Kayak Fishing and the Environment

Posted in: Gear

It was an early fall morning and I was fly fishing for redfish in the Louisiana marsh.  A cold front had just pushed through and the combination of the clear fall light that highlighted mile upon mile of salt-meadow cord grass intermixed with black rush grass posed a beautiful setting. I saw a flock of teal acting strangely and when I looked up I saw the reason why. A peregrine falcon was soaring above them. I could tell they felt safer hunkered down in the marsh with me than in the air where they would be more vulnerable to the falcon. I watched them for a while but was interrupted by what I had come for - a redfish feeding in water so shallow that his back was above the surface. We call them crawlers. I was fishing out of a kayak that I helped designed for Native Watercraft to access these shallow areas. It was made so that I could stand and pole it, which gave me much better visibility than if I was sitting down. It was also designed with a clean open area for stripping my fly line, and it had a tunnel hull to help it track more efficiently and stay on course in a stiff breeze. The low profile made me less visible and more wind resistant. As I was stalking this fish I began to reminisce about how I had advanced to this stage of angling....Read More