SUPin' New

SUPin' New

Ok, that's a cringe but accurate.

I recently bought my first SUP and I am onto a new experience and project. The goal is fly fishing on the SUP in a variety of situations ranging from small lakes to large rivers. Ultimately I want to catch a steelhead or sturgeon from it.

The board, a Lifetime Amped, cost only $240 with a paddle - an excellent deal from Dick's Sporting Goods. It has a some scratches and the foam decking has bubbled in a few places but overall, it's a cheap intro to a SUP.

It is 11 feet long, weighs less than 50 pounds and includes a small drop-down rudder or fin. It's hollow and seems to have a well designed hull.

My first trip was to Benson Lake, really a pond, in the Columbia Gorge. A few days before the trip, I read it had been stocked with trout. If true, the lake offered me a chance to catch something on my first SUP trip.

Safety First

Since in was early April, I put on my dry suit and PFD for safety. After gearing up, I easily carried the board to the water, jumped on and carefully paddled around. With no wind, the board was easy to maneuver and fun to paddle.

I could stand up and sit down fairly easily and overall I was comfortable on the board. I tried casting the fly rod and again felt comfortable. The main problem was not having a safe place to store the fly rod while paddling.

I fished for about 45 minutes with no luck. I didn't even see a fish rise. For the next hour, I paddled around and changed my position from sitting down to standing and then sitting again.

While paddling, I noticed the board would not stay straight unless I alternated my paddling from one side to the other. During some small gusts of wind, I became a sail and felt less stable.

Soon, my core muscles were feeling the workout.  I headed back to shore, got out of the suit and loaded the SUP on my Escape. If I master this skill, I thought to myself, I can easily take the SUP to work and get some fishing in during the evening hours and work on my steelhead and sturgeon goals.

Until then, my next steps include adding pad eyes, a seat, rod holder and hatch. The hatch is the most risky because it requires cutting into the hull.

Look for upcoming posts as I try SUPin' New... I just had too.

Go Farther. Catch More.

Popular posts from this blog

Starting The Season With A New Fleet

Image
The blog has received little love over the past year, so it was time to write a post. It's not that I have been fishing less, it's that I haven't taken the time to post and work on the videos. The 2022 salmon season was not nearly as epic as the 2021 season especially with the limited fall salmon season. This was mainly due to a unique hatchery Tule Chinook salmon return where the Spring Creek Hatchery upstream of Bonneville Dam had about 100,000 Chinook return - twice the average. The Tule is an endangered species in the rivers below Bonneville Dam and due to some complicated issues,  caused a closure in the lower Columbia River during the height of the season. Hobie PA17t The 2023 salmon season is off to an unseasonably cold start with winter holding on and March coming in like a lion and going out like a lion. No lambs this year. Hopefully better days await in April and beyond. I did reorganize my fleet buying and selling some kayaks while still ending up with a tandem,
Read more

A Productive Salmon Season in a Year of Low Returns

Image
This year has proven one of my best yet for putting salmon in the kayak. After a slow start in March and April, I hooked eight and landed six spring Chinook "Springers" on the Willamette River. All were hatchery fish and most were 30-plus inches. They were all caught with my red and orange hand-tied spinners and Pro-Troll 360 flashers. The Springers were caught in May and June, typically the end of the season. These two months seem to be my most productive. Two years ago, I landed six, and had two, two-fish days. This year, I never hooked two fish on the same day, although I had more days catching fish. Most days were spent focusing on the tide changes, and I was usually off the water by noon. I was fortunate because the run was about 25 percent lower than expected and many anglers had a rough season. I spent July fishing for smallmouth bass in the Willamette and Columbia, and spent a few days in August anchored in the Columbia fishing for fall kings. The fall season p
Read more

The 2021 Fishing Season Recap

Image
Welcome to the 2021 kayak fishing season recap. Last season was exceptional with lots of salmon on the kayak, a few trout on the fly rod, and a nice halibut on the boat.  I spent most of my time fishing the Willamette and Columbia rivers with my friend Mark. Fishing less than 30 minutes from home in a kayak also reduced my carbon footprint, especially when transporting the kayak on my 16-year-old Ford Escape hybrid.  Fishing close to home also allowed fishing trips before and after work, which were key to my success in 2021. The season highlights included fishing in five different Hobie kayaks and catching salmon in four of them and hooking salmon in all five. This season also included two friends and my brother catching their first salmon in the kayak, fishing a new area with new techniques, and earning a limit of a king and a coho before noon.  Although I would hook more than 30 fish this season, I only landed 24 and tagged 19, falling just one short of filling my salmon tag. Most
Read more