Kayaks?

[Al Agnew]

Since we're posting pictures...

Here's me...note all rods in the canoe, below the gunwales, safe from any brush I might go through. Also note the small cooler in front of me. This cooler holds food and beverages for the day, and is just heavy enough to act as a bit of ballast. Ordinarily I carry it right behind my seat, which makes the front end of the canoe very, very slightly higher in the water than the rear end, which is what you want for upstream paddling and ordinary downstream paddling. But if I have a headwind, I'll put it in front of me as shown here, which makes the front end sit a little lower in the water. That way it's less affected by the headwind...the canoe stays straighter.

Here's the canoe looking down into it from in front. Note five rods, three in front of me with handles on the front end of the bench seat or on the thwart in front of me (I use 5.5 ft. rods to fit into the canoe easily), and two sticking out to the rear still with tips within the end cap, and handles on the back edge of the seat. All five rods safe within the canoe and within very easy reach. Also note the battery box with Plano boxes in it underneath my seat, and the container attached to the thwart with 4 Plano boxes in it. The cooler is in it's usual place behind the seat.

Here's my friend Wayne Sheets in his Vagabond, same canoe I use.

[Flyflinger]

Since we're posting pictures...

Here's me...note all rods in the canoe, below the gunwales, safe from any brush I might go through. Also note the small cooler in front of me. This cooler holds food and beverages for the day, and is just heavy enough to act as a bit of ballast. Ordinarily I carry it right behind my seat, which makes the front end of the canoe very, very slightly higher in the water than the rear end, which is what you want for upstream paddling and ordinary downstream paddling. But if I have a headwind, I'll put it in front of me as shown here, which makes the front end sit a little lower in the water. That way it's less affected by the headwind...the canoe stays straighter.

Here's the canoe looking down into it from in front. Note five rods, three in front of me with handles on the front end of the bench seat or on the thwart in front of me (I use 5.5 ft. rods to fit into the canoe easily), and two sticking out to the rear still with tips within the end cap, and handles on the back edge of the seat. All five rods safe within the canoe and within very easy reach. Also note the battery box with Plano boxes in it underneath my seat, and the container attached to the thwart with 4 Plano boxes in it. The cooler is in it's usual place behind the seat.

Here's my friend Wayne Sheets in his Vagabond, same canoe I use.

That looks like the perfect set up. I mainly flyfish, would my 8.5 ft fly rod stick out if I was to place it behind me?

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, it probably would. My rods are no longer than 6 feet. However, when I get a chance I'll take out one of my fly rods and see if I can fit it in so that it would be safe and easy to get to. I'll let you know probably tomorrow.

[Stoneroller]

I see one right away. What do you do with those rods when you're snaking through a tangled, fallen-over tree on a skinny river? You leave those rods there, they're gone, and if you lay them flat and strapped down, the tips are still exposed and susceptible to breakage. In a canoe you tuck them up under the bow and gunwales, and you slide through any obstacle like butter.

and here is the HUGE bonus to the OK trident series, that long black center hatch allows me to keep a full rigged 8 foot fly rod inside the kayak and ready to go. when I'm on a river, I keep my other rods down inside the 'rod pod' (their terminology, not mine) and there is no chance of them getting snaggedon anything. when i'm on a lake and paddling to a location, i put my rods in the rod holders, on the boat and in my seat back(they have rod keepers on them too) and troll lures to my new spot. Had great success catching crappie at Little Dixie Lake using that technique.

[Flyflinger]

and here is the HUGE bonus to the OK trident series, that long black center hatch allows me to keep a full rigged 8 foot fly rod inside the kayak and ready to go. when I'm on a river, I keep my other rods down inside the 'rod pod' (their terminology, not mine) and there is no chance of them getting snaggedon anything. when i'm on a lake and paddling to a location, i put my rods in the rod holders, on the boat and in my seat back(they have rod keepers on them too) and troll lures to my new spot. Had great success catching crappie at Little Dixie Lake using that technique.

Ok now thats cool!

[Wayne SW/MO]

You can slide a fly rod into the front hatch on a Tarpon and 12'Ocean. As said you can slide one down inside a solo, but it has to go down much of the center, where all that extra stuff you can carry is sitting.

I have trouble using more than 3 rods on a flow, at least rods that are available because you generally don't have time to work the water that tight. Others obviously have a different approach, but the bottom line is that you can protect a reasonable amount of rods in either a 12' kayak or a solo canoe.

Contrary to most I never use my solo late in the year, I prefer the Tarpon because its more stable and with neoprene's on its plenty dry and I'm also ready to wade in the colder water.

