It is often said that during our fly fishing lives we never stop learning. Our good friend Lee Watts proves this point perfectly when he decided to buy a kayak and hit the ocean in search of bass. This is the first part in his voyage of discovery that will no doubt inspire others to follow suit.
"Let's go sea kayaking" she said.
I replied "fine, we can hire one when we get to the caravan".
And so began the highlight of my fly fishing year....discovering sea kayak fly fishing.
My girlfriend Sharon and I had decided to spend a week's holiday at a caravan park close to Aberaeron, Cardigan Bay. We had planned to hire two sea kayaks for a few days and just explore the coast. Unbeknown to me I was about to become a sea kayak owner, as the 'hire' shop no longer hired the yaks, but was selling them. The discussion went something like this:
"Well Sha, we are here now, the point of coming to West Wales was to sea kayak. If I am going to buy one (two) then I want a boat which I can fish from. You can have an A - B boat."
"Yeah, ok Lee, but they are quite expensive."
"I know Sha, £1000 for my second hand Ocean Kayak Prowler Big Game and your Ocean Kayak Venus. Looks like I'm going to take the hit, or we can just sit in the van for a week".
The following comprises the kit I have been using this last summer along with what I have learned along the way. It is by no means definitive, but it's how I have been using the yak.
Safety
I'm scared of the sea. Apart from summer holidays as a child, I've never really been involved with it. I'm scared of sharks (jaws had a lasting effect), jelly fish, seals, weaver fish and jet skis.
A VHF operating license and waterproof hand held radio will give you and your family peace of mind. The radios can be bought for just under £100 and can be hung from your neck allowing you to contact the coastguard and other vessels should you need to (it's the maritime frequency). You can also inform the coastguard prior to launching your boat where you are going and what you are doing. Contact your local sailing club, sea kayaking club or coastguard regarding the availability of training on how to use a VHF, this issue is very important.
"Why bother, my mobile phone works well on the coast" I thought. But it won't work if it's wet, if you're tight under some high cliffs or if pushed out to sea. Get a VHF. I don't think fellow Orvis guide Hamish Young would speak to me again if I didn't (he's the coastguard covering Inverness).
I use a buoyancy aid. It's the closed cell foam type that I've fitted a zinger with nippers too, it's basically my brightly coloured fishing jacket now. It does three things. Its colour (bright red) allows me to be seen by other craft. You have a very low profile in a yak, add a bit of a chop, and you can be hidden from view a lot of the time by the sea. Bright hats and buffs enhance my visibility. There is an insulation element to the foam within the jacket. Its main feature of course is that it stops you sinking if you capsize. It doesn't keep you floating on your back if you are unconscious, that would be a life jacket (an important distinction).
Try and launch and paddle in twos. This has obvious benefits regarding safety.
I wear a 3mm wetsuit and boots. I initially thought this would be way too warm when fishing under the summer sun and restrictive to casting. This isn't the case. Apart from having to pee yourself out at sea, it's very comfortable. The neoprene soon 'gives' and allows you to paddle and cast with no trouble. You also barely feel the water if you go overboard and the neoprene enhances your buoyancy no end. The last two points are the reasons why you wear a wetsuit, mine cost approx £30 and I made sure I tried it on first. You'll need talc to put it on properly, a good measure that it is tight enough.
As an example of how things can quickly go wrong at sea, I have a story to tell you. Not long after I bought my yak, I came across a report by Hartlepool RNLI in July this year.
An angler bait fishing in the North Sea off the North East England Coast was keeping his catch in a bass bag stowed over the side on the yak to keep it cool. The sea was flat calm. The angler opened the main storage hatch at the bow to access equipment. To do this he would have had to slide himself along the yak, making it unstable. As he opened the hatch, a large seal decided that is was going to steal the contents of the bass bag and in the process capsized the yak. Normally, this wouldn't have been such an issue, but with the storage hatch open, the yak filled with water and the angler was unable to right it again. The angler was saved by the actions of a bystander on shore who contacted the emergency services. Food for thought!
A book which helped me is called 'Welsh Sea Kayaking - Fifty Great Sea Kayak Voyages' by Jim Krawiecki & Andy Biggs. Gives good information on launching, currents and safety.
The yak
I have an Ocean Kayak Prowler Big Game. It is a 'sit on top' yak made from 13ft of heavyweight moulded bright yellow plastic. It's for fat American bass fisherman. I'm a skinny Welshman. I should have bought a lighter craft which isn't as wide and easier to transport (my hand was forced because of the holiday situation). Having said that I sit quite high over the water, which is a nice position for fly casting. It's so stable with my 10st frame perched on it, it's never felt as if it was going to capsize, let alone actually flip me overboard. I have to say that my yak is no fun to paddle, it doesn't glide between strokes and has the turning circle of the QEII (Sharon's is the exact opposite).
