Kayak fishing is waking up at dawn to lug your boat to your local launch for a quiet moment on the water. The sport is packing all of your carefully piled gear onto a kayak all in search of a big, big fish and to get wet and dirty and break a sweat while doing it. There’s a chance you’ll end up in the drink; there’s a chance you’ll fight the wind with no good chance for cover or easy way out. Kayak fishing can be uncomfortable and hard.
Overall, kayak fishing is work, but with that work and discomfort comes fair reward.
Does kayak fishing suck?
With wind, waves, and hard work on the table, Jay of Bearded Dad Fishing took to YouTube to investigate if kayak fishing does indeed suck, and the effort versus reward involved in kayak fishing– an ever-relevant topic as just about anything on the internet about rigging sports the reply “just get a bass boat”.
On Jay’s list of kayak fishing cons are confined space and limited loading capacity, exposure to the elements, likeliness of getting wet, potential to be expensive, and overall the amount of physical work involved in getting your kayak on the water and that’s just the beginning.
The trade off for your hard work and discomfort, of course, is nearly infinite possibilities for exploration on the water, access to places too difficult for a bass boat to navigate, and highly customizable rigging. The challenges of kayak fishing can be viewed as rewarding rather than cons. Creating the perfect rig for your needs is a puzzle, and kayak fishing brings you as close to the water– and the fish– as possible without going for a swim.
While kayak fishing certainly can be expensive, the beauty of the sport is that the gear and technology you choose to incorporate into your rig is choose-your-own adventure. Whether you opt for a barebones set up of just a kayak, paddle, PFD and rod or install a three-monitor fish finder, there’s a place for you in the sport all the same. Plus, no matter how expensive that rig gets, it likely won’t hold a candle to the price of the average bass boat.
The case against a fish finder
Jay recommends that beginner kayak anglers ditch the fish finder in their first few years in the interest of saving money and growing skill before further investing in the sport.
“If you’re just getting into kayak fishing or just into fishing in general forget the fish finder for a year, maybe two years,” shared Jay. “Learn your kayak. Learn to navigate without it. Learn to read the surroundings, nature, the fish, the birds— learn to read all that stuff.”
One thing Jay says you shouldn’t skimp on? A good PDF.
“Don’t be one of those guys who spends $3,000 on their kayak and then they spend $20 bucks on their life jacket. It’s meant to save your life,” shared Jay in the video.