[Al Agnew]

I checked, and an 8.5 ft. fly rod fits very well in my canoe, with the reel just back of the bench seat along the side, the rod lying on the bench seat, the thwart in front of it, and the tip under the end cap of the canoe. So you could carry two fly rods, one on either side, and they wouldn't be in the way but would be instantly reachable. But my canoe is 14 ft. 3 inches in length. It probably wouldn't fit in a canoe that's much shorter than that, like the Old Town Pack.

I'd like to ask you guys with the kayak hatches how easily you can grab the rods when they are in those hatches? Maybe most anglers don't fish the way I do...but I want all my rods instantly reachable. As I'm floating down the river I'm constantly coming to spots that just cry out for one lure or another. Just as an example, say I'm coming down a fast riffle with a few pockets of fish-holding water along the sides. I'm probably fishing my spinnerbait in those spots. At the bottom of the riffle where it begins to deepen the water drops sharply off the bank, maybe with a big slick log or two or some rocks. Now a crankbait might be the better choice. But maybe I made a cast ahead of me to that rootwad on the end of one of those logs and didn't get anything, but it just looks like the perfect place for a big fish. Time to pick up the rod with the jig or tube on it and drop it next to the rootwad. A few feet farther along there's an overhanging tree with just a narrow window beneath it where I want to skip a soft jerkbait. So I grab the spinning rod with the jerkbait and skip it under the limbs. By then I'm down into the slower, smoother water of the pool where a big topwater should produce. So in one riffle/pool complex I might use all five of my rods! Now that's not a real common situation...usually I will be using two or three lures over most of the float, and one more in a few select places. Occasionally I won't even pick up one of the rods all day. But I still want to be able to grab any rod I have in an instant to make a cast to a certain spot.

As I'm floating, I'm often moving fast enough that if I have any delay in grabbing a rod I've missed that spot. Another thing to consider is the situation of the lure on each rod. If you have to do something like put the lure on a hook-keeper when you stow the rod, that's going to cause you that delay when you want to pick up the rod to hit that spot as you go by. In my set-up, all my lures are simply snugged up against the rod tip. My rods are the right length that the lures on the end are not right up in the end cap, but just behind it where, when I put a rod on either side of my seat, the tips and lures are still separated by a few inches up there near the end of the canoe. They are instantly ready to cast at all times.

Maybe I'm being somewhat anal retentive about this. But I'm pretty sure it allows me to catch some fish I wouldn't otherwise.

[eric1978]

I checked, and an 8.5 ft. fly rod fits very well in my canoe, with the reel just back of the bench seat along the side, the rod lying on the bench seat, the thwart in front of it, and the tip under the end cap of the canoe. So you could carry two fly rods, one on either side, and they wouldn't be in the way but would be instantly reachable. But my canoe is 14 ft. 3 inches in length. It probably wouldn't fit in a canoe that's much shorter than that, like the Old Town Pack.

My 9' fly rod does not fit well in my Guide 119. I can manage it, but I have to put a significant bend in it to curve around the molded seat. It's managable, but not practical. I'm currently working on a new seat...we'll see if that makes a difference.

I'm with you, Al. I like my rods handy at a moment's notice.

[RSBreth]

I've fit 9' fly rods in my Pack solo, but they're pretty tight. I usually use conventional gear for fishing IN the canoe, but take the fly rod out from a two-piece break down case for wading.

Which brings up another topic, it's pretty hard to work ANY solo craft against current and cast a fly rod, at least effectively.

Have you fished out of a Kayak or Solo canoe with the fly rod yet? It isn't easy, and the double blade of a Kayak makes it's even more of a pain in the, you know. Right about then you think "Hey, I'll get a little sculling paddle" and that's another piece of equipment you have to screw around with while the current spins you about.

Most "Kayak fishermen" have more doo dads and foofarrahs hanging off their boat than flyfishermen do hanging off their vests, but combine the two and it can look like a disco ball with half of Bass Pro mounted to it heading down the river while spinning at 360rpm.

I was going to jump in and give my opinion about the solo Canoe vs. Kayak thing, but Al pretty much covered it.

Solo canoes have plenty of advantages, but for some reason the word "kayak" has some trendy cache' attached to it these days.

Why do you think Native sells so many of their "Ultimates", which are actually canoes but they (very cleverly) market them as a "Hybrid Kayak"?

From now on I'm calling my Pack a "Hybrid Kay-Noe".

O.K., not really.

[eric1978]

Which brings up another topic, it's pretty hard to work ANY solo craft against current and cast a fly rod, at least effectively.

I haven't even bothered trying it, because I'm sure it would be a miserable failure. It might work on a lazy river like the Bourbeuse when you're drifting through a dead pool at a quarter mile an hour, but there ain't no smallies in those spots anyway, so I probably wouldn't do it there, either. Trying to fly fish in a canoe through a run where smallmouth are going to be would be very challenging, and frankly ineffective. It's definitely a get out and wade scenario with canoes and fly rods, unless you're in a tandem and one guy fishes and one guy paddles.