Kayak Rigging for CATFISH

you know when I first started fishing from a kayak it was mostly ponds and fishing for sunfish and bass eventually I spent a little time chasing after some catfish and once I started catching a few I was like oh this is way more fun these fish are way more fun to catch than the other ones out of a kayak and they pretty quickly became my favorite fish target and that's what I spend most of my time fishing for now it's catfish so first off I I made a few videos that sort of were just intended to just show people just how much fun it was and how exciting it could be and then I followed those up I've got some videos out there sharing some strategies and tactics but I want to do I wanted to put together a series of videos here that just focused on the tools so I figured we'd start right at the beginning how to rig your kayak it's a target catfish so that's where I'm gonna start today if you're new here and this your first time to channel my name is Denny this is float fish adventure my channel my channels purpose here is to inspire people to get out and have some adventure to give them some information so those adventures can be more successful and to try and do it all in an entertaining way so that's we're gonna do here today I'm gonna start right at the beginning and give you the basics on how to rig your kayak to fish for catfish so first off I do want to focus on the rigging itself and not on you know buying a kayak because that's a huge topic and that would be an entire video but I know a lot of people who are interested in rigging their first kayak up for catfishing may be looking for a kayak and have a cutting purchase so I will touch on just a couple of things very very briefly so there are three main components to a kayak they need to keep in mind stability weight and speed and those are sort of the big three they form kind of a triangle if you can picture it and the more improvement you get on one then you're usually making a trade-off on one of the other you don't get all three things right at the top end and the more you get closer to you know getting more of each thing than the more the price goes up so what you want and what's gonna be the most important factor for you is gonna depend a lot on how you want to fish you know if you're going to be putting in at boat ramps and fishing big lakes then weights probably not going to be a problem what's going to be most important to you is speed because you're gonna be going long distances and you want to have have it be efficient when you're paddling if you're putting it in smaller rivers and you're gonna put in here and just float and fish your way downstream to the bottom then you don't much care about speed because you're just gonna be floating stability might be the big thing for you then or if you're gonna be putting in under bridges and out of boat ramps where you're doing a lot of bushwhacking to and from the water then weight is gonna be an issue because the heavier that is the harder it's going to be to get to your spots so those are sort of the big three the other two things I would say you want to pay attention to and one is huge is comfort you I don't care if you have the fastest lightest most stable kayak out there if you sit in it and your leg goes to sleep in an hour and a half that kayak is gonna end up sitting in your garage and that's no good so if there's one argument to be made for getting in a kayak and paddling it around feeling it out before you buy it it's that you want to make sure that you're gonna be able to sit in it for a long period of time and it's gonna stay comfortable molded seats I would say avoid molded seats because molded seats have no adjustments built in and they get very uncomfortable very quick so just make sure you got something that's got a good seat that's gonna be comfortable finally the other thing is just the ability to do more rigging and it's nice to have that stuff built in but if it's not there you can add a lot of accessories to add accessories to things like tracks things like pad eyes so pay attention to it look for it but it's not a deal-breaker as some point over the rigging stuff I will point out some things to keep in mind if you're in the market to buy otherwise just sort of point out trying how to work around it and work with what you have if you already have a kayak so that out of the way let's go and get to the rigging okay so first up the best place to start is gonna be rod holders so when it comes to rod holders a few things to keep in mind there are a lot of different styles there are two broad holders there the basic in insert slot so you just slide it in and then there are the adjustable ones I recommend the adjustable rod holders something that you're going to be able to rotate around and up and down so that you have some variability depending on how you want to fish the big thing honestly rod holders are mostly a matter of personal preference the big thing about the rod holder isn't going to be so much the holder itself it's going to be the base and how you have it mounted these track mounts these track mounts come in a couple of different right so like this track see this track is just mounted this is a factory mounted track it's just on top it's just it's this rivet you can see the rivet there's a rivet there it's riveted through and just mount under the surface some models some brands it won't be mounted on top it'll be recessed into the plastic those are going to be a lot more solid you're not going to get as much flex pulling on the side like this now for channel cat or flathead and smaller rivers this is going to be just fine and that's not gonna be such a big deal the channel cats will hit hard a lot and but they're not big enough to cause real damage and the flathead well they could be big enough to cause real damage they don't usually hit like a freight train another thing