Strategic Kayak Positioning by John Williams
A kayak has two very important advantages over fishing in a powerboat. One is stealth and the other is the ability to position the boat just about anywhere. This article is designed to help you understand the basics of how to fish a particular area of marsh.
Yes – a fish can be almost anywhere, but your odds increase drastically if you focus on 3 key areas: Points, Pockets and Trenasses. Points make great places to catch fish because fish tend to use them as ambush points. This can be particularly true when you have some tidal movement – especially on a falling tide. Pockets are areas where fish hang out also. I tend to have better luck in pockets in three situations: strongly moving tides (fish are lazy and like to hide out), slack tides (not sure why) and incoming tides. The third area with high fish probabilities are trenasses. Trenasse is a Cajun word for small ditch or waterway. These areas congregate fish who gather and wait for food to wash out of the marsh.
Positioning your kayak to take advantage of these areas is simple in a kayak. In Step 1, you position your kayak casting distance from the major point and then proceed to fan cast the area. In addition to fishing the point itself, you’ll want to fish the open water to the left of the point. Also fish the first 20 feet of shoreline to the right of the point. This allows you to move on to step 2.
In step 2, we re-position the kayak right up against the grass near the point. You can then cast straight down the grass line and reel back in – keeping your lure in the “Strike Zone” for the entire time it’s in the water. This is a highly effective way of fishing a lot of shoreline very quickly. Notice that you’ll want to fish the 20 feet to the right of the corner because this is the next spot you are going to position your kayak in.
In Step 3, we re-position into the corner to fish the grass line out towards the point. Be sure to cast beyond the point and then reel back in through the Strike Zone back to your kayak.
Once we’ve fished the shoreline next to the point, we’re going to re-position the kayak in a spot that allows us to fish the point from a different angle, plus fish the pocket and the trenasse to our northeast.
A couple of tips for using this technique: Fish each key area thoroughly, but don’t sit there and flog the water for 30 minutes per spot. 2-4 casts in an area are enough to see if fish are there and ready to bite. Secondly, BE STEALTHY! One of your biggest advantages in a kayak is that fish don’t know that you are there. Be quiet and keep it that way!
Have fun, relax and don’t rush. Be methodical and focus on Points, Pockets and Trenasses with good kayak positioning and you will catch more fish.
©Pack & Paddle – Lafayette, LA – 337-232-5854 – www.packpaddle.com
