surfcaster's journal issue 8

Whether from boat or surf, I don’t have much use for 4-pound bluefish. I’m a big fan of large choppers, but under most circumstances, the ones that were pulling me around and nearly bouncing off the side of the kayak were in the nuisance category. So why was I paddling so hard to catch up with the next school? I dismissed the surprisingly fun experience to being a novelty, but it was fun. No mechanical considerations, no noise, fish so close at times that you could almost touch them. Nonetheless, that was it for kayak fishing for the rest of its first year, as there was no way I was going to allow the yak to cut in on my surf fishing efforts.

In order for the kayak to be useful for finding dive structure, I had outfitted it with a fishfinder and added a mount for my handheld GPS. I know spots in the Sound that are out of casting range and hold quality bass, but I never bother with them with my boat because I just don’t find targeting stripers from a boat to be all that stimulating. One July night with a very bright full moon in my second season with the yak, I had settled for watching TV because I didn’t have any surf options that I wanted to pursue. I thought about how the dead still and bright night would be perfect for the kayak, and how there were probably a few nice bass on a 25-foot structure I knew about. I always have live eels in the garage, and it takes very little time to put the yak on top of the jeep, so off I went.

In under an hour I was over the spot and saw the fishfinder lit up with fish. The water seemed a little deep for an unweighted eel, so I added a small rubber core sinker ahead of my leader. I cast into the barely moving current and left the bail of my Penn 5500 open to allow the eel to get to the bottom. I had taken just a few cranks when I felt the familiar