Kayak Spey fishing

[Regan Burmeister]

So the subject might the get "Huh?" query. I thought I would write this up to sort of get a casting/fishing fix now that we locked out and rained out.

 

Right before Fletcher’s locked down in March, I met up with Terry Cummings to get some insight on kayak fishing for shad at Fletchers. I had purchased a fishing kayak last summer, and I was looking to catch my first shad from the kayak.  Many of you know me primarily as spey guy. Two-hand and single-hand spey is my preferred way to fish. Well, I thought why not on the kayak.  My Lure 11.5’ fishing kayak has a height adjustable seat.  So I put the seat in its mid-height position.  I followed Terry out into the lower portion of the big eddy, right above Walker’s Point, and anchored up.

I was able to effectively cast my 12.5’ 8wt Reddington Chromer, casting an Airflow intermediate Skagit line (570 grain) with 10’ feet of T-14 sinktip from the seated position. It took a few casts to get down the motion, but after a bit, I could lift and sweep, set the anchor and draw the D loop, come into the firing position, and launch a cast and shoot 30 to 40 feet of running line, making a total cast of up to 70’ (if I really wanted to push).  Most of the time I kept at 40-50’.  A lot of fun, especially since I had to make no false casts, and no false casting a sinking line at that.

I found that I could make all the usually anchor sets (circle spey, snap-T, double spey, perry poke) from the seated position. Most of the shad I caught were caught the usual way of stripping the sunken tip back in quick short strips. But twice as I was swinging thru the current, no action to the fly from me, a shad actually hit the shad dart on the swing. That was fun, never had that happen before on my more standard trips of fishing up by Chain Bridge from the bank but also swinging the fly.  Up there I have always had to strip it back to get a strike.

I was looking forward to doing more of this kind of kayak fishing this spring.  I made it out one more time and caught some more shad. I also sacrificed an anchor to the bottom. The price you have to pay, I suppose.

[Alexander Vu]

Where can you drop off the kayak at Fletchers.  I thought access to Fletchers is closed.  Can we drive thru the tunnel currently?

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[Trent Jones]

Regan,

I am glad you were able to get out in a water craft before Fletchers was locked down. How much line were you carrying (from the rod tip) when you were making your cast to re-present the fly??

-Trent

[Terry C]

Hopefully we can get out again soon. I enjoyed being out there with you that day. I always tell people to make sure you have a knife with them so they can cut their anchor line if they have to. After donating 2 store bought anchors over the years, I switched to the Fletchers rock anchor system. Plenty of rocks on shore when you need one. Stay well everyone.

[Regan Burmeister]

Trent, 

The Skagit head was 22' and the T-14 sinktip was 10' topped off with four feet of 0X tippet and fly.  So call it 36' off the tip.  I usually had to roll cast everything to the surface, then make the positioning move for the anchor set, casting that 36' and then shooting line to boot if I wanted to. Most of the time I could just roll cast that business, taking just a few feet of running line, and make nice presentations. Lots of fun.

[namfos]

I hope we can some day venture down to Mallow Bay and fish from our boats.

Mark

[Gregg Rockett]

Hi Regan.  I put in my kayak at Fletchers as well and learned a few years ago that a conventional anchor is a liability in that water.  The safer alternative is to buy a decent length of chain link and a plastic sleeve to cover it and use that as your anchor.  Click on this link for a blog I wrote on the subject.  Gregg

On Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 6:21:12 PM UTC-4, Regan Burmeister wrote:

[Andrew R]

I use a basketball net full of rocks zip-tied shut and connected to my anchor line with 30 lb test mono. Should you get pinned, just give the anchor line a hard tug and off pops the anchor. Flipping a kayak or canoe just ain't worth it...

[Gregg Rockett]

Another good option, Andrew.

On Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 6:21:12 PM UTC-4, Regan Burmeister wrote: