nboucher

I fish pretty much exclusively from an Old Town Loon 111, mostly on ponds and lakes and for a little bit of river fishing. I adore it. It's the perfect size for me (age 54) to cartop solo, and I spend a lot of time poring over maps looking for ponds and small lakes that have no easy access, or cartop only. I have rigged it with a rod holder and an Eagle FishEasy 245DS fishfinder and opt for a drift sock rather than an anchor. You also need something to hold your paddle while you fish, and the Loon comes with a bungee cord on the side of the cockpit that allows you to store your paddle under it. I find it's plenty roomy and the seat is padded and very comfortable. I've been in it for several hours at a stretch without getting out. (I think the hardest part about kayaks is getting in and out of them without getting wet.) The advantages of a kayak over a canoe, in my experience: 1. As others have said, you can go anywhere. If you like lakes and ponds that receive relatively little fishing pressure and are off the beaten path, they are ideal. They are quiet and peaceful, use no gas or electricity. 2. You can't beat them for solo fishing. I have two 16 foot canoes that I use primarily for canoe camping, and they are more difficult for me to cartop and portage by myself. (This might be less of a problem with a smaller canoe.) 3. You're as close to the water as you can get, which makes landing fish easier. 4. You get from point A to point B more quickly and easily. A canoe is more unwieldy to paddle and tends to get blown around more in the wind. The advantage of a canoe over a kayak, in my experience: 1. There's room for two or three people, if you don't fish alone much. 2. More room for gear and storing multiple rods. 3. Easier to pitch and flip from. Selecting a kayak depends entirely on the water you'll be fishing. In general, if you get a SINK, or sit-inside kayak, you want a big open cockpit, so you can get to your gear easily and wrestle those hawgs once you've landed them. I have zero experience with SOT, or sit-on-top kayaks, so can't advise you there. I've paddled a canoe a fair amount in the Everglades and once in the Okefenokee and never felt threatened by gators. Granted this is usually in the winter when they are less aggressive, but they seem to to drift away as the canoe approaches. Capsizing is another issue, of course, but it's never happened to me. For all the info you'd ever want on fishing from a kayak, check out www.kayakfishingstuff.com.

Fantastic, Russ. CAST is a very smart organization to grab you and tap into your creativity and energy.

Matt, I fish a small pond pretty regularly that is fringed with lily pads but, aside from that, is not really weed-choked. On this pond, which is in southeastern Mass., the big bass have been hanging around and under the lily pads for most of the late spring and summer, but now that those pads are fading with the oncoming fall, they seem to be in the process of moving out of there and scattering some. I caught a 5lb,13oz LMB late Friday afternoon on a jig just out from one of the smaller pad areas in about 5-6 feet of water. I don't know where you are, but my theory about this pond is that as the pads turn color and go dormant for the season, and as the water cools into the 60s (on the surface, at least), the bass are out a little deeper and are roaming more, which makes catching them right now a little bit hit or miss. I think it's a transitional stage between the summer pattern and the fall pattern, which means some of the bass seem to be staying close to the lily pads but in slightly deeper water, and some may be even deeper, though I haven't found any deep yet. I've been concentrating on jig fishing over the past few weeks to get a little deeper and it seems to be working okay, though I have had some tough days. I may start experimenting with a rat-l-trap to cover water and try to hit a wandering fish and as the fall progresses an x-rap or husky jerk might pick up some of the fish near the pads in relatively shallow water, but I'll probably stick with a jig as long as it's working. Let us know what ends up working for you in your ponds.

Good question. I find I often will lip the fish with my right hand and work the hook out with my left. If the hook is through some think cartlilage or the fish is gut-hooked, though, I find I transfer the fish to my left hand and get serious with my right (I'm right-handed). For an old guy like me, the actual sequence is often that I grab with right hand, and if the hook doesn't come out easily with my left hand, I switch the fish to my left hand, PUT MY READING GLASSES ON, and then get to work with my right hand. :-/

Besides, when the pad on your thumb gets that sandpaper-y feel, you'll know you've had a super day of fishing.

