By: Randy Morrow
Small paddle craft like kayaks, paddle boards and canoes offer a unique experience for the flats angler. While they don’t have the extended range of a power boat, they give the pursuit of fish an incredible intimacy, and the small footprint of a paddle craft allows the angler to get much closer to fish without spooking them. Today I’ll offer a few techniques for catching flats fish from a little plastic boat.
Whether to stand or sit is a good place to start our discussion. Standing has myriad advantages, the main one being that you can see your targets before they notice you. This is especially important with bonefish, one of the harder species for the newcomer to see. However, some paddle craft, due to their narrow width, are just not suited for standing. Or sometimes the paddler is just not comfortable in the standing position.
That’s okay, you can still catch a bonefish! A productive technique is to chum a little bit. Once you find an area that looks good and has current, anchor your kayak, dice up shrimp into fingernail-sized pieces and toss about 30 feet from your boat. Then put one or two rods with live shrimp very close to your diced shrimp and wait. If you don’t get action in about 15 minutes, then try a different spot. This method will also get you some small bonnethead sharks which are zippy fighters on light tackle.
Fishing for juvenile tarpon doesn’t require the angler to stand either. Tarpon, especially around sunrise and sunset, will “roll”, breaking the water’s surface with the upper part of their body. Once you seen this a few times, it’s unmistakable, and it tells the angler the location and direction of travel of the fish so you know where to cast.
Lemon sharks, a terrific sight fishing target, especially in the winter months, will often swim the flats with their dorsal fins out of the water making a distinctive wake you’ll see from a distance. Approaching them deliberately and presenting a piece of cut fish will generally result in a reel-screaming hookup!
Permit are many times difficult to get a good shot at because they seem to constantly change direction as they move across a flat. But sometimes they will settle down in an area, especially if they’re feeding, and poke their tail out of the water. A well-placed live crab or shrimp will usually get you hooked up.
Big barracuda are typically common on the flats in the cooler months and offer one of the most exciting “takes” or “eats” in saltwater fishing! It truly has the appearance of a heat-seeking missile as they track down your lure. The best lure for a spin fisherman is the tried and true “tube lure”, available at all the local tackle shops. If you’re standing, a bright sunny day can help you see big cudas lying motionless on the flats. If you’re sitting, blind casting to likely ambush spots can be quite productive.
Feel free to call, text or email if I can help you with your piscatorial pursuits!
— Randy Morrow, Kayak Fishing Guide | LowerKeysKayakFishing.com
randy@lowerkeyskayakfishing.com | 305-923-4643