A fish finder on a kayak greatly enhances your fishing experience and is a great asset. When you are new to fish finders, understanding what is on the screen can be confusing and it takes a while to learn how to use it effectively.
The video below goes through how I use my Garmin Echo 550c coloured fish finder to identify structure and fish. There are recommendations on settings such as fish symbols and dual beam split frequency. There is a section on interpreting colour as hard returns, medium returns, and weak returns. In addition, sections looking at recognising structure such as rock, wreck, and weed, identifying shoals of fish and individual fish along with using the finder for vertical jigging with lures.
The autumn can be a great time for fishing in Cornwall with an amalgamation of several species of fish that overlap on their various migratory paths. Most times when I go out on the kayak, I have a one-target species in mind and gear up for that species however, at this time of a year with so many different species available; I occasionally have a multi species trip. I set up four rods, two for bait fishing, and two for lure fishing.
Whiting migrate into the Fal Estuary in the autumn. The majority are small pin Whiting however, October, November, and December can produce much larger fish up to and over the specimen size of 2lb.
1lb 9oz
The Estuary is large therefore; choosing a place to fish can be a dilemma. The following video is about a recent November 2014 trip targeting Whiting and covers choosing a location on a marine fishing chart, anchoring as close to that location as possible with the aid of a GPS, and the tackle used.
Tides and time of day can have a big influence on the chances of catching Sea Bass. From my experience, there is more Bass activity on spring tides than neap tides however; time of day can also have a big influence. Even on poor tides when the right time of the tide coincides with dawn or dusk the chances of catching are greatly increased.
Below is a video of a trip fishing at dusk into darkness on a poor tide but at a favourable time of the day.
Squid fishing from the kayak is fun and makes a pleasant change from just fishing for fish. The autumn and early winter months are good months to try for Squid in Cornwall and as I consider them a treat for the dinner table, I like to have few trips each season.
I highlighted in a previous post Top Sea Bass Lures the various lures I like to use when Bass fishing. All of those lures work well and catch Bass however, I recently had occasion to look into adding weedless soft plastics to my lure fishing tackle box.
A mark I often fish was in the late summer and early autumn of last year and this year, full of thongweed also known as sea spaghetti or sea thong. The problem with this weed is that it grows to the surface and sits on the surface making it impossible to fish with shallow diving plugs or surface plugs. As soon as you start the retrieve, the lure picks up the weed, which is very frustrating. At high water, there is enough clearance above the weed however; around low water is the best time to fish this mark not high water.
Thongweed is not the only weed problem I have encountered. Eel grass just under the surface, seaweed in the shallows, and of course, loose weed have all caused frustrating problems forcing me to fish clearer areas.
On a positive note if these areas were fishable, they must be potential fish holding areas therefore, it was clear to me that I needed to look into using weedless lures.
I started experimenting with Texas Rigged soft plastics and the American made Slug-Go rigged with a Texposer Hook as shown in the examples below.
There is nothing wrong with these rigs and they do go through the weed without snagging and no doubt would catch given time however, similar to a plug, I wanted a weedless lure that had some action simply by winding it in rather than having to impart the action with twitches of the rod tip.
I had read about the effectiveness of the Fiiish Black Minnow, which comes ready rigged weighted and weedless. The lure has an almost vertical paddle tail, which would give the action I was looking for. Experimenting with the Black Minnow, it does work weedless as regards the hook catching the weed however, on too many occasions I found weed caught at the junction where the line is clipped on to the top of the jig head, which was annoying. That said these are excellent lures and will stay in my tackle box for other occasions such as jigging in deeper water.
Further research led me to the Fish Arrow Flash J 5" SW.
Reports suggested that on a slow retrieve, the Fish Arrow swims just under the surface and has a side-to-side slalom action. As the ground I wanted to use the lure is shallow, this looked like the weedless lure I needed therefore, I placed an order with a UK supplier The Art of Fishing.
