Goals for 2011

2010 was a great year for me for fishing from a kayak. I continued to gain knowledge of largemouth bass and how to fish for them from this platform, boating my personal best largemouth of 18.75″ at Pocahontas State Park. I also tied my “official” personal best for a smallmouth, a 16″-er caught on the James near Huguenot Flatwater. I also caught my first ever James River blue catfish and it was a monster, around 40″ and 30lbs. I also caught my first Shad from the Kayak during the James River Shad run. I also caught my first flounder and my my personal best Redfish of 27″ from the kayak.

I didn’t have any specific, documented goals for 2010 but I wanted to try other techniques given that I was only a plastic worm fisherman. I knew I wanted to try fishing with a jig, a spinnerbait, and a crankbait. While the jig-n-pig didn’t make it out of the April/May timeframe, spinnerbaits and crankbaits are a big part of my fishing arsenal now. Along the way I also picked up on frog fever, and now have a frog tied on nearly all seasons not named winter. I also used a buzzbait a few times, snagging a nice 18″ LMB at Sandy River at night. I also fished with topwaters: poppers and spooks. While I can’t really walk the dog from a kayak, I caught a lot of fish on a popper. I also managed to learn to fish worms other ways than texas rigging them: shakey head and wacky rigging were used for the first time, with wacky rigging being used nearly every time I go out now.

While I’m hoping my personal bests continue to increase in size and weight, there are some things I’d like to target for this year. I’ll document them so I can track at the end of 2011 on how I did. All of these are to be done from (or near) the kayak:

• Learn to fish deep, specifically:
  • Learn to fish with a dropshot
  • Learn to fish deep with crankbaits
  • Learn to fish deep with a carolina rig.
• (Re)learn and explore fishing with a jig-n-pig
• Learn to walk the dog from the kayak and catch a fish on a spook while doing so
• Explore swimbaits and catch a fish on one
• Successfully fish with tubes (catch at least a couple of smallies on one)
• Catch a largemouth 20 inches or greater in length
• Catch a smallmouth 18 inches or greater in length
• Catch a flathead catfish
• Catch a striped bass
• Fish the HRBT light line
• Fish Kiptopeke State park for huge striped bass
• Catch a Redfish on the fly
• Catch a speckled trout
• Continue to try and fish new methods and new locations

I also have two non-kayak fishing goals the first being to catch a big brown trout on the fly. Hopefully I’ll be checking that one off the list when I head back to Mossy Creek in February. The last and the most important goal of all my goals is to take my daughter Sadie fishing for the first time. She’s 2.5 now and will be turning 3 in the month of June. I got her her first fishing rod for Christmas this year, a Tinkerbell rod that lights up when you cast it.

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