Success with a Simple Soft Plastic

Everybody probably has at least of couple of them in their tackle box. The lures that catch the eye of the fisherman, but not necessarily the fish. I'm talking about all these new shiny lures with little rattles, crazy names, and all the gizmos and gadgets that go along with them. While all these incredible details and bright packages might seem to make such an amazing lure, we have found in the marsh for various reasons, it's hard to beat a simple soft plastic on a jig head.

A lower slot red with the trusty old Gulp shrimp under it.

First of all, almost any fish will bite a soft plastic lure (or "tout", for all you Cajuns) if they're hungry. Anything from crappie to tarpon will hit a soft plastic, and they work great for the fish we target, such as redfish, speckled trout, flounder, and largemouth bass. We've had several days where we have tried topwaters, suspending twitchbaits, or even a good old gold spoon, with no takers. Then we throw on one of our favorite plastics and next thing you know there's a fish on!

H&H 3" Cocahoe Minnow in Morning Glory and a slot redfish.

Simple soft plastic lures can be worked in practically any way, and will always have a lot of life-like action. You can let them sink to the bottom and drag them along searching for a flounder, or just hold the rod tip high and bring it in with a steady retrieve through  the middle of the water column targeting specks. Many anglers retrieve them super fast through grass or around structure looking for a reaction strike, or let them sink and slowly raise the rod, bouncing the lure up and down slowly for those deeper, less active fish. They're a great lure to blindcast through the middle of a channel, but they're extremely useful on a light or weightless hook for sightcasting in skinny water.

A sampling of some of our favorite soft plastics.

Although these lures are very simple; just a soft plastic baitfish imitation on a hook or jighead, there's

a huge variety of styles and colors for nearly any circumstance. For freshwater, a couple of the most popular styles are senkos (or stickbaits), crawfish imitations, and minnows. The most popular colors are variants of watermelon, chartruese, black, and green pumpkin. For saltwater fishing, some popular styles in our region are shad, shrimp, mullet, and even crab imitations. While colors, lengths and tail shapes may vary and fish may prefer one color or style over another on any given day, we've found with a little experimentation and effort, they just plain work.

Leave the minnows or shrimp at the bait shop one day and try some simple soft plastic lures.  You just might find they work and add an extra bit of excitement to your next trip.

I Forgot the Paddle!

One of the first things I learned when I started kayak fishing was that I was going to make a lot of mistakes.  I can laugh at myself and I'm quick to admit where I go wrong in this Kayak fishing addiction.  Forgetting equipment is a very bad habit I've developed.

I've forgotten tackle trays, paddles, and the kayak seat.  On one of my first trips, I got all rigged up - net, poles, stakeout stick...but I'd forgotten my Plano boxes. I had a gold spoon on one rod and a soft plastic on the other that I'd tied on the night before.  Turns out getting skunked is just as easy with two lures as with multiple tackle trays.

Second, I forgot the seat to my Ocean Kayak Trident13 on a trip.  It was me and the kid and we got all the way to our destination without realizing I would be seatless.  The fishing spirits were smiling on me though, because we were launching from a relatives canal house and my Hobie Odyssey Tandem was in the garage and it's seat actually worked on the Trident13!  I had to do alot of adjusting of the straps but in the end it worked out just fine.

Third, I got several blocks away from home with Harry in the car and trailer in tow when I realized we didn't pack the paddles. I was lucky my mental rundown only a few blocks from home caught this one - there'd have been no recovery of driving a kid over an hour only to discover Dad didn't bring the paddles! And finally, we forgot one paddle on a trip with two kayaks.  Again, I was saved though.  We were meeting up with some new friends and they had an extra paddle we borrowed.

So four times I've forgotten something and all four times I got lucky.  The next time, it may not end so well. The simple lesson is to always do a thorough double check that you have all gear that is needed, even if you're itching to get on the road, because its not worth the several hour drive to find you cant fish...without a fishing rod.

Stuff I've forgotten

DIY GoPro Kayak Pole

   This is a simple, affordable pole mount for a GoPro. This is made specifically for GoPro cameras; for any other camera for a similar mount I would recommend visiting Sonny Mills' article about his camera setup.
 
Materials Needed:

• Dolica WT-1003 Lightweight 67 Inch Monopod ($15)
• GoPro Tripod Adaptor ($3)
• Duct Tape (approx. $5 per roll)
• Pipe Insulator (approx. $2 for six feet)

   The total cost comes in around $25 with plenty of extra duct tape and pipe insulator left over for future projects. As of right now, on the water I bring two action cameras, my Sony Action Cam HDR-AS15 on a headband mount, and my GoPro Hero 3+ on my pole mount. The GoPro is by far my favorite of the two, but it costs $299 versus the Sony which costs $142 on Amazon. I might do a full comparison of these two cameras for the purpose of filming kayak fishing videos later on, but now back to the GoPro pole mount.