Rigged weedless with a 5/0 weighted swim bait hook the initial tests were promising. For a soft plastic, it casts brilliantly and felt more like casting a plug than a soft plastic. It goes through the weed without snagging and on a slow to medium retrieve; it does have a slalom action. My initial thoughts were to fish this lure in two ways, a straight retrieve, and retrieve and pause.
At present, the lure comes with a choice of ten colours.
Although the lure has a side-to-side slalom action, this is not quite the same as the vibrating rattling action of a plug or the vibrations of a paddle-tailed lure to attract the fish. Therefore, in my opinion the best colours to choose are the high visual but natural colours of UK baitfish such as 100 Sirasu/Silver, 102 Chart/Silver, 105 Maiwasi/Silver, and 109 Glow/Silver. My first choice is 109 Glow/Silver but unfortunately, this colour is extremely difficult to get hold although eventually I did manage to get some but had to import from Australia!
Whatever lure I use, apart from the fact that the lure is suitable for the conditions I am fishing, the most important factor is confidence. I have to have confidence that the lure does catch and for me the only way to establish confidence is that it consistently catches.
I first started preparing this post in the late summer of 2013. Since then I have caught Bass using the Fish Arrow Flash J 5" SW in weedy conditions when a plug would be unusable. My confidence has grown to the point where I can add this lure to my list of Top Sea Bass Lures. For a soft plastic, it casts brilliantly and has some action on a straight retrieve. It works weedless and the size is perfect however, most importantly, it catches!
My first choice of plug for Sea Bass fishing in the areas I fish would always be shallow diving plugs however; there are certain times when surface plugs are more suitable. For me, those times are when it is calm and you can see surface activity from baitfish and activity from those bait fish being perused by their predators. It is then that I like to use the surface plug.
Below is a video about surface plug fishing for Sea Bass using the walk the dog action.
Weedless lures are a great asset to have in your tackle box when fishing very snaggy areas. Sometimes, you need to get right into those snags to catch fish. Rough ground areas can be tackle hungry however, the modern weedless lures and the weedless set up enable you to fish those areas with minimal tackle loses.
Below is a video about rough ground fishing for Cod using weedless lures and weedless rigging.
Whenever I go out fishing from the kayak I always have a target species in mind, gear up, and adopt the tactics required for that species however, one of the great things about fishing is the unexpected catch. On a recent trip, I set out to catch Turbot however, thanks to the fish finder ended up catching Codling.
Below is a video of the trip, which looks at using the fish finder to identify fish and tackling up for Turbot and Cod.
The time of year has come for me to start doing a bit of Bass fishing from both the shore and the kayak. In the autumn and early winter months (Sept – Dec) I will be increasing the number of trips.
One method of shore Bass fishing I really enjoy is lure fishing.
Below is a video of a couple of recent trips plug fishing for Bass over shallow rough ground.
Catching Grey Mullet provides the rod and line angler with a great challenge but when successful a great deal of satisfaction. They can be extremely frustrating and for me, out of all the fish I fish for, the hardest to catch.
Each summer I like to target Grey Mullet purely for the challenge rather than the dinner table. The video below is about creek fishing for Grey Mullet with tips on tackle and techniques. The average Mullet in the creek may only be small however; they still offer what seems at times, an impossible task to catch one. The video also contains the surprise catching of a small Sea Bass on bread.
Back in January 2014, I published a post about kayak fishing for shellfish. Over the last months, I have experimented with pots deploying them whenever possible. My main target species has been Brown Crab, Spider Crab, Velvet Swimming Crab, and of course Lobster. To date, I am yet to catch a Lobster however, have managed to catch the other species and when over the size limit, they have been a welcomed treat for the dinner table.
Below is a video about Kayak Fishing for Shellfish.
Although you can fish for Gilthead Bream from April to mid October in Cornwall, I like to target them in June, July, and August.
With a warm settled forecast, I decided to head out for my first Bream trip of 2014. When fishing for Gilthead Bream you are usually fishing within a Bass Nursery Area and I had an interesting visit from the Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority patrol. The trip contributed to the making of the video below.