Jet Skis

NJ--I fish a pond very similar to yours. The middle, deep portion of my pond doesn't have any cover to hold fish. I work that section briefly while I'm out here in case I happen to luck out with a roamer, but the odds are very slim, and I've never caught anything deep. You're right to stick to pads and edges. If the pads extend 20 feet from shore and are adjacent to a steep drop off, you've got a great combo of good structure and cover. The pads probably sit on a pretty good shelf, and my guess is that the bass like to get up on that shelf to feed. Work those pads and edges hard. Drag a horny toad or a senko along the tops of the pads, letting the bait sink in between. Work them slowly. Then I'd fish parallel to the pad/weed edge with a senko, a super fluke (or Slug-go), or a jig. At my pond, I've caught four- and six-pounders that way, and the few feet on either side of the edge of the pads has been really really productive. I think those are favorite ambush sites in that kind of pond.

Don't forget jigs. I've recently found they can produce good fish in small ponds. As for time of day, the 6 1/2 pounder in my avatar was caught in a pond at 11:30 a.m., and on a Horny Toad no less, a bait that many people use only in the early morning and the evening.

Usually the manuals that come with depthfinders are invaluable for learning how to read them. If you haven't already, you should really study yours. Also there are some good free tutorials at the Lowrance Web site. A common misconception with these devices is that they point out individual fish that you then go after. That may happen once in a while, but most of the time they are really habitat finders. The Fish ID function on these things are grossly misleading and can obscure the most important information you need. I never use it. The real trick is to spend enough time with your depthfinder that you learn to interpret what you're seeing on the screen. Using the info in your manual, for example, you should be able to tell whether you are looking at a hard bottom or a soft bottom. Weeds and stumps are fairly obvious on the screen, as are changes of water depth. Once you know what you're looking at on the screen, match all of this data with what you know about bass. They like cover, for example, so the bottom patches of weeds and stumps you see are areas to work over with whatever bait you use. Case in point: a pond I fish a lot is about 20 feet deep in the middle, with relatively little variation in depth until you get very close to shore. That whole middle section is flat and contains little vegetation, so there isn't a lot to hold bass, and sure enough, I've never caught anything there. But my depthfinder helped me pinpoint the areas that rise up to shallow plateaus with lots of lily pads. There's one area in particular that is a wide, shallow table covered with pads, at the edge of which the water drops quickly to about 7 feet and then down to 17. The table and the seven foot area is where the bass in this pond tend to hang out, and I've caught some nice hogs there. It makes sense, because bass like to grab forage in shallower water and like to use the shade and additional oxygen under the lily pads when the temperature gets hot. Bass also like to be near deep water in case they have to retreat, and my depthfinder showed me why this area of this pond is where the bass are most concentrated. Without a depthfinder, I would have hit the pads around the pond, but the device helped me pinpoint the precise area that has the best combination of traits that bass love. So a depthfinder helps you figure out what areas to concentrate your fishing in; it doesn't really show you the fish themselves. Hope this helps.

Chris--Lactic acid is right. Here's a quote from a 1997 British report done by a zoologist for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Teleost fish include most common fish: "When teleost fish are severely stressed and exercised to exhaustion, they make extensive use of their 'white' muscle system. This differs from the red skeletal muscle of higher vertebrates, in that it is anaerobic and, although very efficient in the short term, when exhausted contains a great accumulation of lactic acid during the elimination of which the muscle system remains in prolonged fatigue. A completely exhausted fish will thus be almost unable to move for several hours after capture. During this time it will be at risk to attack by predators or injury from its inanimate environment." I've had many fish able to move just fine and chipper after I've released them, and many that seemed more stunned. I do C&R as quickly as possible, so it's possible that some fish may already be hurting when I've caught them. And size and appearance doesn't seem to matter. I've released some big fat fish that seem stunned and some scrawny guys go off as frisky as can be. Norman

I'd also suggest a super fluke in that 3-4' space between the green stuff and the plants.

Try a book called The Founding Fish, by John McPhee. It's all about shad fishing, but it's a wonderful read by a great writer. There's also a good chapter at the end about catch & release that goes into some PETA stuff that's interesting, too. Plus some of his recipes for shad and shad roe.

Someone mentioned in an earlier thread that it will soon be out on DVD. I'm going to wait until then.

FatBoy, I had the same reaction as you when I first saw those two fish appear out of nowhere. I had to watch the video a couple more times to make sure I hadn't missed something. I mean the difference is so abrupt and immediate! I don't know what kind of editing or video tricks might have been used there, but it is an AMAZING clip.

