Can Shore Anglers Use a Kayak to Drop Baited Lines Over Fish?

June 11, 2015

Question: While my wife and I were camping at Lake Comanche last week we observed two young men arrive in a pickup with a small kayak in the back. As they prepared to fish in the pond section, one of the guys took the kayak out to look for fish using his polarized sunglasses while the other set their rods up on the bank. Once the guy in the kayak found where the fish were hanging out, he went back to the bank and prepared four very large baits. One of the baits looked like roe and three others looked like chicken intestines. He then loaded them one at a time into his kayak and rowed back out to drop the baited lines over the fish he’d found while his friend held the rods on the bank. They repeated this action until all four baited lines were fishing. We didn’t stay around to see what they caught, but when they were leaving in the dark I asked them how they did. Their reply was that they’d caught several fish.

Were these men fishing legally? If not and we observe this action again, should we call CalTIP? (Robert H.)

Answer: Each angler could use bait to fish with two rods if they both had second-rod validations. If one of them handled all four rods while the other dropped the baits, it could be a problem because one person would then be angling with four rods. To comply with the letter of the law, they would have to switch roles after two of the lines were set. They could also only use up to three baited hooks on each line.

The reply avoided the question of "was using a kayak to drop the bait legal"

cant speak on freshwater regs, but in saltwater I believe this would only be legal during the "boat based angling" season FWIW.

cant speak on freshwater regs, but in saltwater I believe this would only be legal during the "boat based angling" season FWIW.

Sounds correct.  Same holds true of using a kayak to get to a location to fish from shore during 'shore only' season.