SteveL
08-19-2009, 06:54 PM
Late report. I just returned from a week on Hatteras Isl with my family, we stayed in a camping cabin at Frisco Woods Campground. We had lots of fun and did a lot of family beach stuff.
The winds were relatively calm and the surf on the "south beach" (beyond Cape Point near the lighthouse and on up to the Frisco beach access area) was very gentle, the water was as clear as it ever gets. I have fished Hatteras from the beach and in motorboats for many years so I am familiar with fishing there, but I have never fished out of a kayak in the ocean. All my spanish macks have previously come off the beach by casting stingsilver-type lures or from trolling mostly clark spoons. For a number of years I have wanted to try to catch one from a kayak, but until this week I never got around to it
On Saturday I took my tarpon 120 "offshore" in search of spanish. The spanish were actively feeding/working in a large area about a quarter mile off the beach, accompanied by diving terns and a few pelicans. I accessed the beach via 4X4 and launched into the ocean directly from the beach, but I waded with the boat past the shore break to launch in about 3 ft of water I easily paddled out to where there were a few birds working and some fish were actively feeding on the surface and I was amazed when I hooked up on my first cast! I was using a generic stingsilver-type casting lure in pink and white. I lost that fish at the boat and then hooked up again on my second cast! I lost that one also. I made a few more casts and then hooked another that I managed to land.
I kept fishing for a few hours, moving around to where fish were activley feeding and during that time I lost way more fish than I landed, and I saw hundreds of feeding spanish in the clear water. In addition to casting, I also tried trolling thru breaking fish, and managed to catch one trolling. Its hard to move the lures fast enough to get spanish to strike, when I was on fish and casting they followed the lures to the boat on almost every cast. I was using 4000 series shimano spinning reels and it would have helped to use a larger capacity spinning reel that takes in line faster. I tried a large surface popper with a clouser fly trailer--they hit the fly a lot but I had trouble hooking up. I also tried casting a green/chrome clark spoon on an 18 inch leader behind a 1 oz trolling lead, that was the hot lure of the day.
I landed 7 spanish in the 18-20 inch range, plenty for a nice meal for the family, and I finally completed my quest to catch an OBX spanish from a kayak. The boat handled very well in the ocean in calm conditions, but anyone that ever wants to try this fishing should take a launch in the ocean surf very seriously! It was perfect launching conditions for me, and I have a lot of ocean surf kayak paddling experience. It would still have been very easy to flip the boat while launching even in those conditions--as I discovered after I finished fishing, put the gear in the truck and played with the yak in the surf. Even small shorebreak can be challenging in a sit on top! Paddling a kayak in the ocean is seroius business, common sense dictates that wearing a pfd is mandatory and its very good to paddle with a buddy and/or have someone on the beach watching out to make sure nothing goes wrong.
On another day the family and I paddled kayaks in the sound near Oregon Inlet. We accessed the beach via 4X4 and launched under the bridge near the "pond." It was very cool to paddle in the marsh with the family and I did a bit of mid-day fishing, but I could not find any of the nice reds that "cold duck" left behind when he fished that area the prior week (see OBX posts by cold duck: http://www.tidalfish.com/forums/kayak-fishing-anglers/268822-last-day-obx.html). All I could catch that day were lizard fish, but next trip I am going to try harder for the reds at OI.
The winds were relatively calm and the surf on the "south beach" (beyond Cape Point near the lighthouse and on up to the Frisco beach access area) was very gentle, the water was as clear as it ever gets. I have fished Hatteras from the beach and in motorboats for many years so I am familiar with fishing there, but I have never fished out of a kayak in the ocean. All my spanish macks have previously come off the beach by casting stingsilver-type lures or from trolling mostly clark spoons. For a number of years I have wanted to try to catch one from a kayak, but until this week I never got around to it
On Saturday I took my tarpon 120 "offshore" in search of spanish. The spanish were actively feeding/working in a large area about a quarter mile off the beach, accompanied by diving terns and a few pelicans. I accessed the beach via 4X4 and launched into the ocean directly from the beach, but I waded with the boat past the shore break to launch in about 3 ft of water I easily paddled out to where there were a few birds working and some fish were actively feeding on the surface and I was amazed when I hooked up on my first cast! I was using a generic stingsilver-type casting lure in pink and white. I lost that fish at the boat and then hooked up again on my second cast! I lost that one also. I made a few more casts and then hooked another that I managed to land.
I kept fishing for a few hours, moving around to where fish were activley feeding and during that time I lost way more fish than I landed, and I saw hundreds of feeding spanish in the clear water. In addition to casting, I also tried trolling thru breaking fish, and managed to catch one trolling. Its hard to move the lures fast enough to get spanish to strike, when I was on fish and casting they followed the lures to the boat on almost every cast. I was using 4000 series shimano spinning reels and it would have helped to use a larger capacity spinning reel that takes in line faster. I tried a large surface popper with a clouser fly trailer--they hit the fly a lot but I had trouble hooking up. I also tried casting a green/chrome clark spoon on an 18 inch leader behind a 1 oz trolling lead, that was the hot lure of the day.
I landed 7 spanish in the 18-20 inch range, plenty for a nice meal for the family, and I finally completed my quest to catch an OBX spanish from a kayak. The boat handled very well in the ocean in calm conditions, but anyone that ever wants to try this fishing should take a launch in the ocean surf very seriously! It was perfect launching conditions for me, and I have a lot of ocean surf kayak paddling experience. It would still have been very easy to flip the boat while launching even in those conditions--as I discovered after I finished fishing, put the gear in the truck and played with the yak in the surf. Even small shorebreak can be challenging in a sit on top! Paddling a kayak in the ocean is seroius business, common sense dictates that wearing a pfd is mandatory and its very good to paddle with a buddy and/or have someone on the beach watching out to make sure nothing goes wrong.
On another day the family and I paddled kayaks in the sound near Oregon Inlet. We accessed the beach via 4X4 and launched under the bridge near the "pond." It was very cool to paddle in the marsh with the family and I did a bit of mid-day fishing, but I could not find any of the nice reds that "cold duck" left behind when he fished that area the prior week (see OBX posts by cold duck: http://www.tidalfish.com/forums/kayak-fishing-anglers/268822-last-day-obx.html). All I could catch that day were lizard fish, but next trip I am going to try harder for the reds at OI.