Are Fishing Kayaks Worth It? Back-Country Kayak Fishing.

[Music] welcome back welcome back welcome back today we are kayak fishing i uh i got some new kayaks that i want to share with you guys i got two new kayaks sam thinks one is hers and one is mine i think they're both mine but that's that's a whole other discussion but we got two old town sportsmen and uh one is pedal drive and one is power drive power drive being powered by minn kota motor pedal drive being exactly that it's pedals it's like a bicycle type system which it's it's insane i used it for the first time uh i've done i've done a little bit of fishing out of this out of it this will be my first real session and i want to bring you guys along for you know first impressions and uh you know see how fishable it is obviously with a trolling motor there's uh a lot of functionality you don't get when you're using the pedal drive but i've heard really good things about this so i'm not going to talk too much we are doing some back lake adventuring and that's why i thought the 10-footer would be better because we got to drag this baby down a trail and um it's it's it's going to be a little bit of work but sometimes it pays off so anyways going to a lake i've never been to before i got a hot tip from sam's dad that he got bass in this lake like 45 years ago so anyways we're going to give it a shot it might be a complete flop it might be the best smallie fishing i've ever seen so yeah we're going to talk about kayak fishing i'll give you some first impressions here we go all right here's what we're packing we got the actual pedal drive module this is a super super cool deal i'll show that a little more in depth at shore um we got three combos we got my old hard case that i've had forever all my camera gear in there uh one tackle tray this is my day trip box and what i do there is i have you know obviously a bunch of different um plano trays that i use i just have one big deep one that i can buy so on kayak trips it's just you don't want to take so many trays i like to you know obviously take as little gear as possible that that's the point about this 10-footer is there was times last year with my with my big kayak with a 12-footer plus a trolling motor plus a battery it just got so excessive so um i wanna you know streamline things as far as powering things i got uh my trusty power box the power couple um gopros and once we're on the water we're pretty much just using gopros to film um with an audio recorder to give us some good clean audio but that's pretty much it got the paddle on the side yeah we'll we'll hike to the lake and then i'll kind of show you how this how this baby sets up and it's just uh yeah today's gonna be good a good day i can feel it oh good all right guys here we go all right so looking at the deal here um it comes pretty much ready to fish you know i'll go over a couple of features this is you need this rudder on the back because this is what steers so right there this thing will drop down and that's what steers and it's amazing how well it steers on the side you got your paddle holder this comes with three rod holders already and that's something that i've had to add on my pass kayak this is the steering control i'll show that later i already lost the top piece for it but supposed to be a nice top cap on there we'll talk about the seat we've got storage underneath here dry storage right there and then we've got the pedal drive system so check this out guys this is so cool it doesn't spin freely here but as you can see it's ridiculous it makes so much sense it looks just like a trolling motor you'd swear that was a min code on the bottom there on the top here you've got dry storage i've got my phone and my wallet in there super ideal then going farther forward you can see this is what locks this mechanism and you can also pull it out and just use it as normal kayak deal some storage on the side these are sliders that you can use for all sorts of accessories get to the front another dry storage compartment you can fit lots of stuff in there i mounted a gopro ball at the front here to mount my osmo that's pretty much it so i think we're going for smallies i think that's what's in this lake so we got the three options here we got a hair jig a blade bait if the fish a little deeper and then we got a swim bait which is going to be good for search searching covering water and once we find fish with the swim bait we'll probably slow down and use the hair jig if i were to guess guessing on a smaller lake like this it's not that deep in the fish are going to come shallow but lots of storage i know there's like so much storage in the back i mean you could have full camping gear in here i just like that it's ready to fish a cup holder on the side all right now that we're deeper here and we're going to put in the pedal drive it unhooks in the back here you slide it down and all you got to do is just turn this little knob here to the lock position and there we go if you're in super shallow water you'll probably want to wait to get that pedal drive going but push this out oh and there we go already too shallow here give us a couple pushes with the paddle and we'll be good who would have thought you had to paddle in a kayak wow look at this lake drop the sucker back in all right before we start kicking this is one other little treat i got and this is the sonar ball i i honestly didn't think i'd use this at all when i got it but um i used it ice fishing a couple times as a backup you may have seen in a video or two where me talk about it my electronics video phrase fishing but this is a pretty cool mount for a kayak and i have had side imaging the full deal all that stuff but for something quick this is amazing because i can just drop this in it'll auto level it's got the mount here that goes in the bracket it just sits beside me yeah