Honest opinions about the sport of kayak fishing

As I mentioned in my 'Intro Post,' I'm seriously looking at getting a new fishing kayak. I've never fished from a kayak before, but watching all those YouTube videos of catching big lingcods, rock fish, salmon, and stripers is strongly enticing me to drop some $$$ into a quality pedal Yak.

I do plan on trying it out first (rental somewhere), but before I pull the trigger for my own yak, I'm hoping some of you could share your opinions about the sport. Good and bad, what can I expect? What do you like, what do you hate? Any regrets? Thanks all

It's been great.

I've met some of my best friends through this hobby, and only a half dozen mortal enemies.

Just watch the safety parts, don't fall into too much of the facebook and instagram bullshit, and you'll have fun.

-bmb

It's tough to get up early often, cleaning and processing fish is messy and no fun yet the cooking and sharing and eating is excellent, I hate getting seasick.  Losing fish is a pure slam with almost eternal mental consequences, but landing a good fish is super rewarding.  I love seeing and feeling that rod load up and stick and peel line and gain ground and hang on... more line out until death do us part or join... Certainly meeting people and building relationships is a high point.  Always figuring out the fish puzzle from species and technique, to location, launch, and landing is a great challenge and always being improved upon including my own kayak system.  There's probably deeper stuff but that's a start.  My latest enjoyment is knowing where to fish for what species at what time of the year.  It becomes a cycle or routine as the seasons of life go by....

I'm guessing that you have gone fishing before, just not from a kayak. If that is true then you know the joy of fishing already. Fishing from a kayak offers a less expensive way to access so much more than you can from shore. It offers the chance to customize your fishing system and spend way more money. Many people call it an addiction. If you are not sure it is for you, consider starting with a used less expensive kayak. If you enjoy kayak fishing you can replace it when you know more about what you like and don't like in a kayak. You can even keep the old one as a loaner kayak for friends and family. I can't think of anything bad. It is different than shore fishing, boat fishing, charter fishing etc. Everything had pluses and minuses but I like kayak fishing the best.

Pretty wide open question.

Learn how the use th search function here and go through the archives. There’s so much good info here on launch sites and technique.

Get the best used kayak you can afford. For you being new to kayaking and being primarily a fisherman first I’d look at a pedal drive like the Hobie outback.

Take safety very,  very seriously. The ocean doesn’t give a shit about you one way or the other and you need to be prepared for all contingencies. Again the archives will help.

I come off as pretty aggressive and dickish but bmb is a bigger dick than I am so at least I have that going for me.

Ultimately kayak fishing is like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it. You can be competitive, you can just hang out and be social, you can take up spearfishing and freediving, you can travel, it’s all up to you to make your experience your own and what effort you want to put into it.

Or what spiffy said. Especially cliques.  We should have patches made.

While there are a lot of youtube videos making it look like it's catching trophy fish left and right, what they don't show you are all the failed trips getting to that point and all the work it takes to get there.  There can be quite a bit of setup involved and it's easy to forgot something as simple as oh i left my bait in the freezer, or shoot i thought my battery was charged but it's dead.  It's endless hours of learning about gear, tackle, ocean conditions etc just to get started.

The setup, transportation, and cleanup (think sand and salt) is definitely the worst part of it.  Waking up early blows.  Seasickness sucks.  These things depends on the individual of course.

Only thing I regret so far was buying an Outback instead of a Revo at first =P

like any other "thing" there`s hardcore kayak-angling jerks, hardcore  kayak-angling  nice guys, casual slayers and  cliques , the competitive types ,non competitive types , over the top going to get a divorce cause they fish too much and ignore their family types.there`s  the sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads  they all get a kick out of it. , they think it`s a righteous challenge

what I hate  : bmb and getting a hook embedded in my hand ,but I cant decide which is worse

what  like : DirtyDave ,Eddy,Rockfish,Bushy,3$J,polepole,Raydon,Ravensblack,LoletaEric,rockroach,Chad,Cabeza,Craig ,TW ,Alex-Bulldog  ,rider,Hojo,SHULAND,Vwool,Big Jim,FishMaster , Sin Coast,NoSoupforU,Ariel,Shifra,Yakhopper,Fisherman X,RockHopper,Fishshadow,Napajustin,Louis ,Josh,ChuckE,Yoda,Crash (even though he likes turtles), Traildad,Scottymeboy,Nick,Annie,Kiel,Tommy,Jingle,Happy Hooker ,H1,Jeff,Rob ,Steve,R bark, Pablo, Darius,Don,texas boy ,Alain and thats just the off the top of my head..oh and yeah even Bmb ( dont tell him) 

