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By Hank Hewitt
Perhaps no other angling method has more confusion, or misconception about it than fly fishing. There’s no question that this method of angling often falls prey to an elitist, exclusive, contingent. Why that is I can only speculate and we’ll save that speculation for another day. In this article we’re going to focus on two practical tools that when combined are highly successful at bringing fish to net, often when no other approach will.
The two tools which we’ll be addressing are first the kayak as an angling platform, and second, the use of the fly rod fished from the kayak. Before we move on, and so you know where I’m coming from, when I go fishing I go fishing to catch fish. I look at my rods, reels, lures, flies, and kayaks, as tools used to achieve my angling ends, that being, to catch fish. My focus is to be well versed enough with my tools that regardless of the conditions I have the right implement, and know how to use it to get the job done. Unfortunately when fly fishing gets brought into the mix many fall to a common misconception that the cast catches the fish. Well, I’ve yet to see a fish swoop down out of a tree to eat a fly. So many fly anglers often get so caught up in how their fly is getting to the water that they don’t focus on what the fly is doing once it’s in or on the water. It’s my purpose in this article to explain how to fish the fly rod from the kayak while keeping casting to a minimum so as to keep the focus on effectively fishing, and ultimately catching. Yes, when stationary on foot, distance casting is often necessary. Well, when one is in a kayak, the kayak cuts down the distance to the fish, and in the case of river fishing the kayak often moves right over where the fish are eating. Because we are dealing with river fishing, fishing from the kayak, and using the fly rod, let’s keep things simple and first address the water types, then the use of the kayak, and last a simple effective way to present a “fly rod lure” to the fish in these areas.
I love fishing rivers because of the variety of ways the water moves, and the potential areas to find fish. There are long slow-moving stretches of water… What we’ll call a “pool”. Then there are the shallow broken water stretches that for our purposes we’ll call “runs”. Runs, which are usually associated with elevation changes eventually transition to pools. The transition area we’ll call “tail outs”. I’m not a gambling man as I have nothing to loose, however if I were to wager that I could catch a fish on the fly rod in one fly cast, from the kayak, on any given summer/fall day, the place I would say I could do this is where the broken water of a run transitions to a tail out, eventually slowing in velocity to the head of a pool. I did say one cast, and yes with the fly rod while fishing from the kayak, one cast could be worked effectively, well over a few hundred yards. Let’s look at handling the kayak.
There are a multitude of virtues about a kayak as a fishing platform on flowing water. For me, the primary virtue is that the kayak easily floats through water depths measured in inches, and does so quietly. Here’s the technique I use in the kayak to set my drift. First and foremost, keep in mind that when drifting through moving water in the kayak, I drift stern, back end first. So as I come up on the broken water I first address the water from a forward-facing position. This is done so as to see any rocks or obstructions in my path that could possibly be a hazard. Once I have corrected my course to avoid obstructions I spin the kayak so I am drifting stern-first. My paddle will eventually be set in my lap so I can handle the fishing rod, usually the fly rod. There will be some current formations that may spin or twist the kayak one way or another. To correct positioning I’ll keep the rod in its normal hand and with the no rod hand grab the paddle. I’ll use my rod hand elbow to brace the paddle across my body, and either push or pull the paddle on my non-rod hand side through the water to correct my drift. After a bit of practice it becomes quite easy. That’s the extent of kayak handling needed to drift the moving water. Let’s now look at the use of the fly rod in this situation.
Here’s a quick overview of the fly rod and the fly line I’m using. My preferred weight rod for the river is a 9’ 8wt fly rod. It can handle a good range of weighted or wind resistant flies. It can also handle smaller flies. It also has enough backbone to handle smallies measured in pounds, and the occasional carp, channel cat, and possible musky. Last I can still pull the kayak up before a shallow rapid and get out to fish the fly rod on foot if I so choose. The fly line I use is a “weight-forward” floating fly line. In fly fishing terms it is written like this,
WF8-F. The WF stands for weight-forward, the 8 is the weight of rod, and the F is floating. Fly lines have tapers. The diameter of line, front to back, tapers from a thin diameter called the “tip” to a thicker diameter, which is called the “head”. The head will eventually taper back down to a thin diameter and this is called the “running line”. There seems to be a million and one tapers on the market. For the technique we’re discussing here any WF8-F line will suffice. The fly line where it goes on the reel attaches to backing. Reels are sized by the weight of line they can hold. Some reels are designed to hold a range of line weights. The fly reel should have at least 200 yards of backing on it. That’s not to say you’ll need that much backing, but it is important in how the fly line wraps on the spool. Dacron backing is the conventional running line used, however, I have gone to using 20# tensile Power Pro as backing. Doing this I get pretty close to 300yards of backing on the reel due to its thin diameter. At the forward most tip of the fly line, a tapered leader gets attached. The leader I tie is 4’ of 50# mono, to 2’ of 35# mono to a tip section of 8# mono 3’ long. I use uni-to-uni knots in the construction of the leaders. That’s a brief over view of my normal Susky kayak set up for the fly rod. Let’s get back to fishing it from the yak…
At this point we’ll address the fly. Actually, what I’m using in the runs through the tailouts is a wet fly tied on a 1/32 ounce jig head. See the recipe that accompanies the article. The 8wt fly rod has no problem tossing the weight of this presentation, when I decide to cast. It’s tied to look like any number of critters or bait fish that the fish in the river will see as food. All one needs to do once the kayak is set on the drift is to pull about 5’ of fly line out of the fly rod. Drop the jig and line onto the water. Strip about 10’-20’ of line off the reel as you drift back and shake it out of the rod tip onto the water. Always watch where the leader meets the fly line. When that dips under the water use the rod tip to straighten the line and get tight to the jig because at this point the jig is connecting with the bottom. Simply lay the fly line, coming off the reel, under the index finger of the hand that is on the rod, and strip or hold the line with your off hand behind the index finger of your rod hand. You should occasionally feel the jig contact the bottom. When this happens quickly strip line in using very short quick 2” long strips until you no longer feel the bottom. You could also lightly twitch the rod tip up. I prefer the stripping technique. As the water gets deeper, shake out more line. Keep in mind that the leader is 9’ long. It’s simple to get the jig into the kitchen of the fish in quickly flowing water 4-10 feet deep.
So now you’re jig is down in the column, it looks like hapless food adrift through your quarries’ kitchens. It comes across the nose of a 3# smallie, and it breathes it in, now what? Well, the first thing you feel is a breath taking thud. Provided you have the line locked under that index finger and your other hand holding the line, the rod will double over and start convulsing violently, your kayak will get spun around in circles or pulled in various directions. You can do one of two things to gain line on the fish. If it’s a bigger fish it will run line out until the point that the line is coming straight off the reel. Fight the fish as you would any fish from the reel. Sometimes though when the fish goes to run it pulls you in the kayak before pulling out line. So just gain line back by pulling line across your index finger, and close that finger to lock the line to reset the hand pulling the line. I suggest having a decent sized net in the kayak with you to scoop up the pooped fish. It only takes a few 2#-4# smallies on the fly rod, while catching them from the yak, to make the day.
If you have a fly rod, and get a chance to drift the river in a kayak, try this technique with any 1/32 ounce or smaller ice fishing jig, and hold on. If you have any questions e-mail me at antoutfitters@gmail.com.
Tight lines, screaming reels, and safe paddling!
Hank Hewitt is a guide for Anthracite Outfitters, and owner of HCH3 Photographic Productions, LLC.