Cornwall may not be known as an abundant Cod fishery however, we do have a healthy stock of another member of the Cod family Pollack.
The inshore reefs of Cornwall, which are accessible by Kayak, can provide some good Pollack fishing on light tackle. The video below is about fishing for Pollack on a small rough mark that provides an oasis for the fish in an otherwise sandy seabed.
The Cornish coast is littered with wrecks and although most of those wrecks are out of reach for the kayak angler, some wrecks are accessible. One of those is the Steam Ship Stanwood, which lies in the Fal Estuary.
At certain times of the year, the wreck holds shoals of Pollack. The large majority of those Pollack are small however, on light tackle they can offer some sport. Below is a video of fishing the Stanwood wreck for those Pollack.
At the beginning of each season, I like to replace the hooks of my Bass plugs. The plugs came with trebles and I have always replaced them with trebles. However, this season I have decided to experiment with single hooks. Two reasons for deciding to use single hooks and the first is to make it easier to remove the fish from the kayak net; trebles can be a nightmare when tangled in the net. The second is singles should cause less damage to fish that I intend to return.
The problem with replacing trebles with ordinary single hooks is the eye is too small for the split ring, which means the hook cannot rotate correctly and sometimes sticks on the ring hampering the action of the lure and hooking potential. However, replacing trebles with singles is becoming more popular and now you can purchase single plugging hooks with large eyes.
Most of my Bass plugs are between 125mm and 130mm and the size 2 hooks I purchased appear large enough and rotate on the split rings with ease. The other good thing about these hooks is the eye sits parallel to the hook, which means the hook point hangs in line with the lure instead of at right angles.
Time will tell if removing trebles reduces hooks ups or increases lost fish during the fight however, one thing is for sure, it should make removing fish from the net easier and quicker meaning more time fishing in the sometimes short windows of opportunity when the Bass are there and feeding. In the future, I may experiment further by reducing the number of single hooks from three to two, which I know some plug anglers are doing.
Back in November 2013, I decided to start making videos of shore and kayak fishing trips along with some how to videos. I started with my standard cheap £50 compact digital camera that shot videos in VGA or HD 720p. That was fine to start with and as a taster however, not suitable for the long term mainly because the camera was not waterproof and a camera on a kayak that is not waterproof will not and did not last very long! Clearly, if I was to continue making videos I needed to upgrade my equipment.
I decided to purchase a waterproof HD action camera, and based on my limited experience to date, my criteria was as follows:
Waterproof without the need for an outer case.
Capable of shooting HD 1080p @ 30fps.
Remote control.
Decent battery life.
Wide angle FOV (field of view).
Lightweight.
A head mount for my shore fishing videos.
Capable of shooting stills.
Tri-pod thread.
Research suggested the most popular waterproof action camera is the GoPro however, when filming, I like to talk about what I am doing and the GoPro is only waterproof within its waterproof housing and my research suggested the housing muffles the sound.
Next, I looked at the Drift Ghost-S, which ticked nearly all of the boxes except the head mount. I could get a helmet mount, or ski goggle mount, or shoulder mount, but I did not fancy going shore fishing with a crash helmet or ski goggles! In addition, I felt a shoulder mount would be unsuitable due to too much movement when fishing for example, when casting or playing a fish.
I then considered the Kodak Playsport zx5, which again nearly ticked all of the boxes except no suitable mount for my shore fishing.
Based on the videos I have made to date and considering the cost of £99.00, I am impressed with its performance. The picture quality at 1080p/30fps is sharp and the sound is good. The camera is solid and robust and the main thing for me is that it is waterproof to 30 feet without the need for a waterproof housing. iON do supply higher specification cameras such as the iON Air Pro 3 however, for me higher specification is pointless when YouTube limit specification when processing uploaded videos and the quality on YouTube is never as good as the original. The only settings you can change manually on the camera are either for full HD 1080p/30fps = 127 degrees FOV (the default setting) or HD 720p/60fps = 150 degrees FOV, by removing the rear casing which exposes a FHD or HD button. Access to the full settings is via the iON App accessible when you plug the USB lead into your computer or via Wi-Fi.
