WAVEWALK FISHING KAYAKS BLOG » big fish

November Muskie, By Gary Thorberg

W kayak — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:30:38 +0000

This kayak fishing story first appeared on Minnyaks

Late fall is muskie time in Minnesota. They seem to be fattening before for the long winter. (I usually fatten up DURING the winter.) You can catch them right up until the ice forms, or the season ends, whichever comes first. Many fisherman don’t even fish for muskies until now. This nice 40 inch, 18 plus pounder was taken from a small lake in the heart of Minneapolis, a short distance from the downtown area. The lake only allows paddling or electric motors……perfect for my Wavewalk 500!

This fish was only out of the water for a quick measurement and photo.

The canoe paddle is marked to allow for a quick measurement.

The ‘boga grip’ style gripper is much easier than a net from a kayak.

Glide baits, such as this Phantom, seem to work well this time of year.

The Wavewalk is a perfect craft for landing bigger fish. You are close to the water, and can easily steer the fish where you would like it to go. Because of the great tracking ability of the W, the fish won’t pull you around side to side as much as you would think. The fight was short and sweet, with the muskie quickly released without a scratch!
It’s going to be a long winter!

Gary
Minn Yaks

The W Fishing Kayak Combat Position for Fighting a Big, Powerful Fish

W kayak — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:48:01 +0000

I decided to re-edit and republish this blog that was initially posted over a year ago because it’s both important and interesting: A big and powerful fish may be smaller and altogether weaker than you, but being in its natural element while you’re not gives it an advantage that may compromise your kayak’s stability and make you tip over, or get you somewhere that you don’t necessarily want to go to in a long ’sleigh ride’, or simply make you lose the fish because you’re too busy controlling your kayak.

This is about a maneuver that Jeff McGovern and myself developed while brainstorming together. It’s called the ‘Combat Position’, and it’s possible to execute only when you’re fishing from a W-kayak. It goes like this: As soon as you realize that you’ve hooked a big fish you need to swiftly reposition yourself along the saddle as forward in the cockpit as possible and most importantly -in the riding position (’Mounted’), with your knees tucked into the front-hull tip openings, as you can see in ‘1′ in this illustration. As a result of your forward move your W kayak’s bow will dip in the water (see ‘2′) while the stern will come out of the water (see ‘3′). In this position your W kayak will be ‘planted’ in the water, and offer maximal resistance to unwanted change that big fish may generate, whether such change is tilting sideways or going forward. In this position you won’t have to worry about balancing your W fishing kayak, and you’ll be able to focus on your fish while its own capacity to outmaneuver or destabilize you is reduced to nearly zero. All that fish could do now is swim forward or sideways, and since your W kayak will generate a lot of drag in this position the fish will get tired much sooner, and become less of a problem for you when it comes to reeling or pulling it in.

Photo of Brandon Cutter with a striper he caught off Cape Cod, MA

Jeff’s Reflections Following a Kayak Fishing Trip to Pellicer, Florida

W kayak — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:59:43 +0000

-”I was out yesterday much closer to home over at Pellicer. I was by myself and had quite bit of time to reflect on the W kayak and just how well it does work for fishing.
It was raining yesterday and of course you have to be able to keep some items dry. Having those 2 Rubbermaid trash cans one on each side in front of me is ideal. They slide very easily out of the way and in fact deep enough in you can still tuck up into the bow with your knees in the hulls to fight larger fish.

Between the two cans I have all the tackle I need plus drinks, snacks, and assorted tools.

When I transport the boat I put both cans into one hull still out of the rain by the way. The other hull gets the paddle, stakeout pole, net, etc.

I’ll have to do another short video of moving those cans around. I think the only place I really moved one was in that rigging one months back.
Dragging the W kayak is so much easier than any other paddle craft. Yesterday I had lots of dragging over sand bars to get where I wanted. Most kayaks or canoes are horrible to drag. Way too much hull contact and then they tip around throwing your gear all over. Also retry into deeper sections is easy. Just hop in at the edge and tip you way into the water then off you go. Kind of like the ice paddling movie.

–Jeff”

And since this blog is about fun, here’s the movie that Jeff mentioned:

Brandon’s Quick Release, Big Fish Kayak Anchor System

W kayak — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:51:52 +0000

Brandon from Cape Cod made this ingenious instant release anchor system for his W kayak.

He writes:

-”Here are some pics of an anchor system that worked really well for me last season. The key is to be able to release the Wavewalk kayak from the anchor line in an instant to chase and fight a big fish.

The Genius Carabiner opens at an angle so only one hand is needed. The float allows the angler to find the anchor system after the fight and start fishing again from that productive spot.
Commercial fisherman use a similar (yet much beefier) system to hook, fight and land giant bluefin tuna here on Cape Cod.”

Read more about Brandon’s Fishing Kayak

The W Kayak Combat Position For Fighting a Big Fish

W kayak — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:08:31 +0000

A big and powerful fish may be smaller and altogether weaker than you, but being in its natural element while you’re not gives it an advantage that may compromise your kayak’s stability, get you somewhere that you don’t necessarily want to go to in long a ‘sleigh ride’, or make you lose the fish because you’re too busy controlling your kayak.

This is a maneuver that Jeff McGovern and myself developed together as a ‘think tank’ and ‘R&D team’. It’s called the ‘Combat Position’, and it’s possible to execute only in a W Kayak:

Upon realizing that you have a business with a big fish you need to swiftly reposition yourself along the saddle in the riding position (‘Mounted’) and as forward in the cockpit as possible, with your knees tucked into the front hull tip openings – see ’1′ in the illustration below.
As a result of this change in weight distribution your W kayak’s bow will dip in the water (see ’2′) while the stern will come out of the water (see ’3′).

In this position your W kayak will be ‘planted’ in the water and offer maximum resistance to unwanted change, whether such change is tilting sideways or going forward.
Being in this position will free you from the need to balance your kayak while you’re fighting the fish, and let you focus on your fish whose capability to outmaneuver you was reduced to almost zero.

All the fish could do now is swim forward or sideways, and since your W kayak will generate a lot of drag in this position the fish will soon get tired and become less of a problem to reel in.