Does anyone have any thoughts on why wading is so much more effective than fishing from a boat…especially for trout? Years ago, I waded Lake Marion while fishing for bream, and I waded Russellville Flats in Lake Moultrie for largemouth bass. I’ve only recently begun wading for speckled trout. I am very surprised at how effective wading is for trout. A bunch of my buddies have been offering opinions as to why that is. Anyone on here want to weigh in on that one?
Optiker hit it and also the fact that a lot few places on our coasts are easier to beach your boat at low tide and fish a land locked hole… *** If the bank is hard enough to walk on. ** I’ve got a spot that I’ve carried many a green/red tail grub in my pocket and buried trout and Flounder in the cool wet sand while I walked on to catch more. carrying my catch back to the boat as the tide comes in. Never had a lot of luck getting reds in the smaller land locked holes, they either move out or I just can’t catch them.
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Angle, I believe, is another. When you’re in the water you usually have a much flatter angle retrieving your line in relation to the bottom. I know, especially when fishing for trout, a lot of people use grubs and work them with rod tip up. That difference in angle from your rod tip being 8’ off the water versus 2’ off the water plays down to your lure.
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I have a cheap $100 walmart kayak that I bought just for wading. The kayak is a PITA to try and fish out of, but it’s great to get from A to B and start wading. Tie a rope from the bow to my fishing vest.
Stealth is certainly a key factor, but I believe that you can fish an area more thoroughly with more stealth if you’re wading. And when you’re wading, you’ve made more of a commitment to fish that particular area, whereas when folks pull up in a boat and cast for 15-20 minutes without a bite, they’ll likely crank up and go somewhere else. On the first of our three days of wading, we started around daylight and didn’t have a fish at 9:00 am. The tide changed and the fish turned on…and we had 200 trout by 1:00 pm. A friend of mine who is a guide brought his clients to the same area. Of course, they fished from his boat. They came early, also. They saw us wading…but he left with only three trout.
1 - It don’t matter a hill of trout turds whether you’re in a boat, inner-tube, wading, or walking on the bank, if you ain’t on fish and offering them what they want to eat.
2 - unless a spot, for some specific reason, sets up better for wading (like a cross current over something that can’t be reached by a boat) you can’t make me believe wading for trout would be more effective. We take the same spot, you cast while standing with your knees in the water towards me, I cast from the boat towards you. My feeble mind just doesn’t process an advantage from the bank.
What Hoppy said, plus most of the places I catch trout are too deep to wade anyway. In my experience, trout like deeper water and reds like it shallow.
1 - It don’t matter a hill of trout turds whether you’re in a boat, inner-tube, wading, or walking on the bank, if you ain’t on fish and offering them what they want to eat.
2 - unless a spot, for some specific reason, sets up better for wading (like a cross current over something that can’t be reached by a boat) you can’t make me believe wading for trout would be more effective. We take the same spot, you cast while standing with your knees in the water towards me, I cast from the boat towards you. My feeble mind just doesn’t process an advantage from the bank.
Make me believe otherwise please
Hoppy,
You ask me to make you believe otherwise, but your #1 reason above leads me to believe that your mind is made up with no room for debate…but just for giggles, I’ll tell with much certainty that if you had been with me and experienced what I experienced, you wouldn’t be quite so sure that it makes no difference. And your scenario where we face each other…me in the water and you in your boat and cast toward each other really isn’t a fair test. I believe that in shallow water…5’ and less…the boat spooks the fish. I know you can catch 'em out of a boat 'cause I’ve done it. I, also, know that in the area I was fishing which was roughly the size of three football fields, we waded all over it catching trout as we went. Guide boats would come is as close as they reasonably could fishing the same flat. Over the course of the morning, we all fished the same waters…just not at the exact same time. It may be that the folks in the boat were making too much noise. I’m not sure. I am sure that over three days, the guys wading caught 700 trout and the guys fishing from boats didn’t catch a one man limit of 25 on any day. That’s why I posed the quest
What Hoppy said, plus most of the places I catch trout are too deep to wade anyway. In my experience, trout like deeper water and reds like it shallow.