The picture quality of a GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition is arguably the best however, for the price of one Hero3 Black; I can purchase three iON Air Pro-Lite cameras making it more affordable to have more than one camera on the kayak in different positions. At present, I mount the single camera using the YakAttack Dog Bone Camera Mount however, future plans are to add more mounts and cameras to give a wider choice of shooting angles.
As an eating fish, Plaice is one of the UK's most popular. I enjoy eating nearly all of the fish and shellfish the Cornish waters provide however, Plaice is one of the finest. I fish for them a few times throughout the year and today's trip was to target Plaice by drifting over clean ground with bait. The following is a video of the trip.
I recently had a trip fishing at anchor with a wind over tide situation causing the kayak to sit broadside (sideways on) to the swell making it awkward to fish particularly with two rods. Below is a video that demonstrates the effectiveness of using a drogue to counteract a wind over tide situation.
I spent a few hours drift fishing with bait on the south coast of Cornwall. There was a brisk off shore wind and the drift chute was a great asset. It was not a great days fishing but managed a flat fish and a few bonus Mackerel as they passed by. Below is a short video of the trip. Due to wind noise on the sound, I had to limit live commentary.
I do a great deal of drift fishing from the kayak and find a drift chute a great asset for that type of fishing. Below is a video showing different ways a drift chute can be used when casting lures from the kayak or vertical jigging.
My Ocean Prowler Big Game kayak came with an Ocean Comfort Plus seat however, after nearly three years of use the two bars that act as supports for the backrest have worn through the material causing damage to the kayak by scraping the plastic. Efforts to repair the material and contain the metal bars proved fruitless. Clearly it was time to invest in a new seat before the damage became a hole in the seating area.
Rather than purchase another Ocean seat I decided to look elsewhere and purchased a Crazy Creek SOT Kayak Seat III from H2o Kayaks.
The seat is advertised as the "formula one of sit-on-top kayak chairs" and reviews from other kayak users suggested that this was indeed a very good comfortable seat. I sometimes spend up to 8 hours on the kayak fishing therefore, a comfortable seat is very important and it will be interesting to compare the new seat with the Ocean seat. The advertised features are as follows:
The “Formula One” of sit-on-top kayak chairs.
4 brass swivel clips secure seat to kayaks with attachment cleats.
Chair is easily detached from kayak for use in camp.
Adjustable back is ergonomically contoured for exceptional comfort.
Zippered pocket on back with drain fits 70 oz/2L hydration unit.
5″ closed-cell foam back and 1″ memory foam seat.
600D coated polyester.
Limited Lifetime Warranty.
The dimensions measure 32" x 16" with the backrest and seat divided as 18" x 14". These measurements are fine for my kayak.
Fitting the seat to the kayak was fairly standard and straight forward with the four adjustable straps, two at the front, and two at the back clipping onto existing pad eyes using the brass swivel clips.
The zippered pocket on the back with a drain hole is something I did not have with the Ocean seat and this could be useful either for a hydration unit as advertised or for other bits and pieces.
Sitting in the seat it does feel comfortable with plenty of support for the back and plenty of cushioning for the backside, more cushioning than my Ocean seat.
A recent trip proved the seat is indeed very comfortable however, time will tell how the seat wears after many trips out at sea and how long it lasts before I need to replace it.
When I first started thinking about fishing at anchor, apart from how to set up an anchor system, I had other questions such as, how much line I should let out, how the wind affects the position of the kayak, and how do I retrieve the anchor. Below is a video I have created that hopefully, contributes in some way to answering those questions based on my own experiences in the areas I fish. See Kayak Fishing Set Up Video for how to set up an anchor system.
A very welcomed break from the seemingly endless stormy seas this winter meant I could get out on the kayak for a couple of hours and do some fishing. I decided to jig up some winter Herring for the dinner table and below is a video of the trip.
