There are advantages to kayak fishing over power boat fishing. One of the biggest of these is the ease of access to fishing water in a kayak. You can take a kayak just about anywhere and fish waters you cannot reach in a big boat.

To move your kayak from location to location (from your house to the water), all you need is a vehicle. You don’t need a trailer, although if you are carrying multiple kayaks a trailer can be useful. Most of the time, you don’t even need someone else to help you load or unload the kayak. I can load and unload my Jackson Coosa’s and Cuda’s myself. You want to be careful not to hurt yourself, but with a little bit of brains and a little bit of muscle, you can get it done. If you build yourself a little cart to carry the back end of your kayak, you can bring the kayak to the water, over long distances, without getting tired.

Another bonus to kayaks is that you do not need a boat ramp to launch. You can launch just about anywhere there is water. A boat ramp can make this easy, but it is not necessary. Heck, I have lowered my kayak down a 10” bank, into a river, then jumped in the water and climbed into the kayak from there. There is no way you can do anything remotely close to that in a boat. You also, do not need to get your vehicle right next to the water to launch a kayak. You can park anywhere and carry a kayak to the water. Now, I have carried a jon boat pretty good distances, haha, but I would like to see someone carry a bass-boat at all.

Another part of the “ease of access” reason that I kayak fish, is that in a kayak, you can access water you cannot fish in a boat. I sorta touched on this earlier when I discussed being able to launch from areas you cannot launch a boat, but beyond that, once you are in the water, you can take your kayak into places that boats just can’t reach. Talk to any Saltwater Kayak angler, like Tray Collins, and they will tell you that there is nothing better for chasing redfish that are tailing in the shallows than a kayak. You can simply access skinnier water than a boat can, and you can reach more water that someone wade-fishing. This shallow water can translate into freshwater fishing as well. The shallow floating nature of a kayak will allow you to easily fish shallow freshwater too, in lakes or rivers.

In rivers, the Jackson Coosa excels. You can take the kayak into shallower waters than you can a boat, easily floating rapids. You also have so much more control of the Coosa than you would a boat, or most other kayaks for that matter, allowing you to quickly turn and sneak into a cove or make a cast back into the current just behind a rapid. We all know how productive that water can be! The Coosa has an advantage over peddle powered kayaks in shallow water. With a peddle powered kayak, you have to remove the peddle system to scoot across shallows and rapids. Not in a Coosa!

In lakes, kayaks such as the Jackson Cuda, allow you to sneak into coves and areas that are either too shallow or too narrow for a boat to fit in. You can also take your kayak back into a area full of trees or grass. You don’t have to worry about the prop getting banged up or your pretty sparkles getting scratched. You can cast to bass that most people can’t!
Basically, to me, ease of access just means that it is easier to take your kayak to the water and once there, it is easier to access more water. That is a huge reason why I kayak fish!

-Pat Kellner