I touched on this a little bit in the first post, but some of the main reasons that I kayak fish are environmental reasons. Kayak fishing is so much “cleaner” than fishing from a boat. It also puts you closer to nature at the same time. When you kayak fish, you really get to be a part of the natural world, and experience it like it was meant to be experienced.

To me, there might not be anything more beautiful than watching the sun just beginning to peek up through some cypress trees that line to bank of small spring fed river, and there definitely is not anything more peaceful. I grew up fishing many of these crystal clear spring fed rivers in and around the Texas Hill Country, and they do hold a special place in my heart. They are not something you can experience in a bass boat, and are best experienced from a kayak. Jackson Kayak makes a perfect vessel to fish these waters, the Coosa. You need a kayak that can turn on a dime, handle small rapids, and is stable enough to fish from, and the Coosa provides just that.

When fishing these rivers from a kayak, you do not have to worry about the emissions from your boat, or the decreased gas mileage associated with towing your boat. This helps to keep the air clean so all you smell, and more importantly what you breathe is the clean, clear, morning air. At the same time that you are not polluting the air, you are also not kicking up a giant wake that slams into and erodes the shoreline much quicker that it would naturally. Thus you are preserving the lake or river for the enjoyment of future generations.

Kayak fishing tournaments are also much more environmentally friendly. There is much less damage and harassment on the fish population in a kayak tournament than in a boat tournament. How is this possible when there are just as many (or sometimes more) anglers in a kayak tournament as a power boat tournament? Simple, kayak fishing tournaments are CPR tournaments. A CPR tournament is a “Catch, Photo, Release,” tournament. Meaning, you do not keep the fish in the live-well for hours at a time, what you do when you catch the bass is land it, pull out your measuring device, take a picture or two of the fish to show the length, and immediately release the fish back into the water. This is especially important during the spawn, when the bass are guarding the nests or balls of fry. You are also not releasing the fish back into some other location on the body of water. You are putting the fish right back into her natural habitat, reducing train and stress, and increasing survival rates.

As far as I know, there really is not greener or more natural way to fish.

-Pat Kellner