05-23-2014, 04:24 PM
Finally made it up to willard after everyone showing off their limits of wipers and eyes on the forum in the last week, we had high hopes. This was my second time in the navigator and my buddies first time in his fishing kayak and we wanted to see which was best for our style of fishing. I already knew but he needed some convincing...
We drove out to the SW corner and piled out of the explorer, of course it took me longer to get set up than him. Point kayak. Then we had to carry them over the dike and down the stupid rocks. Two points Navigator. Once we got on the water it was obvious the kayak was faster on the water by a large margin, point kayak.
Then we started fishing. I had my spinning rod in the rod holder and my fly rod in my hand and was able to relax as I kicked around looking for fish. My buddy put one rod in his holder and tried to figure out whether it was better to troll going backwards or forwards. Neither worked very well and he was soon tired of the effort. Five points Navigator.
Three and a half hours later neither of us had caught a fish, nor had we had a bite. I found plenty of blips on my sonar but nothing that wanted to play. My buddy packed up early and went and sat in the car away from the mosquitoes.
Cursing my luck and willard while thinking about all the things I'm doing wrong in my life, the fly rod doubles over! Frantic, I shove the spinning rig between my legs and set the hook on the fly rod. While playing a big fish in my left hand, I'm reeling in my spinning rod with my right. Finally got it in and threw it in the rod holder just in time for another explosive dive on the fly rod.
As i'm trying to control my line my forearm skin gets caught in my screaming fly reel, OUCH! As I'm trying to dislodge my skin from the spool the fish hasn't given up of course but I'm eventually able to rip myself out of the reel just in time to hear a small plop plop sound. Huh. Still fighting the fish and wondering what just fell I gaze at my reel and see it was the handle off my spool! Argggg...
I quickly switched strategies and began stripping in my line in between violent dives that let me know it was indeed a wiper. For five minutes it was two steps forward, one and a half steps back trying to bring this fish in. Despite the frustration of the last three and a half hours, man did I have a big
on my face! I've caught a lot of fish on that 7wt rod, many of them 20+ inch trout, but NOTHING even came close to bending my rod like that! It was amazing!
Fish ended up being 21" and close to 5lbs. On the way home we decided that the kayak was definitely not as good a fishing machine for the way we typically fish as the pontoon style boat. All in all another disappointing trip to willard, but the trophy fish was worth it to me! Can't wait to get back and try it again!
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We drove out to the SW corner and piled out of the explorer, of course it took me longer to get set up than him. Point kayak. Then we had to carry them over the dike and down the stupid rocks. Two points Navigator. Once we got on the water it was obvious the kayak was faster on the water by a large margin, point kayak.
Then we started fishing. I had my spinning rod in the rod holder and my fly rod in my hand and was able to relax as I kicked around looking for fish. My buddy put one rod in his holder and tried to figure out whether it was better to troll going backwards or forwards. Neither worked very well and he was soon tired of the effort. Five points Navigator.
Three and a half hours later neither of us had caught a fish, nor had we had a bite. I found plenty of blips on my sonar but nothing that wanted to play. My buddy packed up early and went and sat in the car away from the mosquitoes.
Cursing my luck and willard while thinking about all the things I'm doing wrong in my life, the fly rod doubles over! Frantic, I shove the spinning rig between my legs and set the hook on the fly rod. While playing a big fish in my left hand, I'm reeling in my spinning rod with my right. Finally got it in and threw it in the rod holder just in time for another explosive dive on the fly rod.
As i'm trying to control my line my forearm skin gets caught in my screaming fly reel, OUCH! As I'm trying to dislodge my skin from the spool the fish hasn't given up of course but I'm eventually able to rip myself out of the reel just in time to hear a small plop plop sound. Huh. Still fighting the fish and wondering what just fell I gaze at my reel and see it was the handle off my spool! Argggg...
I quickly switched strategies and began stripping in my line in between violent dives that let me know it was indeed a wiper. For five minutes it was two steps forward, one and a half steps back trying to bring this fish in. Despite the frustration of the last three and a half hours, man did I have a big
on my face! I've caught a lot of fish on that 7wt rod, many of them 20+ inch trout, but NOTHING even came close to bending my rod like that! It was amazing!Fish ended up being 21" and close to 5lbs. On the way home we decided that the kayak was definitely not as good a fishing machine for the way we typically fish as the pontoon style boat. All in all another disappointing trip to willard, but the trophy fish was worth it to me! Can't wait to get back and try it again!
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