Paddle To Em

As pretty much everyone that reads the weekly articles knows I was very fortunate to grow up here in the lowcountry spending many hours on the water from the time I was big enough to don a life preserver through present day. My early days of fishing were always with my dad who took me as often as possible; as I got a little bit older my enjoyment for fishing grew so much that I wanted to go during the week. Obviously my father was working during the week so for a while all my weekday fishing was land based from local docks and piers that I could walk or bike to. Fortunately my parents had some long time friends who lived in the adjacent neighborhood on a lake. They knew about my passion for fishing and offered up their two man canoe to me and my friends any time we wanted to fish. To this day I still remember the first time I caught a brim out of that canoe. The thrill of being in the fishes environment, setting the hook on him while he was at eye level, and having him pull me around for a few minutes was immense.

Many years later my parents purchased a two man kayak so they could enjoy paddling some of the lowcounty rivers. I came home for a long weekend from Clemson and Andy suggested we launch the kayak from the James Island Yacht Club and fish the shallow flats and grass along the harbors edge for spotail. We paddled the kayak along in just a few inches of water and again I knew I was in the fishs element; but this time in salt water and with a lot larger fish. A few casts strategic casts of a gold weedless spoon and game on! We caught several reds that day that pushed the 32-inch envelope all while fishing at eye level. What an awesome experience.

Kayak fishing has taken off over the last five years. For many anglers kayak fishing offers ability to get on the water with just a minor investment and no maintenance cost, for others it all about the experience of being in the fishes element, while still others enjoy the kayaks unique ability to fish areas that would otherwise be impossible to acce