to keep in mind is how you have your rod angled so if you've got your rod angled coming off the front or even out of 45 there's not much give there right I mean that's still pretty solid no matter how much torque is being put on that rod as you come out this way as you come out this way you start to get more flex on the side here and that's pulling at that track see how that's pulling a little bit now where this will be a problem is let's say let's say that you're fishing for blue cats and you're drifting in deep water for blue cats and you've got your rod straight out the side right now if you've got your rod set like this because that's how you like to fish and you've got a track mounted on top and big blue cat comes and buries your rod down I can't even do it without pointing out the water here but you can see you're gonna get a whole lot of flex and that is gonna weaken over time so that's something you're definitely going to want to keep in mind now it's something you can consider if you haven't bought a kayak yet if you already have a kayak you may be stuck with what you you've got so if you need more strength than this even if you got a factory one you can replace it out with one that has the metal backing and it's at least not gonna rip out the rivets you know we'll get weak and you can get one to start to tear and then the whole thing will come if you've got the metal plate backing on the backside of it then you'll be able to stop that you're still going to have a lot of flex and a lot of torque but that metal backing on the back will keep it from from tearing through down the road another option would be to not use track mounted bases and if you have a clean spot where you can mount the bases directly to your kayak you're going to get a much more solid foundation by doing that that's going to really depend on the layout of your particular kayak you'd have to look at the different base options that are screw in most of them are fairly small and there's got four four contact points where you'll drill in and and put your screws in so that's an option for you if you need something sturdier which I would definitely recommend if you're if you're fishing for blue cats and you're doing drifting like suspend drifting I would really consider a base that's mounted directly to the kayak and not on a track another option is if you have a track that's like I said some models have the track that doesn't sit on top it's actually recessed in the groove those are more rigid well you can do with those is you can actually get a bass that's got the four holes and you can that's meant to be drilled directly into the kayak and you can mount two of them mount in the track in the recessed track and the rest of the bass flushes over the top of the flat and that creates a lot less torque on on the track itself because it's it's more flush so those are things to consider about how you want to mount your rod holders to your kayak the next thing is where and why another thing to consider is that you've got rod holders for your working rods which means you're using them to fish and you may or may not need a different option for transport so let's say I've got four rods and I might have just two rod holders in front and maybe a couple of tubes in the back that let my rod stick straight up if I'm out on open water that's no problem so that's a good storage for transport but if I'm going down a smaller River where there's a lot of overhang then I'm going to end up hanging my rods up and getting myself in trouble out on the water so I need a storage option if I've got more than the two rods up here I need a storage option for the other rods I either need a way to store them in the kayak or I need a way to store them so that they stay down low and they're not in the way so whether or not you're working rod holders is gonna work is gonna depend on how you fish but you're gonna want to think about that before you drill anything or put anything up these might be great where they are to sit and and cast out and fish but they might not be good for paddling downstream or they might be in the way of your paddle stroke wherever you're going to have your rods while they're moving has to be out of the way of your paddle stroke right so if you're working rod holders don't take your rods out of the way your paddle stroke then you have to have someplace else to put them while you're paddling that's why having some sort of a rod holder option in the back is always a good idea just make sure you keep in mind whether you want them sit and stay if you're gonna have them standing up if you need to have them laying down or if you've got some other option in the kayak so they're all the things you need to consider with rod holders so once you've chosen a rod holder that's gonna be the right rod holder for you and your style of fishing and you have them positioned so that they're out of the way when you're traveling and it convenient for you when you're fishing the next thing that you're gonna have to consider is how you're going to position yourself and positioning is arguably the most difficult aspect of kayak fishing it can be a struggle sometimes and that's that's just part of the game so some of the different positioning and techniques I mean you'll you'll use maybe an anchor or a stake out pool or mud stick or even a drift sock and those are all going to be sort of the topic of future videos but whatever you're using to position yourself you're going to need to attach that to a point in your kayak and that's we're going to talk about right now now the simplest and most straightforward method of doing that is to install an anchor trolley and an anchor trolley is basically a ring on a pulley system that runs up and down the length of your kayak a couple things to keep in mind about an anchor trolley first off it will make your life easier they're not a solution for