goes up and down based on look at that it just floats and then i'll use my phone to get depth to get water temp oh first thing i gotta do is i've got to drop my i got to use this sucker and then this drops the karate chops the water here we go so good wow this water is clear oh it's stand up oh wow nice weeds this lake is small like you guys can see the whole thing that is the lake because it's 58 degrees that means the bass should be like shallow all right we're starting the jerkbait i am starting with the headbanger shad this will just be a good search bait to cast around if we see some fish then we will slow down with some some hair jigs or plastics but the steering's it's crazy how responsive it is like you just i'm doing just small movements with my hand and it uh wow this this lake is just crystal clear water's still 56 degrees these fish are going to be like munching hair jigs swim baits they're going to be they're going to be on shoreline i think i don't think they're going to be deep all right the bait the lake is plateaued at 25 feet deep so i think with kayak fishing especially if you don't have you know a motor spot locking you i think you want to you know fish with a wind to your advantage so right now there's a slight slight breeze behind me and it's just giving us a nice drift along the shoreline wow the weeds in this lake are just insane i should have brought the drone [Music] i see a pike i see a pike let's go and get a cast on him wow this is insane oh i'm gonna catch this pike oh he likes it look at him look at him chase look at this guys well we're gonna catch him again on the headbanger shad he just fired up okay there's fish in this lake it is confirmed and another thing to note this is stable definitely stable i like playing keep away with those pike i should probably check my line after that situation we're gonna fish this whole lake in an hour i do like the fact that this is a workout another good trick when you're kayak fishing is casting parallel to the shoreline you can just cover so much fishy water if you're drifting fast and don't have a chance to pick it apart oh that might have been a smallie i'm getting what do we got nope uh another pike we're about to drift into shore here you can reverse on this check this out how good is that nice little jackfish chopped the tail of my swimbait there you go he's gone all right i don't know if i have more swim baits i don't know what i brought even all right we're going to the hair jig we've got bites on everything so far all right this hair jig right here i actually uh tied it up with some of my turkey feathers from the turkey that i shot not too long ago marabou should i say and it looks real fishy okay this is the fishiest looking spot so far nice little gravel bar sticking out here i'm just gonna slow roll this hair jig over top and i'm going to reverse us in a second but this looks good oh there's a fish behind me got him what is it if that's a bass that's huge if that is a bass it's huge there's is that a bass that is a huge bass if it's a bass i'm jay's turkey jig oh that's a big smallie oh baby thank you dave wallin don't give you enough credit as a fisherman but he led me on to this gem and first cast of the hair jig oh that's a hog dave said four five pounders he caught out here back in the day as soon as we got into a rocky shoreline sure enough oh that's big oh that's big it is tough landing fishing kayaks i will tell you that and i'm just not good at it oh guys i gotta turn the kayak for this oh baby first bass in the old town and it is a hog that is so big look at that smallmouth ate the hair jig i just saw some light behind it and i was like there's a fish that's probably a three and a half pounder i don't know it's 19 inches maybe bigger wow wow wow wow wow all right guys first bass in the new kayak let's go on the turkey jig so this jig is 332nd ounce this is a bullet nose head this is when i melted myself actually and i took some turkey feathers tied them on at the vise and uh wow wow wow wow all right we're on the board it is nice to stand when you can and you can see especially in the super clear lakes if there's fish behind you so essentially a marabou jig is just yeah imitating a a leech cruising through the water and smallies like leeches another big one okay not as big nice fish though wow that fish was shallow he's pulling the kayak guys there just there are so many smallmouth lakes around kenora like really any of the small lakes it feels like have smallmouth in them some of them don't get fished oh you just spit up a perch that's what they're eating it was good right against shore where the breeze was blowing that warmer water and warm water is just so key in the springtime lighting isn't great for that but you guys get the picture oh there's a fish find me oh so he just charged it so fast unreal this is a nice one so so sweet in this clear water and it's almost as big as the first one oh man we are getting spoiled today another big bronze beauty on the hair jig you know and that's why i love fishing these back lakes i can fish a new lake every day and just not even put a dent into the lakes around here i'm just slow rolling it my favorite hair jig rod is a seven and a half foot medium light good whippy tip for bombing these light jigs um this is ten pound braid with an eight pound floral leader probably even lighter braid i know some people use six pound braid for hair jigs that'd be good too as i mentioned before a 10 pound is just kind of my general use for everything you got to get away with it for small mouth and a lot of walleye applications but yeah another thing that's key is just keeping your spool as full as possible because it just will cast that much easier it'll pick up line faster and that's something you want for a hair jig a bigger arbor reel is going to help you cast further too