www.KayakFlyAngler.com

The blog has suffered the past month as I continue to focus my energy on the YouTube channel (in addition to my real job and family). The channel continues to grow with subscriptions closing in on 80 and the views closing in on 20,000. I am expanding my social media channels with Twitter  and Pinterest accounts. The Facebook account also needs more work and that is another goal for the year. Giving a little to the Native Fish Society        Feeling philanthropic for a great cause, and looking for more content for the blog and YouTube channel, I donated a 1/2 day kayak fishing trip to the Native Fish Society Banquet and Auction . The theme is Homewaters Reflect Hopes and is promoted as the largest wild fish fundraiser/party in the universe. The auction is in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, April 13. This year’s auction features a dinner by Food in Bloom Catering, beer by GoodLife Brewing, and wine from Lange Estate Winery, Yamhill Valley Vinyards an...

Note - wow did this take a long time... Launching the Hobie boats went well and Michael, in the Outback, quickly adapted to the boat and pedal action. We cruised toward one of the creek inlets that usually produce fish.The early conversations with Michael included my fly recommendation which were woolly buggers and leach patterns. About 100 yards from the ramp I turned the pedals around, made sure Michael was comfortable and had his line out, and started to fish. I was quickly on a nice sized trout and the day looked promising. In the next hour I hooked three more trolling my go-to green woolly bugger in reverse.      My goal was to fish the stream inlet where I had first pedaled the Hobie in reverse.      As I got closer to the inlet I realized how low the reservoir was. I made my way up the inlet until the water started to show signs of movement. It was the same location where I could no longer pedal the kayak so I took out the paddle, used ...

I returned to Henry Hagg Lake but this time I took musician Michael Hoppe on his first kayak fly fishing trip - and he wants to go again. I was talking with Michael a few months ago and he was lamenting the fact he had not fished a lake in Oregon. He had fished a few Oregon rivers but was wanting to get on a lake and in a float tube. I told him I could do better than a float tube and promised to take him out in the kayaks. He looked skeptical but said he would give it a go (see the video here ). We emailed a few times to determine which lake and after suggesting Lawrence, Trillium and Hagg, he chose Hagg. I was a little concerned since Hagg is not nearly as pretty as the other two but it had been stocked recently so I figure we would at least have a chance at catching fish. It was the same weekend as the Next Adventure Kayak Bass tournament. I had suggested Michael and I enter the tourney for fun, but he was not interested. After choosing Hagg, I toyed with the idea of entering...

I have fished for 40 years but I still keep discovering I have much more to learn about fishing, especially kayak fishing. Last week while salmon fishing from my Hobie on the Willamette, I noticed that the kayak was acting unstable. Instead of remaining flat in the water, it was wobbling as I moved side to side. I opened the hatch in front of my seat and discovered the Hobie had about four inches of water. I would later discover I had a tear in one of my scupper holes (click here to see a video of the tear on the kayakflyangler Youtube Channel). What I guessed happened was that the cart slipped down while I was unloading the kayak and got bound up in the scupper hole. I did some research and found out that Hobie's current cart has a pin system that keeps the cart in the scupper hole until the cart needs to be removed from the scupper holes. This was not something that was part of my original design. My new design includes this design element. And, with the reinforced scuppe...

Spring break meant a couple days off and after waiting for the storms to pass, I headed to Tillamook with my son to do some "research."  It's always great to do fishing research and the coast offers many opportunities. Primarily, I wanted to check out some kayak launching areas that I had scoped out on Google Maps, but wanted to see first-hand, especially at low tide. I also hoped to do a little fishing in Cape Meares Lake with the Hobie Outback. I brought along the Redfish 10 hoping to talk Sam into some kayaking. Click here to see the video. Driving down the Wilson River canyon, the river looked like chocolate milk in a blender - brown and frothy. Although the river was wild, the canyon was spectacular with little waterfalls dotting the canyon walls, adding to the existing torrent. Rain splattered the windshield during the hour drive to Tillamook, letting up only when we reached the west side of the bay. There we were met with stiff winds creating white caps on Cape ...

Ok, so you decided the ability to peer into the depths to find fish with an electronic device is a cool idea. And you already know the importance of power because you were smart enough to read my previous entry and you did a little research in addition to that. So now what? There are a lot of fish finders out there and you can spend a little or a whole lot of money to peer under the water's surface.  In many cases you get what you pay for. You remember me telling you about the Hawkeye finder? That finder simply shows fish and generic bottom structure. That's what you can expect to get for about $50. The Humminbird 560 shows a lot more including detailed bottom structure, fish size, depth, temperature, battery power, hours, etc. That one costs about $160. Now I am going to mix it up a little with another Humminbird finder called the Piranha 5. This finder shows the same structure and contours, but the quality of the image varies. On the 560, the lines are smooth and detail...

The second boat I owned came with an old Lowrance fish/depth finder. Now, four boats and five kayaks later, I am beginning to figure out these wonderful devices. My recent epiphany came when my Lowrance X85 finder got a significant amount of water inside and shorted out. I had struggled with this finder for about a year. It's very powerful but the technology is old and replacement parts are expensive. After its failure I started looking around at various finders with the goal of spending about $125 for a finder, cover or case and a speed sensor. I settled on the Humminbird 560 (middle photo) and was able to accomplish my goal within budget by finding a fabulous deal Thanksgiving Day. I mounted the transducer inside the hull on my sled and took it out for a test drive. The unit worked great at slower speeds but lost the bottom at higher speeds. I did some test to see if the problem was the location of the transducer, the voltage interference and or the adhesive. No matter what I d...