everything and especially for catfishing it seems like that if you're going to install an anchor trolley install one on both sides because especially if you're doing river fishing you know rivers been both ways sometimes you got it's half on one side sometimes the other so one on each side if you're going to install them which is really what I recommend when you do install them one thing to keep in mind especially if you're going to be in current at all is you want the anchor trolley you want the anchor trolley to come back as far as it can towards the end of your kayak the further you get it back here the less sway you're gonna get if you've got any current so for example if you've got an anchor trolley and it stops here and you're in current the currents not going to let you sit straight like this the current is going to catch the back of the kayak and it's going to want to turn it so that you're it's pushing the kayak this way and more of it will go out towards the front and in the back we fight fighting I mean the current she's gonna grab it and pull it you're gonna sway you're gonna have a lot of slop it can get kind of dicey so the further back you get your anchor trolley run and you can run it your tie off point the more of that you can avoid I have mine run all the way from the back way up here the next anchor trolley that I install on my next kayak won't do that I find that I just don't I don't need most of this most of the time um I used this section a lot and I would probably just do one from about here to the back end and just do a much shorter one now having said that I will say that I probably only use my anchor trolley about 20 percent of the time when I need it I need it and I really need it but I do fish a lot of brush and I tend to tie off real close to the brush what I do is I will actually run my line I have contact points here where my rod holders are I'll just run my line around the rod holder I'll tie it or clip it up in there running around here and pull it as close with my brush clips as I can so I might clip off I'm a tree I might clip off to my tree and then I actually had these little loops in my line because I do this so often and I'll just loop that on the back of that and that keeps me pretty good or if there's current and I got to get super tight then I won't loop this I will actually keep this as close as possible the tighter you are tied off to anything the less sway and slop you get and that's really key so so the anchor trolley as hard as it is to say the anchor trolley is an absolute necessity like like fifteen or twenty percent of the time you can get by without having one but there will be times where you're really really struggling because you don't have one so my recommendation is that you'll probably want to get one for each side at least down the road a bit from the beginning you may find that you want to see if you've got good tie off points and get a feel for what your need is with an anchor trolley to see how far up and back you need to go definitely put them on the to get to list though when you're rigging things up next up is bait management right so I mean catfishing means pay there's no way around that and we were talking bait you're talking about a cooler of some sort now you have some different options depending on are you primarily fishing for flathead and you want to use a lot of live bait or are you gonna be basically fishing for blue cats and channel cat and you want to use primarily cut bait if you're using cut bait you have some more cooler options because you probably can get away with soft sided coolers depending on you know how big and how much bigger you're bringing with you but you've got to have some place to store your bait and that's gonna be cooler so you want to figure out ideally right this is my this is my this is my live well there's my big one I have two I have a small one and a big one this is my big one I don't have a rigged up right now I'm gonna do a whole video on the live wheels as well but you've got to have a spot if you're gonna make one or if you're gonna buy one you need to know what your dimensions are right you need to know what where's it gonna go on your kayak and figure out what that space is and then get something that's gonna fit in that space don't run out and buy a live well you know and then get home and be like oh well I don't really have a good way of getting this on here it's much better to play close attention to the space you're working with and either buy or build something that's gonna work for you most kayaks obviously most fishing kayaks have room in it for a crate of some sort and one of the bonuses is with catfishing you don't you may not need the crate tackle is sort of downsized compared to what it would be for like a bass fishing or something so that spot usually will work well for the cooler but you just have to consider where it's gonna go how big it needs to be and get something that's gonna fit and work in the space that you need because you are gonna have to carry a cooler with you the tackle itself really really depends on the kayak a lot of kayaks have all sorts of tackle pockets and places the house you know the little tackle bags or tackle containers that's great if you can leave your kayak rigged up all the time and then all those little storage pockets in places are beautiful you've got your gear exactly where it needs to be all the time you just load up and go if you have to car top or do anything where you're taking your kayak apart every different place you put something becomes one more thing you have to take apart and put together a car top mine I find it a lot easier on my tackle all my tackle goes in the bag I got a tackle bag here this has all my main stuff in it my this is my I just have a binder that's like my primary when I have to re-rig everything I need is really just in a spine dur and then you know