I regularly fish a 30- or 40-acre pond (I'm terrible at judging acreage) that receives very little fishing pressure, and although it's bigger than the one you're describing, I have some outings when I catch one fish and others when I'm catching a dozen, including some four pounders. I think it's tough to isolate the cause of a sudden decline. Overfishing is likely to be a more gradual thing, noticeable over a few years or more. I don't know how many bass are in this pond, but it's a lot more than I've been catching. The bigger nuisance is that there's noplace to hide my car when I'm fishing there. I notice while driving by lately that a few other people have been in there . . . :'(

Congrats. You've pulled off your first fishing bluff. You're really a fisherman now.

What type of jerkbait do you prefer for this kind of thing. And what about other plastics, especially fat ikas and senkos? What about size of plastics? Thanks for your great suggestions.

I didn't want to divert BassHunter266's thread on smallies vs. LMBs, but I'm hoping to sneak up to NH with my kayak for a few days in mid-Sept. to try to snag my first-ever smallie. I'll be fishing ponds of various sizes that have both species and wonder if anyone has any hints about lures and techniques at ponds where both are found. I understand I should stick to deeper water where there are rocks or stumps, but are the techniques and presentations for smallie fishing similar to those for LMB? Norman

After watching LBH use his (while I fished in his bow ), I went out and bought one to use with my 11-foot kayak. I put a locking carabiner (from my brief life as a rock climber 20 years ago) on some of the rigging on the yak, and a regular carabiner on the loop at the end of drift-anchor straps, allowing me to conect or disconnect it quickly. On a windy day, it can be tough to fish from a yakyou can get blown into the weeds pretty quicklybut the drift anchor (for a 14-foot boat, ordered from Cabela's) has made a big difference. It's not really much of a hassle to pull out of the water. It keeps the yak more or less at trolling speed.

You have your head on straight, Nick. You'll do well, I'm sure. I hope that $5,000 opens the door for the quality education you deserve. Nice going. Can't wait to read that essay. . .

Russ, the Wise One, nailed it. Over the last couple of months alone, my PB came at 11:30 am under partly cloudy skies, and I've caught 4-pounders (big for New England) at 5 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Get out every moment you can, no matter what time of day it is. Even if you don't catch a big bass, you might see something you've never seen before--an otter, an owl, an eagle, a boatload of naked--oh, never mind.

Vince, I actually started bass fishing around this time of year. All I owned was one or two spinnerbaits so I threw those around until I figured out the places bass are likely to hang out. We all have tons to learn about fishing, so don't think you're unskilled. Read as much as you can stand from the Fishing Articles section you see at the top of this page to get a sense of what to look for when you're out on the water and to learn what works best with whatever bait you choose. Learning to bass fish, like most things, is about preparing yourself by educating yourself and thenthis is most importantspending as much time on the water as you possibly can. Afterwards at home sit down and think about why you caught fish that day. Where were they? What were you doing when they bit? If you didn't catch fish that day, try to review what you were doing. What part of the lake were you working and why? Fish a lot and think about what's happening, and you'll have plenty of success at whatever time of year you choose to get out there. Never give up. Welcome and don't ever be afraid to ask questions! Norman

Mr. Lemieux. I don't even remember his first name. I grew up in southern New Hampshire, in a neighborhood of factory workers who, thanks to gthe GI Bill, had managed to buy into a development of small and indentical ranch houses during the 1950s. We moved into ours when I was five, and it wasn't long until I'd begun wandering down to the pond across the street. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I must have wandered into Mr. Lemieux fishing for shiners with dough balls. He used to go there after work in his undershirt. Sometimes he'd take an alumnimum folding chair with him, and he always had a cigar going. He also had a couple of slices of bread on the ground beside him and a bucket. He filled the bucket with pond water and put the shiners in it. I remember looking in the bucket and seeing all those silver fish. Soon I'd talked my parents into buying me a Zebco 202 and during the summer I fished over there by myself during the day. I still associate fishing with cigar smoke. RIP, Mr. Lemieux.

When the coontail is at least several inches from the surface, I've had good success with super flukes as well. Bass and pickerel will pop out of the coontail and grab them as they zigzag by.

Aw, shucks, muddy. Now you've got me blushing. :-*