 

1. The first step after all of the materials listed above have been purchased is to screw the adapter onto the end of the monopod and attach the camera.
   
2. The second step, is to prepare the bottom end of the monopod to fit snugly in whatever holder you choose to use for the pole, for example a flush-mount rod holder, or a section of PVC piping attached to a milk crate with zipties. To get the snug fit, I cut a section of pipe insulator about four inches long and slit it open so it could wrap around the bottom of the extended thinnest section of the monopod. I secured this on with a couple tight zipties and wrapped the rest of the way with duct tape until I got my desired width to fit my milkcrate rod holder. It's not pretty but it serves its purpose.

     3. The third and final step is to adjust the angle of the camera using the screw on the adapter, and experiment with placing it in different positions around the kayak to find your favorite view. My personal two favorites are from the PVC section on my milk crate, and the flush mount rod holder which is pictured below.

   This is a great project for those rainy days when we just wish we could be out fishing, and although it may cost a little more than other DIY alternatives, it's very simple, compact, portable, easily adjustable, and durable.

Fishing with My Kids

I've learned a lot and grown closer to my kids by taking them fishing.  It's not always easy, but the memories should last a long time and life lessons are learned.


Harry with a good days catch of Reds.

With three kids, I have three different levels of fishing interest from them; extreme, high, and barely medium.  It's the extreme and the barely medium that are the most work in interesting ways and require some management.  The extreme kid will wonder off to the fishy looking hole, gut, or grass bed figuring he's doing his thing.  On the other hand, the barely medium kid will go from good attention to the water, casts and retrieves to not giving much thought toward what she's really doing.  She too can wander around a bit. From the parent perspective, both need a watchful eye to keep the forward but safe momentum of our experience. Both of these kids end up with great stories and laughs that make a Dad smile after virtually every trip.

Starting with the Bass and learning to hold a fish.

The greatest joy I've had in our fishing excursions is seeing the excitement and triumph of the kids catches - far more so than my own small victories of landing a good fish.  The shout of "I've Got One!" or "Fish On!" gets me speed-reeling my own line in to go watch or assist them if needed.  My fishing time is often reduced in order to help or assist the kids, but that's part of the deal and turns out to also be part of the bonding and positive experience for me. 

Kids like to be taught, have a parent focus solely and intently on them for short periods, and I've found they listen quite well for these small intersessions.  I also believe the silent times while they try their skills are also fundamentally healthy - just being on the outing and near each other reenforces the fact we aren't always scolding or correcting them.  The oldest kid, the high interest one, benefits from the quiet time of fishing with or without the whole gang along.  If you have trouble spending a few hours with your teenager that's twice as smart as you and always on the run, go fish and keep just a small buffer between you, and don't correct them much.  It may be the best time you've had together in a couple years.

Kayak fishing the shallow water with Will.

Fishing with the kids doesn't require expensive boats, top-end gear, or long trips.  Living in the middle of a large city may not fit the expected storyline of being able to fish with the kids or even the whole family, but we've discovered nearly every pond of any shape or origin holds fish - even the concrete lined retention ponds of neighborhoods, apartment complexes and city parks.  Within a ten minute drive we have a good success rate of pulling large mouth bass from these unlikely fishing  holes while Mom can even lounge in a beach chair under a live oak, alternating between instagraming a catch and reading a magazine.  Give us two hours and we can load up the SUV, catch a couple bass on artificial lures and be home for dinner or homework.  Fishing with the kids is family time, it's time spent together without distractions and nearly always results in at least one of the kids having a story to tell his/her friends.  And for me, it's time with the people that matter most and I too, usually have a story I could tell or a scene I will replay in my head and smile.  And they might even thank you for the fun.

Dave

Urban pond fishing

   

  Kayak fishing the marsh

     

                                             

           Fish On !

Foggy Morning Fun

The morning started at 5:00 AM with an annoying alarm. We wanted to be on the water fairly early but there was no rush to beat the sunrise. The car and trailer were loaded the night before without gear so after a quick double check (that wasn't a very good check) we grabbed a couple snacks and were on the road. We planned to meet Tony (Coastie Culture), his wife Crystal, and their son, Jez at the launch around 7:30. We made it there with a relatively quick drive, only to find that while packing the night before I forgot one of our paddles. After quite a bit of scolding from the old man Tony came to the rescue telling us that he had brought an extra paddle. The conditions seemed good and we launched into a nice thick blanket of early morning fog.