I've got floats and backup stuff my timer of bulk things my shears all that stuff goes in the bag headlamp bone stays in there and that all fits in mine that fits nicely right behind my seat another option is a backpack tackle bag sometimes you can mount them to the back your seat or even a deck bag sometimes you if you've got stuff you want to throw and you can throw in a deck bag and mount that to your seat all good options but just keep in mind the two main storage options there's actually there's actually three main storage options right you've got to have a place for the cooler you've got to have a place for your primary tackle and if you plan on doing any sort of overnight fishing or camping you have to have an idea of where your camping bag is gonna go the best way to do that is to streamline what you think you're gonna take and again that'll be probably a different video the the camping bag mine all fits in one I have one big like dry bag boat duffel bag that's my limit if it can't fit in there it doesn't go with me it doesn't need to so and I can fit that on a regular camping trip I can fit it right in the back if it's a fishing trip then it will sit on top of my cooler right on the edge of it and then strap to the top and then I still have the hatch most packs have a hatch so you know for some of your extra things that you take all the time that may not go in the bag so you know first aid kit repair tools sunscreen stuff like that finally you got to think about your accessories all the extra goodies right and there's plenty of them number one obviously he's gonna be the fish finder do you have to have one it depends a lot of the smaller rivers that we fish I don't bring my fish finder for that because I've been on them enough or I can you know basically read where I I have a good understanding where the holes are going to be in the spots I want to hit that said when the water is up or find a new stretch sometimes I will bring my fish finder just to try and Mark out any hidden features that I wouldn't be able to find so especially in Lake situations if you're gonna fish lakes at all reservoirs you're gonna do any drifting you're gonna want a fish finder because you're gonna want to be able to find the channel you're gonna want to be able to find the ledges and the flats know where those edges are and most importantly for drifting is you're gonna want to be able to maintain your speed and having a fish finder with GPS is really the only rock-solid way to know that your drift speed is where you want it to be so you can get that BAE presentation dialed in at exactly the right speed and get on more fish probably other Sun behind me sorry about that so when it comes to mounting things like fish finders that's where your track systems are really gonna shine cameras fish finders all sorts of different track mount systems you can buy the little sections of track and you just find a good spot where you're going to mount things mount the track don't mount you need your other gear directly to your kayak you're just gonna be drilling budget holes you don't want to drill especially when you decide later you want to move something or go to a different style just mount the track the tracks not that expensive it will work terrific even just just mounted straight on top of the plastic for all of that other gear so my fish finder my fish finders all mounted to the track here my cameras my cameras I mount - I have the rail blazer the rail blazer basis and I really really like those I like them because I like the rail blaze of booms the camera booms they've got pressure fittings and so they move so I can adjust my cameras and that's that's so I use this base so I can use this boom and they have these bases that will go on the tracks but anything with a long arm on it mounted to a point on a track it's gonna wobble it's gonna be more shaky so this is just a lot more stable and sturdy for me that's why I like those but definitely definitely set up track to mount most of your accessories I didn't move to mounting this base on directly until I was absolutely 100% that this is exactly the base this is the boom I'm always going to use I love it it's perfect this is exactly where I need it and so once you get to that point you want to mount something permanently that's fine but especially in the beginning just mount the track and mount your accessories to the track you'll be glad you did I'm gonna just take a second here to talk about the paddle - you know the paddle is not a distinctly catfish oriented thing and you may already have a paddle but something to keep in mine if all you're doing is putting in a river a small river upstream and floating and fishing your way down you can buy a cheap paddle you can get a cheap paddle that's kind of heavy and durable no sweat if you're gonna do a lot of paddling over on like in lakes reservoirs where you'll be drifting or paddling long distances then you want to spend some extra money and you want to get a lighter paddle because your shoulders are really gonna thank you you know you might not think that you might not think that a pound of difference or a pound and a half is gonna make a huge difference on a paddle but it does it absolutely does I have I use this backwater paddle company assasin paddle I love this paddle this paddle sort of almost looks like it might be a gimmick just because of all this stuff on it that this hook I fish brush all the time and I have to get it close to it and there is frequently like weird current seams and Eddie's and those are the spots I want to fish but trying to pull right up to something can become a challenge because once you get closer the water starts to shift and it can be you turn into a bull in a china shop trying to get up close with this paddle this paddle is I just grabbed it with the hook I get up close enough I reach out grab with the hook and pull myself