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Tigerfin,
I don’t think the boat spooks the fish in deeper water as much as it does in shallow water. I’ve caught a lot of trout in water 20’ deep. Obviously, wading that is not an option, so I don’t know if I might have caught more if not in a boat.
1 - It don’t matter a hill of trout turds whether you’re in a boat, inner-tube, wading, or walking on the bank, if you ain’t on fish and offering them what they want to eat.
2 - unless a spot, for some specific reason, sets up better for wading (like a cross current over something that can’t be reached by a boat) you can’t make me believe wading for trout would be more effective. We take the same spot, you cast while standing with your knees in the water towards me, I cast from the boat towards you. My feeble mind just doesn’t process an advantage from the bank.
Make me believe otherwise please
Hoppy,
You ask me to make you believe otherwise, but your #1 reason above leads me to believe that your mind is made up with no room for debate…but just for giggles, I’ll tell with much certainty that if you had been with me and experienced what I experienced, you wouldn’t be quite so sure that it makes no difference. And your scenario where we face each other…me in the water and you in your boat and cast toward each other really isn’t a fair test. I believe that in shallow water…5’ and less…the boat spooks the fish. I know you can catch 'em out of a boat 'cause I’ve done it. I, also, know that in the area I was fishing which was roughly the size of three football fields, we waded all over it catching trout as we went. Guide boats would come is as close as they reasonably could fishing the same flat. Over the course of the morning, we all fished the same waters…just not at the exact same time. It may be that the folks in the boat were making too much noise. I’m not sure. I am sur
…and we had 200 trout by 1:00 pm. A friend of mine who is a guide brought his clients to the same area. Of course, they fished from his boat. They came early, also. They saw us wading…but he left with only three trout.
Why would you catch and I assume release 200 trout?
No Hate and No jealousy, just seems like a large number in a short time and also a guide in the same area only catching 3. ? I think the best day ever for me and trout would be 40ish between two people.
“If Bruce Jenner can keep his wiener and be called a woman, I can keep my firearms and be considered disarmed.”
…and we had 200 trout by 1:00 pm. A friend of mine who is a guide brought his clients to the same area. Of course, they fished from his boat. They came early, also. They saw us wading…but he left with only three trout.
Why would you catch and I assume release 200 trout?
No Hate and No jealousy, just seems like a large number in a short time and also a guide in the same area only catching 3. ? I think the best day ever for me and trout would be 40ish between two people.
There were 8 guys wading. The limit is 25 per person. I was a guest. They had told me how effective wading was. I was skeptical, so they said get in the boat with us, and we’ll show you. I did…and they did.
Harold Wilcox
where were you wading? wading in Charleston is a lot different than louisiana.
We were wading in Louisiana. The guys I was with were from Texas, where they wade year round. If they are that successful in Texas and in Louisiana, do you really think they could not do it on the Carolina coast? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t bet against them. They are excellent fishermen, and they have wading down to a science. I was blind, but now I see.
Harold Wilcox
where were you wading? wading in Charleston is a lot different than louisiana.
We were wading in Louisiana. The guys I was with were from Texas, where they wade year round. If they are that successful in Texas and in Louisiana, do you really think they could not do it on the Carolina coast? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t bet against them. They are excellent fishermen, and they have wading down to a science. I was blind, but now I see.
Harold Wilcox
Expecting to wade here every time you want to catch a trout is simply unrealistic in my opinion. Sure it’s possible to wade here, i’ve personally done it for redfish on certain tides and times of the year. Unfortunately we have things like pluff mud and tides here. What do they have around texas, florida pandhandle, chandeluer, and breton… 1 or two foot tides and sandy bottoms? The game is alot different here. Sure you could invest in some waders and use them a few times a year with some success around here, but you are probably much better off fishing from a boat.
