First trout on my Phoenix 140

Caught my first rainbow with my son the other weekend up on Shaver Lake. Never thought I'd be trolling with my flyrod! Caught it on a wooly booger with a slow sink tip, paddling very slow.  My son was very excited. It went about 14". I rarely take fish but occasionally we eat one or two.



another with my son holding the fish

Very Cool  Welcome to the madness 

A fly rod , sinking line and a slow paddlng can be one of the best trolling set ups going.

thanks guys. I feel like sort of an anomoly here in the central part of cali. The central coast is 2.5 hrs away so I find myself on local lakes mostly. I've lurked for a while here and over at Texaskayakfisher.com learning as much as possible. My wife and kids like the whole yak sport so the fleet will be growing. Great site and lots of useful stuff. I am making some small improvements to the phoenix - paddle keepers and replacing the rear hatch with a hatch that has a bag built into it. FF to follow shortly.

Rod

looks like a great weekend of paddling n' fishing.  Your kayak looks just like a Tarpon from Wilderness Systems. 

Nice one man!

We hit Oneil Forebay in the fall and winter look for the post in the hookups section and come join us.

The Forebay is hot now. September is the time to start hitting it.
Ivanhoe you're actually in my neck of the woods.
Plenty of fly fishing oppts around for trout and bass.
Do remember to rig everything (rodholders etc) behind you, because the fly line will find anything thats in the cockpit. One more thing on casting from a yak. DON'T  do the overhead cast , angle your arm abit.

The central coast is 2.5 hrs away so I find myself on local lakes mostly.
Rod

ONLY 2.5 hours away? You are LUCKY!!!

Congrats on the trout. You can pretty much just drift if there is any movement on the water and get the same results with that set up. This way you can keep the rod in your hand the whole time.

The Forebay is hot now. September is the time to start hitting it.
Ivanhoe you're actually in my neck of the woods.
Plenty of fly fishing oppts around for trout and bass.
Do remember to rig everything (rodholders etc) behind you, because the fly line will find anything thats in the cockpit. One more thing on casting from a yak. DON'T  do the overhead cast , angle your arm abit.

Thanks for the tips. I have fished "normally" with my flyrod but left the scotty behind. I have a newbie question: If you have your rod behind you in a trolling situation, how do you keep an eye on it to detect strikes? It seems like a big PAITA to constantly look behind you...Luckily I have decent casting skills from fishing many of the small streams in Seq. Natl. Park and K.C. Natl park so line manipulation is not too tough. My weakness is distance casting. I recently picked up Rio's Versi tip interchangeable sink tip system. http://www.rioproducts.com/product.php?fmCategory=10 I really like it.

when I said rig  everything on the back of your yak,I meant for  storage.
When I troll I use two different techniques. 1. I installed a scotty rod holder on the console so that I can see the strike.I like this for open water, Millerton, San Luis Res. Ocean.
2.I simply rest the rod against my shoulder , then I can feel the strike when it happens,
put my paddle down and fight the fish.

now that makes sense! thanks-

Rod

It might seem funny but a mirror works to watch a rod tip behind you. the kind bicylists use on their sunglasses has worked for me. your peripheral vision is cued to movement, so you don't have to stare at it, you'll notice it waving around in the mirror.

It might seem funny but a mirror works to watch a rod tip behind you. the kind bicylists use on their sunglasses has worked for me. your peripheral vision is cued to movement, so you don't have to stare at it, you'll notice it waving around in the mirror.


I almost jokingly asked in my last question "what do you do, wear one of those tiny mirrors like bike riders attach to their helmets?" I guess I wasn't off base. 

You can rig your rear rod holders angled straight out so you don't have to turn your head too far or troll with the rod up front like Ricky said. I also have reels with loud clickers and rely on them to alert me to a strike. See you at the forebay this winter.

Scott