Voted your 2015 Kayak Angler of the Year, I feel like a pioneer for encouraging men and women to take up kayak fishing. At age fifteen I stepped into the tournament scene, fishing bass tournaments on Lake Okeechobee and across the state. Here I fell in love with tournament bass fishing and haven’t stopped chasing that American dream. Today, eleven years later I compete in kayak tournaments around the country and even into the Bahamas. As a south Florida native I like to explore the fishing capital of the world to its fullest extent by fishing freshwater, saltwater, inshore and offshore. Kayak fishing was an innocent accident, but like most who try it, it doesn’t take long for the addiction to ignite.
I fell in love with kayak fishing because Florida is the land of limitless fishing and fishing off a kayak is as close to nature as you can get. It’s the one boat that will take you everywhere and it’s the one boat you can truly hunt on all bodies of water. This boat challenges you and brings out the best of your abilities. You learn to strengthen your physical and mental toughness and hone your outdoor skills by submitting yourself to physical challenges, learning to adapt to changing conditions, and developing patience to fish slow and thoroughly work an area you would normally pass.
In this issue’s cover photo, I was fishing a marshy stretch which is some of my favorite places to kayak fish. You can’t actually reach this spot by boat, which makes it ideal for hunting in the kayak. There’s plenty of highways for the fish to move in and out of, you have two solid banks that are lined with reeds, and then there’s a drop off with scattered grass in-between. I’m able to throw a variety of presentations, but one of my favorites in this situation is a squarebill.
I FELL IN LOVE WITH KAYAK FISHING BECAUSE FLORIDA IS THE LAND OF LIMITLESS FISHING AND FISHING OFF A KAYAK IS AS CLOSE TO NATURE AS YOU CAN GET.
At first sight the squarebill I prefer to throw doesn’t look like much, surprisingly in these right conditions it’s a big fish bait. It’s very small and because of that I always upgrade my hooks making my back hook a VMC SureSet. Yes, changing your hooks will alter the presentation and in this case it’s nothing but success. I know how productive this little bait can be and I want to give myself the best opportunity to land Ms. Right. This magical squarebill is a Biovex AMP Shallow Crank color #01 Ayu. The low profile and wide wobble makes this ideal for throwing in and around grass.
In order to get the best out of my Biovex Shallow Crank I pair it with an MHX HM-MB873 7’3’’ 10-17 cranking stick. This particular blank has the perfect medium of backbone and whip. I know in Florida we’re very braid orientated because that’s how our fishery works. In situations like this where I’m fighting fire with fire or treble vs grass, I need stretch. I throw 14lb Yo-Zuri fluorocarbon and this gives me the confidence I need to throw around hard structure, the reliability I need to fish it hard all day, and the stretch for allowing my squarbill to work it’s natural wobbling magic throughout our grassy swampland.
The one thing I love the most about kayak fishing is that there are very few places I cannot fish. In this day with people and development everywhere, slipping into a small stream, lake or canal and paddling or peddling into remote areas gives you a sense of freedom and fishing where no one else has fished before. For those who mix fishing with adventure, there is no equal comparison.
