How to Paddle a Fishing Kayak | Sit On Top

hey guys Chad over cake bass fishing today I'm gonna talk to you about how to paddle a fishing kayak alright guys so before I can teach you how to paddle a fishing kayak I actually have to talk to you a little bit about how to paddle it's real simple the easiest way to do it is set the paddle on your legs grab the paddle a little bit over shoulder width apart put the paddle on top your head it should make a box hold your hands out in front of you this should be slightly outside your elbow okay the hand that you throw a baseball with or the hand that you prefer to throw a punch with is gonna be what we like to call your glue hand so what you're gonna do is you're gonna grab the paddle blade and your knuckle should be lined up with the blade this hand should be glued to the paddle and it should never release the other hand is gonna go on the paddle in the same fashion but this is gonna be your greased hand so the way that that works is you grip the paddle with this handle loosely so when I get ready to make a stroke I open that hand rotate the paddle make my catch on the left side pull forward but when I get ready to go to the right side again I'll loosen this hand up to put my paddle in the water for the catch and I move forward rotate pull rotate pull rotate pull and so I like to keep my fingers a little looser on my glue on my grease hand but you also want to kind of move your fingers on your grease hand your glue hand every now and then you don't want to try to squeeze the block out of the paddle shaft it's going to cause forearm cramps it's gonna call shoulder problems it's going to cause tennis elbow and a myriad of other things so hold the paddle loose with both hands this is your glue hand this is the hand that's not gonna slide on the paddle and this is your grease hand the hand that's gonna allow the paddle to rotate and you reach out again I'm grabbing it with just my index finger and my thumb and I'm pulling and then I'm fulcrum in against the inside of my hand here and loosening that up on each stroke on kind of finger rolling the paddle blade to make sure that I don't over squeeze the shaft I have actually early on in my my fishing career I said I don't need to know how to paddle I'm a fisherman not a kayaker and then I realized after Pavel in 6070 miles a week for the first 10 years of kayak fishing that I was actually a paddler whether liked it or not so if you want to invest in becoming a better kayak angler invest in becoming a better paddler watch some of the videos about proper paddling technique today I'm just talking to you about effectively paddling a fishing kayak there's a couple of strokes that you need to know to be able to do that one stroke that I think every angler should know before we get into the paddling part is what's called a draw stroke it allows you to make easy sideways movements without making a lot of noise it allows you to pull up next to your buddy it allows you to position yourself properly in the way that you do that is you simply put your paddle blade in the water and you take your top hand and it should be almost vertical and it's like you're just it's like you're just spreading butter on toast then you're drawing the kayak sideways I like to lean into it a little bit and the reason that I do that is because when I get to the point when I want to stop I dig my paddle and then take the lean out and I'm where I want to be that's a draw stroke and I think everybody that needs that knows how to how to paddle a fishing kayak should know how to do that the other thing that I see people not doing properly is a sweep stroke for position in the boat everybody thinks you can only turn on one side of the boat well instead of turning all right by going left we should also put the left side and push forward and then you can rotate the boat that much quicker so use every possible stroke that's available to you to become a better at allure but the two you should learn right off the bat there's a sweep stroke for moving your nose a draw stroke for moving your boat sideways and then more importantly a proper port forward paddling stroke so let's talk about that and then when this video is over you'll be a better paddler which will make you a better paddling angler even if you pedal motorized or do any of the other alternative methods of promotion propulsion you're still going to paddle like at some point so you should know how to do it alright so first and foremost you have to choose a paddle but that's a separate video I choose the bending branches angular Pro in this case it's angular Pro carbon now the reason that I choose this paddle is it as an adjustable length so that allows you to accommodate going from the low seat to the high seat different widths and kayaks and the different types of fishing that you're doing so I highly suggest I strongly recommend picking up an adjustable Faro paddle if it can fit your budget but what we're going to talk about today is how to pad a fishing kayak now selecting the proper paddle is part of that because I see a trend in buying too long of a paddle and I think that it compensates for poor paddling technique and form and I'm just gonna leave it at that and tell you that I use a 232 to 45 centimeter paddle I'm in one of the highest actually I'm in the highest seat on the market and a thirty three and a half inch boat so it's a wide boat a high seat but I'm still using a 235 or 230 to 245 right now I've got it set right at like about 235 240 okay so the first thing is to make sure that you hold your paddle correctly I see a lot of people slide to one side and paddle and then slide to the other side and paddle if you do that your paddles too short the other thing that I see guys do is paddle way out to the side of the kayak I'm just going to demonstrate why that's a bad idea if you reach way out and you paddle it brings your nose left and then on the next stroke it brings your nose right and so if you're looking at yourself from above you look like a water bug to paddle