Kayak Fishing - Drifting for Sea Bass in Shallow Water Using Lures

Sea Bass are a great fish to fish for and a great fish to catch and drifting with lures over shallow rough ground can be an effective way of targeting them.

 
Below is a video is about casting and jigging weedless soft plastics whilst drifting over kelp and rocks in water up to about 25 feet.

Sea Bass Filmed Underwater in Cornwall

It is always great to see the fish we fish for swimming in their natural environment. I was lucky to have the unexpected opportunity to film a shoal of Bass (School Bass) underwater swimming in a strong current, which they love, in only about six feet of water and felt it was worth sharing.

Below is the video.

Kayak Fishing - Fishing Shallow Reefs with Lures - Combine Cast and Retrieve with Trolling

When fishing from a kayak with lures, casting and jigging or casting and retrieving combined with trolling can be a productive way of fishing particularly over shallow ground where the water is a bit too shallow to vertical jig below the kayak.

The video below is about a trip using this method, fishing over a kelp jungle in water up to about 25 feet using weedless lures and plugs with tips, pointers, and advice.

Video Short - Summer Pike Fishing - The One That Got Away

Most anglers have experienced the frustration of the one that got away. I was up in north Buckinghamshire visiting family, which is just about as far from the sea as you can get. I decided to do some summer Pike fishing with lures and noticed a Pike sitting in the margin in about a foot and a half of water and tried to catch it. This resulted in capturing some great footage of the Pike taking the plug and the fight with the Pike, which I unfortunately lost.

The short video below shows what happened.

Kayak Fishing - Catching Cornish Cod - A Change from Pollack

When I think of inshore shallow water fishing in Cornwall for members of the Cod family in water up to about 60 feet, I tend to think of Pollack with the occasional bonus catch of Cod.  A few years ago, Cornwall saw an influx of Cod well within a mile from shore.  That influx was so great, the commercial fleet had their quota increased because they were catching so many Cod and due to quota restrictions, were having to dump them overboard.

From my experience, the past year has once again seen that influx and although I love to fish for Pollack, catching Cod in numbers makes a pleasant change.

I set out at dawn to drift fish with lures over a rough ground mark in the hope of picking up some of those Cod and below is a video of the trip.

Preparing Sea Bass Lures (Replacing Trebles with Plugging Singles on Plugs and Making up Soft Plastics)

Sea Bass are a great fish to fish for and it will soon be the time of year for me to target them with lures in a variety of different ways. My lures have been idle since December last year sitting in the garage with hooks rusted and in need of replacing. Last year I experimented with replacing the trebles on plugs with Decoy plugging single hooks and I intend to continue with the single hooks this season. In addition to replacing the hooks on my plugs, I need to make up some soft plastics weedless and non-weedless.

Below is a video going through choosing the correct size of plugging singles depending on the size of plug and making up the soft plastics, which include the Fish Arrow J 5" SW, Slug-Go's, Savage Sandeels, and Savage Sandeel Slugs. The plugs used are the Tackle House Feed Shallow 128 and 105, the IMA Komono SF 125, and the IMA Salt Skimmer.

Kayak Fishing - Fishing a New Mark - Navigating using GPS

A GPS with marine navigation charts are great assets when navigating to fishing marks or choosing new marks to fish.  In addition, they are a great safety asset to have on board.

The video below is about navigating to a new fishing mark using a handheld Garmin GPS Map78 with Garmin Blue Charts g2, and Garmin HomePort software to set a waypoint to the mark thus finding it with ease.  Once at the rough ground mark known as Lath Rock, the fishing is drift fishing and vertical jigging using lures such as Sidewinder Weedless Minnows, Savage Sandeel Slugs, and Slug-Go’s rigged as a drop shot rig for decent sized inshore reef Pollack.

Kayak Fishing - How to Keep Your Catch Fresh

For me, part of the enjoyment of kayak fishing and sea fishing in general is a meal from something you have sourced yourself and the freshest fish you can get.  Keeping your catch fresh on a kayak poses a few more problems than if fishing from a boat.  However, there are several ways to achieve this.  One is to keep the fish on ice inside or on the kayak and the other is to keep the fish in the water.

Below is a video going through ways I have found since taking up kayak fishing of doing just that, keeping the catch fresh.