because there's just less friction when that line's coming off the reel all right i can actually see one in the shallows here guys see if i can get his attention got him oh that's a nice one try to paddle out here oh so good this clear water oh this has been fun look at that good oh what was that see something on the weed edge looks like a smallie i'm dropping it right beside him got him what is that oh that might be a big smallie no not big wow so cool could see him probably 10 feet down okay well some of the fish are using the weeds apparently okay it's bigger than i thought another chunky mama give you guys one more look right there very cool like standing and fishing you just you see stuff i mean i know that's common sense but sitting and fishing you just sometimes miss what's going on i know you can maybe get away with it for like walleye fishing when you're fishing clear water bass fishing pike fishing whiskey fishing standing you just you learn stuff you see stuff you see the weed bed i saw that fish cruising along the side of the weed bed and but yeah i mean you just you work with what you got and i think that's that's the important thing and one of the topics i wanted to question i wanted to answer in this video was like is a fishing kayak worth it and yes like whatever you have access to if you have like just an old beater canoe or a fancy new pedal drive or a power driver or a boater or whatever it might be i mean you can do so much i did so many fishing trips back in the day with a 12-foot aluminum at a 55-pound min coat on the back so you just you deal with what you get and the thing is like yeah you might not have the stability and you know you might not be able to go in the big waves as with a kayak as you would with a boat but then you get to these lakes that you can't even put a boat into so there's definitely you know pros and cons for all i enjoyed kayak fishing way more than i ever could have expected and i wouldn't be fishing this lake otherwise i wouldn't i don't think i'd be hauling a 12 or 14 foot boat back here yeah it's been a lot of fun the hair jig has been hair jig has definitely been the winner all right guys that is it for fishing today uh huge success i mean we caught some nice big smallmouth but that was the main goal the main goal was to to give the the old town kayak its first workout and i think we did that it uh it did what we needed it to absolutely but i'm gonna give some final thoughts yet on shore we're gonna pedal back for now but that was that was sweet definitely definitely coming back here thank you sam's dad all right guys we're back for my kayak adventure since then i've gone on a couple trips with the pedal drive i've yet to fish out of um the power drive which i'm gonna do uh a review type impressions video of it but yeah i've had a chance to fish with a couple times the 106 pedal in the sportsman series i love i love my big boat don't get me wrong but it is amazing how much you can do with with a kayak like it just opens the doors to lakes that you would never be able to get to as i mentioned many times for me i love that i can just throw in the back of my truck don't need to worry about a trailer especially with that 10 foot size i keep my my tailgate open i think i have like a five and a half foot box keep the tailgate open a couple of ratchet straps and it's good to go so there's definitely a lot to be said for that um i know you know you can put on the roof of an suv so instantly you don't necessarily need a truck which obviously you need for some bigger boats i mean yes is a fishing kayak worth it absolutely like even for me someone who has a beautiful lumacraft sitting over there there's still so many situations where i want to use the fishing kayak and it's just it's it's something different and i can see why it's growing so fast kayak fishing is just exploding and it's it's pretty tough to find a fishing kayak right now because they're selling out everywhere a couple things that i was really impressed with the stability on a 10 and a half what i thought was your large shaker being able to stand and fish out of is no problem i'm going to try to do a tip test at some point but you're probably more likely to actually fall out than than to tip the whole unit um it had lots of storage in the back more storage than i think i'll probably need being able to turn with that little knob made it so easy the only thing that is tougher is you know when you want to stop and anchor and fish somewhere obviously a motorized version would be better or you could put some sort of anchor or power pole on the back um they make like a micro one now um but yeah for ease of use the reason why i wanted the 10 footer as well is just for for lakes where i need to drag it in the 12-footer is great with the motor and everything but the thing about that is you're just taking so much gear in and you know if i'm doing bigger water i think that the power drive is probably gonna be the option if i know that i'm gonna have to go across a lake but if i'm not going crazy far fishing the smaller lakes i think i'm probably going to choose to choose the pedal drive most of the time but anyways um i haven't really put it through the paces yet just a couple days on the water but i am loving it i hope you guys are looking forward to some more kayak videos if you're looking for kayak i highly recommend checking out old town i'll link them below and uh if you guys have any suggestions on accessories or things i need to add to my fact please let me know as well because i am a newbie in the kayak fishing world thank you guys for watching don't forget to wear life jacket and we will catch you on the water very very soon

Channel: Jay Siemens

Views: 81,695

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Id: 9_0fmdh9DB8

Length: 19min 8sec (1148 seconds)

Published: Mon May 24 2021