A few years ago I was sea kayaking
in Alaska with a couple of buddies, and we hit on the idea of bringing poles along to troll as we paddled. It was
great. We actually hooked salmon and at several spots along the way, hiked into the hills and found lakes teeming with
wild trout. It was awesome. But I have to say in retrospect that hooking a 15 pound salmon from the cockpit of a kayak,
while wildly exciting, was also a bit of a pain in the arse when it came time to land the fish. In my case, I ended up
smacking the salmon with my fist to kill it and then shoved it down between my feet, which turned out OK except that I
smelled like fish for three days.
Well, I wish I’d read this article first. It
offers advice on how to choose a fishing kayak. Come to think of it, it really wouldn’t have mattered much if I’d read
it or not. The outfitter I was with wouldn’t have had fishing kayaks anyway (most anglers prefer sit on to kayaks), and
a fishing kayak really wasn’t appropriate for our six-day trip. But I did find the article useful and informative, so
perhaps for my next expedition I’ll actually heed some of the advice from it.