Sharon's Ocean Kayak Venus on the other hand feels like it wants to flip over if you dig a paddle in a bit sharp. It's a much faster craft, half the weight of mine and much easier to transport and paddle. Would I fish from it? No way. It feels very unstable when not moving. I regard my yak as a platform from which to fish from. The purpose of Sharon's yak is to propel her from A - B with as little fuss as possible.
An alternative would be to buy a 'sit in' yak. These allow the angler to sit with his bum below the waterline. They are fast because they are narrower and don't have scupper holes in the hull. The stability comes from having a lower centre of gravity as opposed to having to build a wider boat. Sit ins are also a lot lighter because they are usually made from fibreglass. Because of this they are more fragile than sit on tops and I'm not sure they would like being dragged up onto the kelp rocks when I'm fishing for pollock.
When we bought the yaks, we were given the buoyancy aids and paddles as part of the deal. What I didn't factor in was the cost of the roof rack and other transportation paraphernalia that we needed.
Transportation
My yak is 36kg and 13ft long, it's almost 3ft wide. That's two springer spaniels in weight. It's depressing how much garage space you'll need even for one, let alone two. They kind of take over. It's a bit like having a caravan on the drive I suppose.
It's very difficult to lift on and off the van rack on my own. It can be done, but it tends to take the shine off using the yak in the first place. There are various aids which can be attached to your roof rack which help you manoeuvre the yak into place. I use a telescopic bar which extends one of the roof bars away from the side of the van. It allows me to lift the bow of the yak onto the extended bar, then lift the stern onto the other roof bar. It's then just a case of sliding the bow from the extended bar and onto the roof rack proper.
I drive a small white van, it's like a big tackle box on wheels. It has various dents and scratches which don't bother me, it's what I bought a van for. Now the yak has been slid along the roof and grazed down the van's flank, generally the van has been abused by the yak in most ways and it shows the scars. If I had a nice car, then I would need to think twice about how I mount the yak into the roof bars. Maybe a trailer would be the way to go.
Once the yak is off the van, I then have to get it to the sea. I know from experience this has to be given much thought. Do you remember the military field gun tournaments at Earls Court? Carrying a yak over wet kelp, bladderwrack, rock pools, mud, ropes, buoys and holiday makers resembles the trials and tribulations of the sailors hoiking the canons and wheels over the obstacles in the tournaments.
The yak came with transporting wheels which fit to its hull and allow it to be pulled by one person quite happily over suitable ground, the trouble is that a lot of the places I want to launch from (because they offer good fishing) just aren't suitable launch sites. This is even the case with Sharon helping me. Don't be fooled by the difficulty in transporting a yak, it can really spoil your day if you get it wrong. It's also the reason why paddling with a companion is so much more enjoyable.
Other equipment.
There is a whole industry devoted to after market parts which you can bolt onto your basic yak. The following is what I have, and these came with the yak as I bought it second hand.
An adjustable padded seat is essential in my opinion. You can adjust the back rest to suit yourself and the padding allows me to sit still for the whole of the tide without fidgeting. With a quality sit on top, you usually have to buy these seats as extras.
You will need a 0.7kg yak anchor along with 30m of line attached to a divers buoy reel. These are well made plastic reels, not unlike a fly reel which allow you to take up and let out line at will. There is an automatic stop ratchet on the reel which makes controlling your anchor much easier. I don't tend to drift when fishing as I know where my marks are, so I'm usually at anchor.
An anchor trolly is a series of pulleys, rings and lines which allow you to clip your divers reel to a carabiner which you can move from bow to stern, both sides of the yak. With this system you can orientate your yak differently in relation to the current. This allows me to stay sitting comfortably in the yak and cover different areas of a clock face by adjusting the anchor trolly. Alternatively you can sit with your legs over the side of the yak to fish port and starboard, but you won't catch me doing that (see the first safety paragraph).
There is a basic fish finder fitted. It gives me the water temp (which I really like), depth I'm fishing and is supposed to tell me if I'm over a fish. Now, as I said, mine is basic. Fish finders find fish by locating swim bladders. Big swim bladder = big fish. I fish over forests of kelp and bladder wrack. The bladder wrack is is full of air filled bladders which continually set the fish finder off, so its named purpose is irrelevant for my fishing, but its other features are really useful.
There are rod holders on the yak, they aren't relevant for fly fishing. They are just something else for line to tangle around. They can also break your rod if you capsize in shallow water because they hold the rod in a vertical position. If I need to put my rod down, then I uses some of the many straps for the hold covers or more usually, the paddle retainers on the sides of the yak.
I like to use a line tray. It's the usual tray I use when fishing off rocks and in the surf. The yak isn't designed for fly fishing and has lots of places where fly line can become tangled when casting or playing a fish.
My yak has almost as much storage as my van. There are two water tight holds, one large for a backpack, one small for cameras and bits and bobs. I keep a spare rod tube, scoop net, drinks and drouge in the 'boot' behind where I sit, there's plenty of space.
Lee Watts is an Orvis Endorsed Fishing Guide operating in South Wales visit his website HERE