Kayak Fishing A Few Fall Pike 

No kidding!! He and GB got me into kayak fishing. I wouldn’t be who I am as a fisherman without those two.

Yeah, no kidding. The way I release fish is the “NDYAK” way haha. Unless I’m on the bank and want to get them out over shrubs or stuff.

I noted it the first time I saw ND. No kissing or jaw wrenching..

I respect the fish I like. I don’t like green sunfish and if a fish cuts me that’s not from teeth like a perches gill plate then I’ll chuck em but usually it’s a nice smooth release every time

👍🏾

You and me both.

There was supposed to be a few in South Holston lake but not a lot. 24 pounder caught in 1995. I don't think they can reproduce that far south so they must have been stocked at one time.

Thank you, love your videos. Looks so simple where you fish. I would be interested to know how many hours per fish you do. It looks like you just peddle out, cast and catch. It makes it look like a paradise for fishermen.

You really need to get a rod and get hooked on fishing it's amazing

@@earlshannon1048 ive romantizised with the idea but never put it in action. Some dayy

Bob Ross of fishing, that guy is. Go fish yourself! You’d fall in love with it.

Keep up the hard work. It pays off!

Right!?

I have plenty of tough fishing days too. This trip is from the last stretch of decent weather we had before it got cold. We got a four day stretch of great kayak fishing weather. The first three of those days I hit some of my spots in ND for pike and muskie and a couple dinky pike were all I got over three days on the water. By the time I was out filming this one on day four of pike fishing I was just hoping to not get skunked!

Pike really seem to like it when you let lures pause and drop back down in front of them. I steady retrieved it several dozen casts along weed edges and over a few deeper weed beds but no action running it steady. I suppose with the water temp at about 39 degrees this trip slowing it down and letting it fall to the bottom would be a lot easier for them to chase down too.

@@ndyakangler bass also like that. I sometimes do flipping with a spinnerbait, just let it sink as close as possible to reeds, timber, deep edge of the lillypads. Then pull it out fast, just to flip it again.

I just haven’t found one I like yet. Every rubber net I’ve picked up seems heavy, stiff, and like it would be awkward trying to get it to sit and stay put laying it across my hull.

It actually seemed to make more vibration with just the one blade! Either way those pike aren’t too picky as long as it’s making some commotion.

Out here in CO they are picky!! 😬😂. I do love the fight they give though 💪

Most of my casting reels are around 7:1 ratio.

@@ndyakangler Thanks! I have a very similar rod i used to use for largemouth its a 13fishing blackout 12-20lb 6'6" MH extra fast. 3/8 oz - 1 oz lure weight, i imagine this rod will work great for pike (I have literally never caught a pike or even been bit by one, very new to northern fishing) I dont have a casting reel quite that fast but the reel to match it is an okuma 6.6:1. In your opinion, what type of lures are ideal for this set up? (bank fishing) Kinda planning to go out and try a 4" xrap, also I live in Colorado, so little bit clearer water I think?

Yes I use braid and when pike fishing I like to tie a short leader of 50lb fluoro to help prevent bite offs.

I’m all the way across the state on the ND side. Just about anywhere in MN you’ll find lots of good places to fish without having to drive too far. All the rivers in that area look like it would be fun with the kayak!

I use a Palomar at the lure and an Albright for fluoro to braid. Tying in that order you can adjust the leader length before you pull the Albright tight to get it just right.

Thanks 😊👍

I have at least one Plopper vid I’m holding on to, probably until around March then I’ll put it up.

I don’t really use sonar to actually spot fish, other than when ice fishing and maybe a rare exception in my kayak. Most of the time I’m fishing too shallow for it to be of any use for seeing fish below me and I’m casting my lure off to one side or another almost every time anyway. I mostly use the fish finder to keep an eye on depth and if there’s weeds below me, tracking my position on GPS looking for spots I’ve marked or using my location on top of a contour map to look for structure. I find the fishy spots and cast to cover the area. In this trip I was continuing to use the chart plotter feature to make my own high detail contour maps of a few areas of this lake I like to ice fish as well. A lot of the smaller lakes I fish don’t have good maps available so being able to make my own is awesome!

This was in Minnesota.

that's a lot of dams to do google map search for.😂@@ndyakangler

love your videos Matt, following you New Lenox, IL..@@ndyakangler

There aren’t many muskie in there but there’s a few. I’ve caught maybe 6 of them over a dozen years, probably not enough of a chance that I should have even mentioned them but you never know! Late fall is typically when I’d catch one and covering water looking for pike I’d have much better odds than picking one up bass fishing. Almost every trip I catch several pike whether I’m targeting them or not so there’s plenty of those to catch.

10:26 You answered my question. 🤙

The kayak is a Hobie Compass.

I used 50lb fluoro for a leader here and didn’t get bit off all day. Most of the time when I’m targeting bass I’m throwing either topwater, light jigs, or a wacky worm. None of those lures you want to use a leader with while bass fishing. Leaders mess with the action of some lures and any visible leader or extra hardware in front of the lure will have less of a chance of getting those bigger, smarter, pickier fish like bass and walleye to bite. Pike don’t really care. The jigs I’m willing to let go of a few to bite offs are typically round head jigs that the fish will easily shake and aren’t going to stop them from eating if they do get stuck with one for a few days before the hook dissolves enough to fall out.

*lose

@@ndyakangler ive caught fish with very old lures and hooks in them. Never believed the dissolved hook story. Same with the shake em off theory. They can be hooked very stuck. I rather sacrifice some action or use a lure that still worked with a leader than leave something in the fishes mouth and or the bottom of a lake

@@chubbrock659 you try speaking my language 👍 i speak yours.

@@Ivo.Outdoor you seem to speak "derp"