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waltersty

Trolling a Clouser for bass in a kayak

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I forgot my bait caster at home this morning... Before you judge me, I fly fish for largemouth in a local lake most often and use the bait caster with a jig or crankbait to troll while I get out to the good coves for throwing flies.

 

Today, I figured I would tie a Clouser with large lead eyes and a size 4 hook and drag it with ~40 feet of my floating line in the water since I didn't have my "traditional" trolling set up. I caught more bass today than I think I ever have. As the fish move deeper in the summer, I plan on tying some heavier clousers/muddlers and maybe some split shot on the line (not sure if I want to troll a sinking line yet).

 

I'm sure I'm not the first person to have done this but I don't often run into kayak fly fishers on a lake so I figured I would share my success for those of us that fish this way. It's not as much fun as finding that sweet spot, perfectly casting to it and feeling a bite, etc., etc.. But I did come home with enough filets to feed the entire fam for dinner.

 

I'll be leaving the jigs at home from now on. Hope this is helpful for other kayak fly anglers and would welcome some tips from others who have been doing this forever and think I'm an idiot for just figuring it out!

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I troll every now and then from my kayak with my baitcasting gear but have been wondering how to go about mounting my fly rods. How do you manage it? Just kind of hold it with your legs as you're paddling or do you have mounts that hold a fly rod?

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I've had bass most readily take woolly buggers when trolling, FWIW. More so than any other fly or streamer and I've tried a bunch..

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The one I have is the Scotty fly rod holder. It works, but it leaves room for the rod to move around in the holder.

The one I think works better is the one you can DIY by routing a notch down the length of a piece of pvc pipe. Choose pvc that best matches rod handle and size the rout to the size of your reel's foot.

I am sure there are others, but I have not kept up over the years.

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I have a Creek Company pontoon that I have been known to troll out of with a fly rod. Their rod holder works great. You just need to figure a way to mount it on a yak.

 

I have two of them on the pontoon. One for the rod and the other for a long handle net.

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...and there's absolutely no reason why you can't troll a jig with a fly rod. I tie a number of flies on jig heads, especially for shad, but they work for bass and other deep holding fish (as in crappie, white bass, etc.) For trolling, I think I'd favor an intermediate sinking line over a full sinker.

 

I don't have a good rod holder solution for my pontoon, though, so I'm interested in what other people use.

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Back in the day, NE guides sometimes trolled w/o power assists for landlocks in the spring with long thin smelt imitations. Some held the line in their lower paddle hand while paddling and this gave the streamers a darting, diving retrieve otherwise hard to duplicate and allowed them to cover water with minimal casting.

 

Rocco

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I troll every now and then from my kayak with my baitcasting gear but have been wondering how to go about mounting my fly rods. How do you manage it? Just kind of hold it with your legs as you're paddling or do you have mounts that hold a fly rod?

I use a cannon rod holder as my kayak came with mount points for it from the factory and it works great for a fly reel.

http://store.cannondownriggers.com/products/759004/Rod_Holder

As bimini15 pointed out, I also have a notched piece of 1.5" schedule 40 PVC mounted on my cooler that holds the rod when I am paddling distance or through surf. It is much more secure than any commercial rod holder I could find.

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I've had bass most readily take woolly buggers when trolling, FWIW. More so than any other fly or streamer and I've tried a bunch..

Nice. I'll have to try a bugger next weekend. Thanks to everyone for the tips. May have to experiment with flies on jigs too...

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There's absolutely no reason you can't fly fish, spin fish or bait cast. I fish in every conceivable manner and use whatever equipment I feel will catch fish. I don't have cravings to catch this or that on a fly only. I want to catch fish anyway I can. I frequently, like almost always, have spinning gear and fly gear with me on the boat and use them interchangeably. About the only time I take fly gear only is when trout fishing which I don't do a lot of since I live in a warm water area.

 

I don't troll with a kayak but in the summer time I like slow drifting a popper out the boat for river smallmouth. One cast and then let it trail behind the boat giving it a slight pop every now and then. I could care less about a picture perfect cast when I'm boating 40+ bass in a morning. Fish however you like, no apologies or disclaimers necessary.

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I, on the other hand, only troll when moving from one spot to another. And then it's to locate the fish, not to see how many I can catch by trolling. To me fly fishing is about the casting and th tying of flies, not quantity of fish. Catching a fish while trolling is like having someone else hook the fish and then handing the rod to you.

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Valid points Poopdeck The disclaimer in the OP was to just to avoid this becoming one of those "you can/can't do that" threads. I was really hoping to just get some people to share their experience with trolling a fly line - as I know there are others out there that do it - and not a lot of discussion on it. I like the popper idea too.

 

My personal goal with fishing (and kayak fishing in particular) is to take exactly what I need on the water and not a single thing I don't. If I can leave my conventional gear at home and just take one rod/reel/line with a box of flies, first aid kit and a bottle of water, that is my ideal day... and nippers... and extra tippet... and a few beers... OK, admittedly there are a few "extras."

 

Back to the point, I'm curious if anyone has tried this with a sinking line in a lake/deep river?

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Back to the point, I'm curious if anyone has tried this with a sinking line in a lake/deep river?

Yes with #3 sink rate full sinking line or lead core line and in the evening on top with floating line, both spoons and flies. All sorts of lakes and various species of fish, in a canoe and from our boat.. Bass usually hang in the coves or near ledges and off islands on the main bodies of water, but the shelf depth is around 11 ft or so. For paddling what can work well is to paddle up wind, then let the wind drift you back, during the drift you are hands off your paddle and hands on the fly rod. You can drift the length of structure, off islands etc. When at the end of of the drift zone, paddle back up wind again. Actually it works in powered craft as well.

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I am a Fly fishing Purist ... when I have a fly rod in my hand.

 

 

AND

 

 

I am a Bass fishing redneck ... when I have a baitcaster (level wind) in my hand.

 

 

AND

 

 

I am a finesse angling spin fishing aficionado ... when I have a spin casting rod in my hand.

 

AND

 

I am a tekara fishing expert ... when I have a cane pole in my hand.

 

BUT

 

I never "troll" ... I just drag lures behind my when I am moving from spot to spot. I heard people saying, on social media sites, that "trolling" is bad ... m-kay?

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I never "troll" ... I just drag lures behind my when I am moving from spot to spot. I heard people saying, on social media sites, that "trolling" is bad ... m-kay?

 

Lol... well said mike. Call it what you will. It is an effective way to catch fish and keep your fly in the water when you're headed to the next honey hole. I'm excited to find a new (new to me) use for my fly rod even if the purists may disagree. It is tough to catch fish from the top of an ivory tower if ya know what I mean ;)

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