By G. PATRICK PAWLING
Lets say you like to fish, and you want a boat. Fine. Lets run the numbers.
Youll need a Grady, naturally. Everybody around here seems to like Grady-Whites, or Boston Whalers. Lets say you pick up a used Grady for, well, for example: Theres a 20-foot 97 with a 175 Johnson for sale locally, asking price $27,900. But even if you get it for $26K, do even want to figure out what those stripers and flounder are going to cost per pound?
Of course you dont. You buy a boat for pleasure. But wheres the law that says we have to spend a lot? What if you could buy a boat for $700 that might catch you even more fish than that Whaler Outrage that could cost you 20 times more? What if that $700 boat could put you in shallows that nothing else could reach? What if it weighed 45 pounds and could be carried on top of your car or in the back of your pickup?
Heres a reminder: Kayaks are boats, too. They wont get you out to the canyons, and you cant pull a wakeboard with one or go to dinner at The Waterfront actually that could be fun, come to think of it but theyre light, stealthy, portable, stable, easy, and plenty roomy if theyre set up right with rod holders. And lets not forget that they require no gas, little or no maintenance and even provide a little exercise. Oh, and they need about three inches of water. Stuck hard on the bottom? Spit on the mud, and youll be good to go.
So as bay fishing boats go, you could do worse. And when the birds are working just out of casting reach from the beach, guess what? Right. Fetch that kayak out of your truck, and youre swimming with the fishes, as they say here in New Jersey.
George Bucci of Northfield, whos been fishing as long as he can remember, started wondering about the potential of kayaks when he saw people having fun in the surf. He bought one used (for $150!!!), tried it out on a lake to check the stability they probably are less prone to roll than your average SUV and then put it right to work in the back bay behind Ocean City.
I absolutely destroyed the flounder, said Bucci. The kayak adds a whole new dimension to fishing.
It gets him to places that he otherwise couldnt reach by boat or by land. Plus if he hears theyre biting in Brigantine or Ocean City or wherever, he just drives over and puts in close to the action. Its like a piece of tackle now, always ready, and used often.
Im fairly new at it, but I already have seen incredible results from the stealth ability of it, Bucci said.
He has already boated a 30-inch striper, a 5-pound weakfish, some big blues and some of the largest flounder Ive ever gotten in my life.
The boaters the real boaters, I guess youd say keep an eye on him. One time he put in and started catching immediately, and the people in a pontoon boat not far away couldnt help but notice because they werent. Suddenly somebody from the boat says, You got to be kidding me.
I wound up outfishing the whole boat, said Bucci. I filled my cooler.
The setup is pretty simple. He brings a 48-quart cooler, which sits behind him, and keeps the bait between his legs. Some people are installing fish finders and lights and pulley systems for the anchors, but Bucci hasnt gotten that complicated yet. He doesnt even carry a net.
One of the parts that takes getting used to is how a fish will pull the kayak around like a big dog pulling a little person. At one point he had a big striper on and it was spinning me in circles. It was crazy. He also managed to get a sand shark in the boat, but it tail-whipped him, drawing blood, so he was just as happy to see that one leave.
The funny thing is that Bucci has the keys to a friends fishing boat and can use it almost anytime. He prefers the kayak. Hes had plans to buy a boat, but thats kind of on hold now.
Ive been talking to guys who have boats and kayaks, and Id say like 75 percent of the time they use the kayaks, he said. This was the best $150 I ever spent. Im out here five days a week. Im killing em.
If there is a person around here who could be considered The Man when it comes to kayak fishing, it would be the guy who runs the Root Beer Barrell surf shop in Brigantine.
Meet John Gabries. Nice years ago he started selling kayaks as beach toys, and he saw the potential right away. Now hes become known as an authority, with his stores Web site getting 250,000 hits every month from several countries. Obviously, kayak fishing is huge and Gabries has been right there at the forefront of the movement.
I thought for years and years that boats scared fish, then I realized boats dont scare fish outboard motors do, he said. Ive been out when there are big schools of stripers off the beach, and people were casting off the beach and not reaching, so I decided to take the kayak out there, and the stripers were banging off the side of the kayak, feeding right under me. And with my powerboat they would break up as soon as I approached. Its not the big thing moving into their school that scares them, its the outboard.
In the surf theyre swimming all over like youre not even there, like youre a piece of wood just drifting along. With a (power)boat you can barely get within casting range before you freak them out.
The lure of kayak fishing is also the lure of the innovative, the unknown. There are stories about monster stripers, secret spots where nothing but a kayak will reach, sharing waves with playful dolphins its a whole new world, closer to the water, a little more wet, and a whole lot cheaper.
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