The fight is on! The fish is thrashing, head shaking, jumping a foot out of the water, but finally you got it close enough to land into the kayak, then you realize your net is sitting behind you. The giant fish is fighting for its life, trying to free itself, but you want to land it so you reach behind for you net, and as you do that you lose track of the fish and she shakes off the hook. You sit there and wonder how you loss that fish when it was literally at the boat. This is a true story for me and it probably happened multiple times with some slight variations. This problem was that I left my net in the back of my kayak rather than in the front of the boat.

This tip is not for everyone, but this is something that works for me. In my early times of kayak fishing I left my net behind my seat in one of the rod holders. To be honest, the net sat nicely in the back but the problem so that when I catch a fish, I would have twist back and grab the net which was not ideal. Fishing things happen really quick and an extra second or two can cost you losing a big fish. So after a couple fish I loss from twisting back for the net, I decided to place the net on the front deck of the kayak. Well you are probably thinking, “Tim there is no room to put the net in the front.” Which is slightly true, but to combat that I place all unnecessary items towards the back of the kayak to free up space. I do not put any rod holders and cup holders at the front of the kayak. The only things up at the front is the fishfinder and the net. This allows for me to be quick to net and takes away the chance of your bait getting snagged on the net when pulling back for a cast. We all hooked our nets before, it’s shameful, jkjk. Try this tip out and hopefully you find it as useful as I do, tight lines!