For some time now, I have thought
how great it would be to use the kayak to occasionally fish for
shellfish as opposed to just fish. Initially, I thought about buying a
commercial shrimp and crab pot however, I soon realised on a kayak there
could be potential problems. The weight of the pots could make it
difficult to pull up and the size could be a storage problem.
For shrimps, I needed a pot with small entrance holes of about an inch. This would ensure crabs would not enter the pot and make a meal of the shrimps! Searching the internet, I came across an Eagle Claw Minnow Trap.
Although advertised as a minnow trap, the two entrance holes are only 1" diameter therefore, ideal for shrimps. The pot is lightweight and measures only 16" x 9" therefore, no problem to carry on the kayak. It has two equal halves that clip together held by a sprung clip. Baiting up would be a matter of releasing the clip, and inserting the bait into a mesh bag or stocking.
To make sure the shrimps cannot crawl up the inside of the mesh and find their way out, I cut the tops of a couple of plastic salad dressing bottles and using the thread of the bottle, screwed into the entrance holes. The thread holds it in place. This should make it more difficult for the shrimps to find the entrance holes and escape.
With the addition of a piece of cord, an SMB divers reel, a marker buoy, and a couple of weights, the shrimp pot was ready to go.
My biggest dilemma was finding a suitable pot for lobsters or velvet swimming crabs but in particular, larger crabs. The majority of hobby pots available are more suited to small crabs, or freshwater crayfish with entrance hole sizes to suit as shown below.
Although lightweight and collapsible, the entrance holes on this pot are only 6cm, which would be fine for velvet swimming crabs and possibly lobsters but not edible brown crabs and spider crabs.
Commercial crab pots have much larger entrance holes of about 20cm however; they are much too heavy and bulky to manage on a kayak.
Eventually, I came across a collapsible pot supplied by Castnets.
This trap has a full width walk in one-way soft entrance measuring 55cm x 35cm at both ends therefore, no problem with the entrance being too small for larger crabs.
The pot is not small, the collapsed measurements are 109cm x 55cm x 35cm however, I found it no problem to store on the kayak. I can position it behind my seat secured with a piece of bungee cord and a carbine hook.
The weight is about 2kg, which is about the same as my anchor with chain therefore, no problem to haul up from the depths. Of course, in the unlikely event that I may fill the pot with sweet spider crabs, there should be no problem hauling the pot up with a few crabs inside.
Once again, with the addition of an SMB divers reel, a marker buoy,
and a couple of weights, the crab pot was ready to go.
The next step was to work out how and when to set the traps from the kayak. I could paddle out, set the traps, leave them for a day, and come back to pick them up but I did not really want the hassle and the commitment. For me, it would be far more convenient to set the traps when I planned to go out fishing for the day and collect on the way in.
In addition, I needed to learn the habitat of the species I was targeting. There is a great video on YouTube produced by Seafish that gives an insight into UK commercial shellfish fishing with plenty of useful information on the various species.
Before actually using the traps, I wanted to check with the Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority
any rules that may apply to non-commercial shellfish anglers. Although
there is no limit to the number of pots a hobby angler can use there
are regulations as follows:
A maximum of two fish per day can be landed from the following species: lobster, crawfish, edible crab, or spider crab.
A maximum of two fish could be two lobsters, or one lobster and one edible crab, or one edible crab and one spider crab etc.
Additional rules apply to lobster and crawfish (spiny lobster) as shown on the minimum size limit chart as follows:
The removal of berried lobsters and crawfish is prohibited.
V-notched lobsters and crawfish must be returned, and any with a
tail flap which is missing or mutilated unless specific permission has
been granted by Cornwall IFCA.
This year each time I go out fishing for the day, I will be taking the pots with me and will post later on their success or failure. Apart from the possibility of adding shellfish to the dinner table, collecting the pots after fishing will be an exciting added interest to the day.
Update June 2014:
Since writing the above post I have experimented with the pots and below is a video about kayak fishing for shellfish.
