Pre-Season Kayak Fishing Rigging

submitted by Matt Campbell

Anticipation builds as the early spring begins and you can’t help but start thinking about getting on the water and chasing bass again. You see the folks in the south posting fish pictures and see the tournament reports come in from all over the south and you get excited. That first day you feel the warm sun on your face just gets the juices flowing and all you can think about is getting on the water. If you have not already spent time over the winter getting your kayak ready to go then this is the time to get organized and rigged up.

My platform the last two seasons has been the Jackson Mayfly and I have absolutely love it. In the fall my girlfriend added a Jackson Bite FD in the limited Storm color which is an awesome color to our fleet. My two favorite colors are Blue and Orange and this kayak covers both of those.

I spent some of January and most of February ordering the necessary accessories to get this Kayak ready to go for the season and my first Tournament at Santee Cooper. As I have been kayak fishing since 2013 I had a really good idea on how I wanted to rig this kayak and be ready for the season. If you have not spent time in a kayak fishing or have switched to a new type of kayak I would recommend that you get on the water and paddle/peddle it and fish a little to see where you would like to add accessories and determine how you want to set up your kayak.

Yakattack products have been on every kayak since I started and they were the first order I made to get everything from camera mounts to rod holders. Along with that I ordered an anchor wizard for my bow mount anchor. I really like to have it there when I fish the rivers to be able to fish up river and have my baits run with the current. Then I created a mount for the power pole I am going to run this year to have an anchor on the back. With accessories the first items typically revolve around an anchor, rod holders and fish finder mounts.

When you start this project you go from a nice clean work area to basically a complete mess with accessories and tools all over the place and then a nice finished and clean final product. I always enjoy this process as you get to be as creative as you want. There is no end to the possibilities on how you can rig up your kayak. Each of us has our own way of doing it. I have seen everything from the very basic and clean to the very cluttered and it seems like you have no room to move. I am closer to the clean look, but still like to have a few things that make it comfortable for me to operate and not slow me down during a tourney fishing day.

This first picture shows the kayak before I really began the project.

The second picture shows the middle of the process when I had accessories and tools all over the place determining what I was doing.

The last picture shows my rigged up Bite FD by the lake and ready to go.

The first day I was down pre fishing at Santee Cooper was my first time on the water this season and I spent some time just peddling around and making sure I as comfortable with the setup. Based on my first couple of hours in the kayak I liked where everything was and made no changes to the setup. This kayak is very stable and comfortable to be in for a long day of fishing. I put it through some very windy and interesting conditions and had no issues at all.

This kayak is amazing and I look forward to put it through its paces this year. This is the original setup for the Bite FD as the season starts but I will always keep an eye open for anything that would be better suited for my rigging.

Looking forward to a great season!