep me pretty much on a straight course. It took a little experimentation, but I picked up on it pretty quick. I also think that the wind being channeled between the 2 hulls helped me stay on line to a degree. The main point is that I did NOT have to paddle just on one side to keep my heading in a quartering or broadside wind, even when crossing open water. Just scoot towards bow or stern and keep on truckin’.
I had a tug pushing a load of barges up the Neches River throw a pretty good wake at me when I was fixin’ to cross on my way back to the launch. I was pretty nervous, but I shifted my weight all the way to the back of the cockpit and took the 1.5 to 2 foot wake head on. No problems once I got over the initial “oh crap” moment, and the boat took the waves just fine.
I got caught in the rain for the last 40 minutes or so, but I was having so much fun that I decided that if Indians didn’t have ponchos then I didn’t need one either. I wonder if Hyawatha got as nervous as I did when the lightening started popping…
I had a great paddle.
Snuck up on birds, fish, a boat full of fisherman and the one small gator who wasn’t paying much attention. (choot ‘em, Lizabet) Got a few blisters and my muscles are a little sore (hey, I’m 60) but no yak back and my shoulder with arthritis feels pretty good. I was kind of surprised when I stepped out onto land at the end of the trip and staggered around for a few minutes. It’s true – you do use the muscles in your thighs when you paddle a WaveWalk, you just don’t notice it.

Being able to change positions while paddling also helped my knees tremendously. Years ago I shattered one knee cap twice (full of screws now) and tore cartilage in the other, so that was a big plus for me.
I only have one question – how come nobody thought of a catamaran hull concept for paddling craft a long time ago? Ok, so the Polynesians may have figured it out first on a larger scale. It needs less energy to paddle than a sit in, is much more stable than a SOT, your back doesn’t hurt and your butt stays dry! What more could you ask for?
I want to thank both of you for the amount of time that you spent giving me and my friend a test drive and a few tips. The only thing that I would suggest so far is a couple of tie downs inside the hull to tie a small dry box or whatever to securely keep your ID, cell phone, fishing license and maybe a few bucks from going swimming if you get swamped or capsize. Just a thought…

Anyway, thanks guys! I’m having a blast! I’m gonna infect my son with WaveWalk fever the first chance I get, as he is still using a SOT. I think Village Creek would be a good place to start him out.

Lee,
Nederland, Texas

Addendum:

I did a lot of research on the W500 – read all of the blogs and watched most of the videos – before I started saving the funds to possibly purchase one. I had the “book knowledge” on the W500 but not the practical experience. The purchase was totally dependent on a test drive to see if it was as advertised. Thanks to the time that Rolf & Bob spent with me on the initial test run, it didn’t take long to get the basics down. My first comment when I got back to the launch was I want one!

Although I do plan on doing some fishing from the W, I realized that I need to get more practical experience learning the boat before I do some inshore fishing in it. Plus it’s really great to get back to cruising the marshes & bayous like I used to do years ago. If you’re going into unfamiliar territory, especially back in the marshes, take the time to use GoogleEarth to print a map of the area. A compass is great, but the bayous twist & turn quite a bit and you often can see where you want to be but can’t get there without a map on board. Man, do I love GoogleEarth!

So I’m looking forward to spending some more time just wandering around and getting better with the W and enjoying the sights before I actually go fishing. I’d rather be in a narrow twisting bayou than just about anywhere. Thanks again to Rolf & Bob, as well as the wealth of info at the W web site, for making retirement even better than it already is.

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