Yak Attack: Kayak Basics for Trout Fishing
By: Cal Kellogg
Bring a new level of stealth, simplicity and satisfaction to your trout fishing by checking out kayak fishing. (Cal Kellogg photo)
If you’re not into kayak trout fishing, you need to get started. When? Anytime you can get on the water, be it a mountain lake, small impoundment, large reservoir or even a river or tailwater fishery. While I hammer trout out of my kayak all year long, winter is my hands-down favorite time to fish.
The cold months offer many advantages for the kayak-equipped trout angler. In winter the trout in reservoirs are typically near the surface and aggressively feeding on baitfish, while river trout tend to stack up in shallow runs where they get maximum warming benefit from the weak winter sun. In both situations, the trout are highly vulnerable to an angler trolling and casting from a nimble, stealthy ’yak.
The Kayak Advantage
If you’re not up to date on what’s been going on in the kayaking scene, you might be imagining a bearded ’70s adventurer with wet, shoulder-length hair flowing from beneath a helmet sitting in a tight-around-the-waist whitewater kayak. Well, the beards are certainly back, but the fishing kayaks we have today aren’t your daddy’s whitewater kayak.
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