Counter point-

Ferris bueller was a sociopath.

like any other "thing" there`s hardcore kayak-angling jerks, hardcore  kayak-angling  nice guys, casual slayers and  cliques , the competitive types ,non competitive types , over the top going to get a divorce cause they fish too much and ignore their family types.there`s  the sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads  they all get a kick out of it. , they think it`s a righteous challenge

what I hate  : bmb and getting a hook embedded in my hand ,but I cant decide which is worse

what  like : DirtyDave ,Eddy,Rockfish,Bushy,3$J,polepole,Raydon,Ravensblack,LoletaEric,rockroach,Chad,Cabeza,Craig ,TW ,Alex-Bulldog  ,rider,Hojo,SHULAND,Vwool,Big Jim,FishMaster , Sin Coast,NoSoupforU,Ariel,Shifra,Yakhopper,Fisherman X,RockHopper,Fishshadow,Napajustin,Louis ,Josh,ChuckE,Yoda,Crash (even though he likes turtles), Traildad,Scottymeboy,Nick,Annie,Kiel,Tommy,Jingle,Happy Hooker ,H1,Jeff,Rob ,Steve,R bark, Pablo, Darius,Don,texas boy ,Alain and thats just the off the top of my head..oh and yeah even Bmb ( dont tell him)

Atta Spiff'...gotta get a Hali...it's comin'...fished for Salmon in Benicia today early and got skunked...

Mostly I catch small fish and have a great time.


the good - the people, fishing places that are otherwise impossible to get to, catching a ton of fish


the bad - gas money becomes a real thing


the indifferent - some people do get competitive and then get bent out of shape, its the same everywhere. You'll want one kayak, then two kayaks, then 3, then more? hows this different than any other hobby?

It's a lot of work...loading the car up, unloading when you get to the water, then loading it up to go home. THEN after finally getting home you unload and clean everything.

It's worse when you skunk a few times and have to convince yourself to do it all over again.

Where as if I wanted to just fish from shore I could grab my rod and small bag and be on my way. 

The fish quality is much higher from a kayak vs from shore.

I only regret buying a paddle kayak first, as I should have just bought a peddle one upfront.

Pep talk eh? Lol 😂

For me being an older gent. The start of the day is ok loading up things, the fishing and friends is absolutely wonderful when you find that other friend to hang with. The end of the day after all is done is tough. After a long strenuous paddle catching fish cleaning fish and your yak thats the part I don't care much for. Thats where the work comes in. But It is worth it.

Good Luck

I'll second that it is a ton of work. Loading gear, prepping the boat, launching, then landing, rinsing everything, and packing it away for the next time.

But I just love it. Been at it since 1997 and have never tired of it. The ability to launch a watercraft where hardly any other boats fish is something I have always enjoyed. Plus, there's nothing like a good, sporty surf launch and landing!

I was used to fishing solo, so for me the community of NCKA was just a massive bonus.

Pep talk eh? Lol 😂

or maybe trying to convince his GF/ wife to let him spend $$$$ 

I’ll save you the drama, get a trident 13, get a FF with GPS, get a trevala , life jacket n farmer John, vhf radio... suggest 2nd hand unless you’re rich.  Work your way up from blue gills >crappies > bass>striped bass> halibut>ling cod/rockfish>Salmon>sturgeon.... make friends . Be cool. Don’t be a dick! Learn to tie knots palomar, San Diego jam knot, gt blood knot for braid to mono... be safe not sorry