up snug and rush off and tie off with my brush clip in the back super simple very very effective this paddle is not the lightest paddle on the market but it feels very very light in your hands and I will probably never run another paddle I love this paddle so there's another little plug I got a video about the paddle too but I just want to say for catfishing especially in heavy brush a paddle a paddle that's gonna let you grab things and hook to pull off close as you can help make you more stealthy that's that's why I like mine so much so that's it with the paddles alright so quickly in review number one rod holders the rod holder of your choice that works good for the rods that you have mounted to the kayak itself in a way that's gonna work long term for the type of fish you're fishing for and the type of places you're fishing whether that's track whether that's bolted directly to the body of the kayak itself mounted in a position so that they're reachable and within your grasp while you're fishing and they work while you're fishing but they're also out of the way while you're paddling and covering your needs for transportation in any extra rods number two the tie off points bare minimum you're going to need tie off points towards the front and towards the rear where your line can at least go around or tie off directly to and a long term you're gonna want an anchor trolley for the full scope of all your different tie off needs and then you will need some place on the inside of your kayak if you're running line around and access a tie off point on the back of the front you'll need that line to come off and clip off somewhere inside on something number three your storage gotta have a place for bait look at your kayak figure out what's going to be the best cooler option that's going to give you space for whatever type of bait you're gonna be using whether it's just a cooler that needs to house some cut bait with some ice or whether it's cooler that needs to have an aerator and full water so you can carry some live bait with you also your tackle sometimes it's easier honestly to take a look at your kayak figure out what extra space you have and then organize your tackle and make the changes to your tackle system to work in your kayak whether it means you put it in a backpack on it on the back your seat whether you put it in a bag whether you have slots and containers in in your kayak and you just separate everything and put stuff where it goes all that is going to get dialed in by you based on the tackle you have and the specific storage options that you have in whatever kayak you have so and that's part of the fun that you know is dial and all that stuff in finally all the extra accessories cameras fish finder beer holder mounts right all that stuff all that stuff is perfectly suited to put on track systems so get yourself just by the track system if it doesn't come with track even if does putting on extra sections to track at different points cheap it's very very functional and it will go a long way towards dialing in your ride it's really a big part of the fun of the owning a kayak and take it fishing I mean just apart from how much fun it is cuz it's a whole ton of fun it's kind of like having a jeep or a motorcycle everyone gets everyone becomes unique right everybody's kayak is dialed in so it suits them and that doesn't happen on your first day out that doesn't usually happen with your first kayak even in the first season right it takes a couple of years where you really start to sort out what exact needs you have and doing that over time is is part of the fund where you get it just super dialed in and everything's right where you right where you need it and it works out perfect for you and it just it just enhances your time on the water so enjoy that process don't feel like you got to nail it the first time out because you won't but if you cover these if you take these things that we talked about today into consideration and you cover the basics you're gonna be out on the water in position to start having a whole ton of fun and catching some nice nice catfish so that's what I'm gonna stop this one today like I said I'm gonna do a series of gear and rigging videos I'll have them all linked together in a playlist and probably have some pop-up cards here on this video as I get those posted so again if your subscriber if you're not a subscriber subscribe and click the bell icon because like I said not gonna post these all up on a regular schedule I'm just gonna kind of turn them out as I can so if you want to see em when they come out and be sure you get notified by YouTube you have to click that Bell icon because if you don't then the YouTube will probably not notify you because that's they don't really want sideways on me anyway that's it today thank you so much for watching I really appreciate it if you have any specific questions or anything in particular that you want me to put together one of these videos about while I'm doing this series post them down in the comments put something down there for me to look at if it's a question I'll answer it if it's a suggestion then I'll take it under consideration as I'm putting these things together so thanks a lot I hope you found this helpful until next time paddle up let's go looking for a fight you

Channel: Float Fish Adventure

Views: 13,144

Rating: 4.9115043 out of 5

Keywords: Tactical Kayak Angler, Float Fish Adventure, whisker seeker tackle, fishmonkey gloves, yakgear, kayak rigging for catfish, how to rig a kayak for catfishing, setting up a kayak for catfishing, kayak catfishing, rigging a kayak for catfishing, catfishing with a kayak, flathead fishing, bluecat fishing, kayak fishing, rigging a kayak for fishing, kayak rigging tips, rigging tips for kayak fishing

Id: iWApUiwlbgs

Length: 30min 47sec (1847 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 20 2018