Finely tuned casting skills are key to catching good numbers of fish, particularly in pressured waters. John Costello explains the type of casts that can be implemented and how to go about achieving them from a kayak.
Casting accuracy coupled with the yak’s ability to facilitate deeper penetration into areas promotes hooking better fish, more often. However, many kayakers often replicate the familiar drift and retrieve of lure anglers in boats, and without realising; hand over their greatest fishing advantage.
Refined casting skills for kayakers enable them to uncover fishing wonderlands that rarely ever see lures. I’m talking about the untouched pockets of water in our local systems.
The perfect retrieve of a lure begins deep in those hidden nooks and crannies and they’re there for the taking if you can become nimble with your craft.
Targeting these honey holes has become my greatest fishing advantage. The rewards for skilled kayak fishing will land you among the areas so often missed by the majority of lure anglers patrolling the canals and creeks.
Constantly test your skills and casting game with a ‘no holes barred’ approach.
Test your nerves like this and you’ll find yourself reaching for the net a lot more frequently. This ‘no guts, no glory’ style of fishing is more gripping than anything else available in our estuaries and rivers.
Here are my 5 best casts:
Entering feeder creeks and draining water
The shallower tributaries and feeder creeks of a river are generally inaccessible to boaties and can hold large fish. Often they’re feeding aggressively in the shallows and once hooked will prove a handful to extract. Perfect!
Casting the shallow side of pontoons
A lower casting angle allows you to get under the holding wires and ropes around moored boats and pontoons. Predatory fish find this shallow side a much more natural channel for bait movement and a light lure presentation will attract plenty of attention.
Casting past pylons
Running deep diving minnows down between pylons at their base is ideal. Being prepared to chase the fish through the pylons with a lightened drag after the hook up is essential for bigger fish and really gets your nerves going.
Parallel casts along a rock bar
Aim to retrieve along the line where the rocks meet the sand/mud. Quiet kayaking allows you to get closer to the rock bar without spooking the bait in front of you and alerting your targets. Drifting with the tide will help even more.
Skip casting soft plastics deep under heavy cover
Implementing a low profile and elevated seating allows you to fire your weedless weighted paddle tail plastics into the deepest and darkest cover and with a medium speed retrieve back, a reaction strike won’t take long.
In every case, an accurately presented lure makes all the difference. Weedless presentations are very forgiving in these situations and allow you to find the fishing wonderlands that often hold feeding fish.
Owner Beast Hooks and Zman SnakelockZ jigheads are ideal for these presentations. A tough fluorocarbon leader of more than a metre will ensure you have at least half a second’s chance at ripping your trophy fish from its hideout.
A lot of these casts are into water much shallower than what you might have considered to be holding good fish. These tactics for more fish more often are explained further in my latest DVD The Kayakers Guide.
You’ll be surprised where they’re hiding!
Check out the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNrEs6e1ltQ
John has spent the last 25 years fishing the creeks and canals of the Gold Coast. 15 of those relentlessly targeting Mangrove Jack. In recent years, the fishery has become more pressured, so he had to tune his luring techniques and learn the advantages of chasing these elusive Red Devils from the stealthiest craft he could find, his FeelFree Lure 115. With an electric mounted at his fingertips, He’s venturing beyond the reaches of boaties and conventional kayaking craft to tackle the most aggressive fish the Gold Coast creeks have to offer.
