The alarm sounds, but I’ve been tossing and turning for hours. Not because I’m excited, but to relieve the circulation in my hips. For breakfast, a high fiber muffin and calcium-enriched OJ. For lunch, I reach past my teenager’s chips and cakes to grab a protein bar and green apple. Somewhere between achy joints and healthy food, I realized I am getting old.

Mike LaFleur holds up a fish, an example of the benefits of fishing for older anglers Older Anglers Get Hooked On Lifelong Kayak Fishing

Finding the Kayak Fishing Fountain of Youth

Out the door and into the truck. Pick up my young buddy and head to bird-dog a potential drum hole. We’ve heard stories of this spot and searched it out on Google Earth. Now we’re taking a winter Saturday to explore the spot before returning in the spring loaded for bear.

After an hour on the road, I slide out of the truck and groan. Standing up takes a second. It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve been in the ‘yak and I’m already feeling the neglect.

This is the cure for what ages you. | Feature photo: Roberto Westbrook

As we load our boats, a duck hunter asks where we’re going. When I tell him he says, “I like seeing guys keeping it real all winter.”

He knows the weather forecast. Low clouds hang over the grey water and cord grass. We’ve got a short break in the wind before it kicks up in the afternoon. Predicting a significant tailwind on the ride home, we take a gamble and paddle out on a long, wide bay that separates us from our destination.

We’ve timed the last of the outgoing tide to carry us over mudflats and into open water. I paddle the distance. Not as fast as I used to, but a lot smarter. I read the water, steer out of the current, change my position and adjust my grip, using every trick in my book to ease the pain and increase efficiency. We cross the bay and pick our way through a labyrinth of marsh creeks. The current is streaming into my bow while a mixture of anxiety and anticipation eases the pain.

A lifetime on the water takes a toll and pays off. Every time my joints creak and muscles ache I worry that my days in the kayak are numbered. For every old salt I know, I know two who’ve dropped out of the race. Where my strength weakens, experience and resolve are strong. I’m already in training to become a crotchety old salt.

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Searching for Youth and Finding Florida

I always admired Ponce de Leon searching for the Fountain of Youth. Even if the story isn’t true, I picture him chasing myths of eternal health and happiness instead of going after gold and silver. Unfortunately, he didn’t find the fountain, he found Florida. He was about my age, so I imagine he would have rather found the fountain.

When Zach and I reach the beach, I set eyes on one of the prettiest drum holes. Excited by the bars and sloughs we know will hold big redfish, we scout the beach and make plans for drum season.

Take Pleasure In The Finer Details Of Fishing

That’s when the wind kicks up and fog rolls in. The weather window closes. By the time Zach and I push off the beach and pick our way through the marsh, rain is blowing sideways. We figured on the wind pushing us home, but we miscalculated the opposing current. As I rounded the last corner into the open bay, I can see whitecaps lined up like a corrugated tin roof. Surrounded by fog and blinded by the rain, I don’t have time to worry. With the wind pushing me into the current, I ride wave after wave like an escalator across the bay. Each time I drop down a curl and spray flares the bow, my heart jumps into my throat and makes me giggle like a kid. Looks like I found that fountain of youth.

Cover of the Fall 2017 issue of Kayak Angler MagazineThis article was first published in the Fall 2017 issue of Kayak Angler Magazine. Subscribe to Kayak Angler Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

This is the cure for what ages you. | Feature photo: Roberto Westbrook

 

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Ric Burnley
Kayak Angler editor Ric Burnley has been kayak fishing since the dawn of the sport. In 2007, Burnley wrote The Complete Kayak Fisherman, with chapters on how-to make a PVC rod holder and glue a fish finder transducer to the hull. In 2013, he landed his dream job as editor of Kayak Angler magazine. Burnley is a regular contributor to Salt Water Sportsman, Sport Fishing, Outdoor Life, In the Bite and other print and online publications. Burnley lives in Virginia Beach with his wife, adult daughter, daughter’s boyfriend and daughter’s two cats. Experience In 2004, Ric Burnley stole his first milk crate from behind a 7-Eleven and fashioned it into a gear crate for his Ocean Kayak Prowler 15. Many years and many milk crates later, Burnley has witnessed the rise of kayak fishing from a bastardized fringe element to a legitimate industry with millions of devotees. The journey to becoming an angler started early in Burnley’s life. His father, Eric Burnley, is a renowned outdoor writer and former fishing guide, so the boy grew up in the cockpit of a charter boat and in the pages of national magazines. After college, Burnley lost easy access to his father’s boat, but not his passion for fishing. Once he had exhausted the limits of land-based angling, Burnley decided to try out a new thing called kayak fishing. About the same time, Burnley was looking for extra work to pay for his expensive addiction. His father, editor of the Mid-Atlantic Fisherman Magazine, offered him freelance assignments for the weekly publication. That led to a position as regional editor at Salt Water Sportsman, publication of The Complete Kayak Fisherman and editorship of Kayak Angler. Meanwhile, Burnley and his partner-in-crime, “Kayak Kevin” Whitley were exploring the boundaries of kayak fishing. With the bountiful Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean as their playground, the two anglers were the first to target big red drum, cobia, trophy striped bass, monster black drum, sheepshead and many other species. Once inshore species were exhausted, Burnley loaded his kayak onto motorboats and fished for bluefin tuna, blackfin tuna, king mackerel and amberjack. All the while, Burnley shared his experiences and knowledge with anglers through print, photos, video, radio, seminars and online. Almost 20 years later, Burnley continues to fish obsessively and share the stories. His recent projects for Kayak Angler cover the latest trends in forward-facing sonar and remote-controlled electric motors. Over the past two decades, kayak fishing and Ric Burnley have come a long way from PVC rod holders and stolen milkcrates. Education ● Radford University: BA English; Virginia Teacher’s License. Highlights ● Other Interests: Mountain biking, traveling, hiking, surfing and skateboarding ● Day Job: High School English teacher at an alternative school for at-risk students Fun Fact Ric’s name is a contraction of Eric. Ric is named after his father, Eric Sr. To differentiate between the two Erics, Mrs. Burnley removed her son’s E. To this day, she writes the boy’s name ‘Ric, with an apostrophe replacing the E.

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