Paddle leash ...

Common sense.   

-Allen

Highly overrated and far from common

Common sense.   

-Allen

Highly overrated and far from common

Yeah, you're right.  I learn from all your mistakes.   

-Allen

Need paddle first...

Working on that one, though. (WINK)

hmm, I use a leash, when i remember to....And i normally only use my paddle in  a foot and a half of water... The thirty feet in and the thirty feet out when the MD is out.

Since I am new to both paddling, and kayak fishing, I started with a leash and will most likely continue.  I like to fabricate stuff and a leash is no different. 

So far in the calm waters that I have fished in, I just drop the paddle to my left side and fish off the right side. Paddle is right there when I need it.  I haven't played in the ocean yet, so I don't know what will work best for me there.

I love my leash!

I don't have to worry about where my paddle lands when I'm fighting a big fish, it makes a passable sea anchor and when I get pitch poled on a wave I don't have to worry about swimming thru the surf with a 230cm pain in the @$$ in my hand.

What Spot said...

I leash everything in the salt, nothing on the lake.

Dave

I leash everything in the salt, nothing on the lake.
Dave

Stuff that falls overboard in lakes doesn't sink ?   

 

Seriously though, I think the only time I would not want to leash stuff is in rivers or white water where you stand the greatest chance to get tangled in stuff and pinned under until you rot. In oceans and lakes there are a not many strainers.
 On the other hand, fisherman carry junk, and most junk sinks without even making much of a splash (ask Alkasazi how he know's*)   Does it increase the risk of entanglement? Yep. But that's why you always have a river knife on your person that you can get to when your hanging upside down in the dark, under 3' of ice, naked, right? (Right!) For me, a knife is as important as a PFD.

 This brings up another sticky issue that I'm actually uncomfortable with; tethering me to the boat.
Bsteves' or that San Pablo Bay anchor system will hold your boat fast in lots of current. If you get separated from the boat you'd have to be Micheal Phelps to swim back to it (and that pfd your wearing is not sharkskin).
 I tried a little experiment at Timothy Lake a year or so ago and let my Hobie BigA drift a bit away from me in the wind to see if I could swim to it in full gear. Let's just say that if it had been more than 10' away, that this would have been the beginning of another "don't ask me how I know" story. In other words, it was a challenge to get back to it and I had a half dive from the shore. Wind powered boats (or current powered fisherman) can move apart quickly. This is much less a problem when they have similar velocities, but when the vectors get skewed things get ugly quick. This is the main reason I feel like Sturgeon fishing is on the 202 level of yakfishing. What do y'all think? Tether, no tether? Lifeline?





*I really wish I did'nt know what he's talking about

Somehow I never really worry about losing a paddle.  It's become habit to lay one side between the fishfisher and the front rod holder with the other side between my legs and laying on my left hip.  My rod is usually on the right side and I reel up on that side.  Or if I'm on a long drift I just put it in the bungie rod holder on the left side.

In the surf, my instinct is to hold onto the paddle.  To Wali's point, I was a kayaker first before I was a kayak angler.  So that's what I learned in whitewater.  Holding onto a leashed kayak, which is effectively what that become, is not very safe.  If I feel that it is unsafe to continue to hold onto the paddle, I just let go.  BTDT.  And it washed right up onto the beach behind me.  Speaking of leashed yaks, that's a whole other discussion (edit: I see Wali posted something about this while I was writing this).

When I do try a leash every now and then, I never toss if over to float next to me.  I just can't bring myself to toss my paddle in the water.  That's not where it's supposed to be.

-Allen

I have a paddle leash I made and I use it.

Wali brings up a serious concern. I often anchor in current, stand and fly cast. I almost lost my balance once doing this, but the stream i was fishing was small enough so that I could have easily made it to the bank and walked back upstream. Might then have had to get above the boat and float back down to it (was in 5 feet of water), but I wouldn't have been in danger of getting swept away too far, had I fallen in.

I'm a good swimmer, but I can only go so fast. It would really be a bummer to have one's yak blow away on big water and not be able to catch up with it.

..............   I just can't bring myself to toss my paddle in the water.  That's not where it's supposed to be.

-Allen

It's made to go in the water, should be a floater, so why not let it swim along side of you (leashed) in a lake, or other low current situations.  I haven't fished or paddled in the ocean yet, so I can't speak of how I'd handle my paddle then. 

This conversation reminds me that we recently had a member that lost his paddle (a sinker) because it was not leashed. Fortunately for him, (or maybe not, since this tale is being told ) he was not alone, so it ended up just being an irritating experience, rather than a tragic experience.

Lucky guy came home to a new paddle and leash, courteous of a generous wife. I'll bet he uses the leash regularly, now!

If your paddle is a sinker, squirting some expanding foam in to the handles should fix that.


Wali brought up another important issue, especially for out in big water. How do you keep from getting separated from your boat, especially in windy conditions? I know it's been an issue for regular seakayakers, too.

Wali brought up another important issue, especially for out in big water. How do you keep from getting separated from your boat, especially in windy conditions? I know it's been an issue for regular seakayakers, too.

Leash a paddle, leash a fishing pole, leash a ff, leash a hawg trough....Leash a fisherman?