properly you want to be able to have a stroke that comes as close to the side of the boat without hitting it as possible because you want to be stealthy you also want to be able to reach out and have what's called a clean catch the catch is when the paddle goes into the water I see people start right here and they try to generate a lot of power and they look like they're trying to beat the water into submission you don't need to do that what you do is simply slide your paddle out into the water make a clean stroke down the side of the boat and you notice my nose moved but then the more vertical I get and once I get a little bit of momentum I'm just gonna go right down the side of the boat I'm gonna paddle nice and smooth and nice and clean when you get ready to stop just dig your paddle in and bring yourself to a stop and then get rid of all resultant movement before you make a cast the other thing that I see guys do is they stop paddling and they start casting and their boats still moving and they get too close to the bank and they fight the kayak non-stop when you get ready to make a cast get rid of the resultant movement unless you're using that to aid in the presentation that you're making I see this a lot two guys are paddling they pick up the rod they make a cast they're still moving forward they set the hook they're moving towards the fish the fish is coming at them the fish jumps they can't keep up with it advantage fish so I like to get rid of the resultant movement I like to make sure that I'm almost completely stopped when I start my presentation and then I use the lure to add some momentum now here's how that works come out and come right down the side of the boat as close as you can and then on the next stroke come as close down the side of the boat as you can you don't want to bang the boat and you also don't want to have the paddle so long that your drip rings end up in the water because you're actually you're basically gonna get a free bath at that point so for me what I do is I set my paddle stroke to one when I cut I set my drip ring and I choose my paddle link so that when I come down the side of the boat my drip ring doesn't go into the water if you put your drip ring into the water when you make your next stroke all that water is going to run down the paddle blade down your elbow into your armpit down your side you're just going to be miserable so set your drinks properly choose the proper paddle and use a proper paddling technique and instead on top kayak for me I like to use a 30-degree offset I like to take my paddle put it into the water clean catch I like to get some momentum going and then all I'm doing is tiptoeing along I'm not making those big loss like that I'm really just easily going along a knife edge of my blade into the water making a clean catch and then on the backstroke I like to come out razor edge so that I don't make that big whoosh at the end and then when I make adjustments I keep my paddle blade in the water almost like I'm spreading butter to get myself where I want to go then I set my paddle down where I'm not contacting the paddle to the boat anywhere because that's like beating on a drum and that's gonna spook fish so be very deliberate in your movements be very stealthy in your movements and be very purposeful with the way that you paddle so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna back up just a little bit I'm gonna line up with you guys and I'm gonna paddle directly at you and show you how clean easy and effortless it is to paddle if you have a more vertical paddle stroke and a set on top kayak you can't really rotate your torso so you're going to pull with the bottom hand push it with the top hand rotate pull push and it looks just like this nice and clean nice and easy nice and quiet nice and smooth and that's how you paddle a fishing kayak well that's going to do it that's how to paddle a fishing kayak my suggestion would be that you go over to the featured channels link on my pet on my page go to some of the other paddling specific channels and watch some of the instructional videos where they get it in a little more in depth the more you know about paddling properly the more you know about efficiently moving your kayak through the water the better off you'll be because this is your primary method of propulsion for the most part if you're a pedal angler and you say oh man I don't need to know how to do that it's actually impaired that you still know how to paddle because you could always have a mechanical failure you could always get into water to shallow and you would you would be surprised how much of a difference it makes from the standpoint of efficiency reducing fatigue if you can paddle properly but more importantly it's a big advantage for stealth when it comes to catching fish if you paddle properly if you paddle quietly if you paddle efficiently you'll catch more fish because you'll spook less fish so anyway that's the video guys how to paddle a fishing kayak hope you liked it smash that thumbs up button if you haven't already leave a comment in the comment section below if you want to see more of these how-to videos if you're new to the channel please subscribe and whether you're new to the channel or older to the channel if you don't have your notifications turned on smash that Bell turn on your notifications and I'll see you guys in the next video

Channel: Chad Hoover

Views: 154,883

Rating: 4.9313641 out of 5

Keywords: kayak fishing, kayak, Chad Hoover, how to, Fishing, tutorial, Kayaking, fishing kayak, paddling, Kayak Bass Fishing, TV Genre, Paddle, how to kayak, JOIN Kayak Bass, Fishing Challenge Series, summer holding places, instructional, Ken Whiting, American Canoe Association, sit on top kayak, tips, How-to, paddling techniques, fishing kayaks, Bonafide Kayaks, bigger fish, South Carolina, spring patterns, basics, sit, temps, how to paddle, Tricks, Hobie quest 13, flukemaster, fishing tips

Id: SrDiNqBZKME

Length: 10min 23sec (623 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 08 2018