I have fallen in love with river smallies. I have a perception 10.5 foot kayak which is great for short trips. I am wondering guys that fish the river from a kayak how many combos do you take? And what are they?

 

I took a 6 6 medium fast with 10 lb braid and a 6 9 medium heavy with 40 lb braid out other day. Probably needed my cranking combo as well, but didn’t know how much I’d use it.

 

my river is shallow 4-5 feet at the deepest most places. 

When I take my kayak out I take 6 to 8 rods with me. Usually 2 spinning rods with 10lb braid and 10lb leader for drop shot and ned rig. Casting setups with topwater, swimbait, shallow crankbait, deep crankbait, jig'n'creature bait and often a jerk bait. At various times I will swap out one of the above for spinnerbait, or a chatterbait, or other lures but I like to have a variety of rods at the ready to really strain the water. Often I will fish a hump that tops off in several feet of water but drops off into 30' or more and I want to be able to completely cover it without retying.

 

The rivers I fish are big (Willamette and Columbia) and probably more akin to fishing a lake with current.

15 minutes ago, pdxfisher said:

When I take my kayak out I take 6 to 8 rods with me. Usually 2 spinning rods with 10lb braid and 10lb leader for drop shot and ned rig. Casting setups with topwater, swimbait, shallow crankbait, deep crankbait, jig'n'creature bait and often a jerk bait. At various times I will swap out one of the above for spinnerbait, or a chatterbait, or other lures but I like to have a variety of rods at the ready to really strain the water. Often I will fish a hump that tops off in several feet of water but drops off into 30' or more and I want to be able to completely cover it without retying.

 

The rivers I fish are big (Willamette and Columbia) and probably more akin to fishing a lake with current.

Thank you for response. Sounds like you’ve got a heck of a set up for kayak fishing! I’d have to doctor something up to get that many rods in my boat for sure. 

How many rods do you feel comfortable taking/have space for? 

 

I've got a catch 100 and I only ever take 2 rods with me. I always have a ML/XF spinning rod with me. I use it for ned rigs, small swimbaits, dropshot, light tubes, small crankbaits (think tiny shad raps or original floaters), and whatever else I can throw that's reasonable to on that rod.

 

Now, for the second rod, it's usually a MH/F baitcaster with 12# mono. I use that for squarebills, spinnerbaits, football heads, texas rigs. It's not ideal for something like a squarebill but it gets the job done. I just back down on the drag. Sometimes I opt for a M/F spinning rod instead, if I feel like I want to finesse it that day. You're pretty limited with only 2 rods but I get by just fine. In an ideal world, I'd take 3 with me. 

I have a larger river kayak, a Jackson Coosa HD.  I usually have 4 rods with me.  Almost always, 1 is a Falcon Cara ST (no longer made) 6'10 MH/F finesse jig rod.  I generally will have a rod with a monofilament leader for top water plugs, which recently has been a St. Croix Avid 6'6 M/F spinning rod.  The other 2 will vary depending on conditions.  I don't usually bring cranking specific rods, but there are times when I I feel like a Speed Trap or a Bandit will be the most valuable lure you can have.  Mostly I'm fishing riffles and small ledges with soft plastics, and pools with top water plugs or spinnerbaits.  

The depth is going to limit the number of techniques you can present.

My river averages 5' to 15' of depth and averages about 1ft/sec of flow.

 

I bring 3 rods.

 

A 7ft MF spinning rod (soft plastics/jigs)

A 6.5' MM spinning rod (squarebills/ spinnerbaits/top water/ jerkbaits/rattletraps/crankbaits)

A 7.5' MLXF spinning rod (hair jigs, neds, swimbaits, inline spinners)

 

I dont throw glidebaits, drop shots or deep crankbaits.

I usually do 2-3, too many tree branches that like to snap or steal them. 6’6” spinning rod for tubes grubs and jig worms and a 7’ medium heavy baitcaster for poppers buzzbaits crankbaits and such 

You can make a pretty good rod keeper from swivel-snap, paracord (here coreless), cord locks and buckles, and bungee.  You can buy it all on Amazon. 

My knots are seized with PE/acrylic film tape, or get really salty and seize with twine. (Robline whipping twine even comes with the needle)

Rods out of sight stay clipped to a keeper.  Snap to a hard point, or if you have an anchor trolley, they'll glide on the trolley line and you can make the keeper really short. 

 

I never take more than 2 rods in the river because of the extra attention the boat needs. (Redfish 10)

 

I'll take 3 on the salt flats. (T160)

I think I'd only be willing to take 2 maybe 3 rods out on the water at any given time. I took my 6'6" M/F spinning rod for out to the river Tuesday, and it fished it most of the day. I also used my 6'9" Mh/F baitcaster for crank baits. 

 

I think i will want to get a ML/XF rod for the river in the future. It seems like such a great rod to catch rock bass and smallies. 

Conventional i take anywhere from 4 or so depending on the time of year and how recently i have been out and have an idea of what they may be hitting on. I try to keep a topwater, jig, crank and chatterbait or soft plastic swimbait at the ready. I have Yak attak omega pro rod holders mounted offset from each other and they also allow for quick adjustments as far as the angle they are in the air.  I usually keep them as close to horizontal as possible to avoid issues.

 

Fly fishing I take 4 usually, same rod holders and same horizontal layout.