The heavy fog made for a peaceful paddle

A short paddle got us to the first cut we planned on fishing. Around the corner we went and we were greeted with the welcoming signs of fish. Bait was moving, and even a couple tails were seen but it was one of those days where these darned reds wouldn't bite a single thing we threw at them. The five of us varied retrieves, switched lures and tried every trick we knew but these fish just wouldn't take a lure. We decided it was time to move on and try to find fish that were willing to bite. After a couple hours and no luck except for a few small flounder spitting the hook at the kayak we decided to make the couple mile paddle and totally relocate. The fog cleared up and we regrouped determined to get on some fish.

The Wilderness Systems Tarpon 120 fully rigged up

  We were in a little bit shallower water now with scattered oysters and mud bottom. We all spread out through this cut and began flinging our variety of plastics. Dave drifted a shoreline and managed to get three flounder on only to lose all of them inches from the net. I anchored along a grass line that had an abundance of shell running the length of it and began fan casting. I got nothing so decided to switch up the lure. I threw on a brighter plastic that Tony and Crystal were generous enough to give me to try (one of their favorites, made by Reel'em In Lures) and after a few casts I hooked up. Right away I could tell it wasn't anything huge but I was glad to have a fish on the end of my line. It turned out to be a nice little, but legal 16" speckled trout, so we snapped a pic and threw him on the stringer.

My 16" Speckled trout

 After another 20 minutes without any good bites we called it a day and paddled back to the launch only to find an empty stringer. I was confused and angry at myself because the spec somehow got off but like always, I learned a new lesson. It definitely wasn't the most successful day catching wise, but we got to fish with some new friends, and enjoyed a nice day on the water.

                                                                                                               -Harry

In the Beginning...

While traveling up and down I-95 or along I-10 over the years on our family vacations I found one of my highlights on the road was passing through the various estuaries, swamps, coastal inlets and most any coastal plain wetlands or bay system.  I pondered the rise and fall of the tides, the serenity of the scenery, and admired the beauty of water, coastal grasses and the sun reflecting off the still water surface.  I imagined the wildlife that calls those waters home that we couldn't see at 70 mph on the raised interstate. 

And over the course of a few years of these annual treks I started dreaming of a small boat or even canoeing or kayaking through these wonderful habitats when we retire to some bucolic coastal town.  The daydreams continued over the course of a few years on every vacation drive...I could learn to fish in peace since the kids will be grown and gone, heck I could probably fish while I canoe or kayak in these mysterious tidal flats and bays.  Finally on one such vacation I broke my silence, "You know, I think I'd love to just paddle around these grassy waters when we retire.  I think that would be really peaceful." I think we were on I-10 near Mobile Bay at the time.  "Yes it would, you do that after you buy me a nice little retirement home on the water" was about the response I got.  The three kids with earphones and bags of chips in back paid no attention to this short exchange between me and my wife.

After having invented the idea of fishing in shallow brackish water from a kayak on these annual drives, arriving home from one such vacation I decided to 'Google it up' as my youngest child would say.  After about 10 minutes letting Google show me the way I had the horrible realization that I didn't just invent a new pastime afterall - there was already a large and growing community of kayak fishermen in nearly every coastal area both rural and urban! They beat me to it by decades and I didn't even know it had been happening.  I found canoe and kayak shops online, websites dedicated to kayak anglers, and even online forums where these interesting fishermen exchanged ideas, stories, asked questions, and even traded and sold equipment.  I did all this online reading after the kids were in bed and the wife was usually reading a good book.  I became fascinated by this new world far different than my urban neighborhood full of SUV's hauling kids around and my 8-5 office workplace.  It was pulling me in - a new vocabulary with new acronyms to learn, interesting activities I'd never done let alone heard of.  The minutia of what type of knot worked best for certain types of fishing line tied to another material for the leader was discussed on the forums with great opinion and custom.  I was sliding into this crazy hobby without even owning anything that floats nor did I own a rod that was suited for a person over 10 years old. I hadn't caught so much as a real gamefish but once in the last 25 years. My sleuthy research continued after that particular vacation for a few weeks.

Then one day...

"Me and Harry are going to go look at a tandem kayak - some guy just in the next neighborhood over is selling one for about half the price of a new one and it has all the stuff already on it for fishing".

"WHAT?  I thought this was something you were going to do later...like when we retire or something" said the dear wife.

"Yea, well I think I'm a little interested in this kayak fishing thing now.  It would be good for us.  Let's go Harry.  We won't be long, this guy is just in the next neighborhood over."

And the rest as they say, is history.  The next day I was the proud owner of a Hobie Oddysey tandem kayak with two paddles, an anchor trolley, both Scotty and flushmount rod holders, a customized milk crate, and a cooler set up for live bait in half and cold drinks in the other half.  My new friend even delivered it since I hadn't thought far enough ahead to consider transporting my new prized possession home.

The Hobie Oddysesy tandem fishing kayak

And that is how it was in the beginning.

Dave