Northwest Kayak Fisherman

Hello to all Kayak fishermen!

Thanks for the excellent web forum!  I live in Eastern Washington and have been fishing out of the kayak for about 6 or 7 years now and was wondering why I rarely see kayak fisherman, but now I realize I'm not the only one who does it.  I've fished almost every conceivable way for just about every species available in the northwest (big boats, little boats, bass boats, canoes, job boats, rafts, float tubes, etc) and my favorite way is with the kayak!  Just wish I could have discovered kayak fishing 20 years ago.  I started out getting a kayak so I could improve my duck hunting by reaching places not easily reached on foot, as well as retrieving the ducks.  What I discovered was an awesome, almost effortless way to travel on the water very quickly, comfortably, and silently (Perfect for fishing!).  Now I spend 75% of my fishing time in the kayak instead of my canoes of other boats.   I've caught walleye, many species of trout, smallmouth and largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie, perch, steelhead, chinook and coho salmon, and others I can't remember.  I live in southeastern Washington. I have a couple Old Town sit-inside kayaks modified for fishing but I'm now planning on getting a Malibu X-factor so I can do bigger water and salt water, plus add the ability to stand up and sight fish.

Anybody out there with X-factor experience?

Welcome!!!  What part of Eastern WA do you hail from?

Regarding the X-Factors, I used to own a couple.  I sold them though, and they are now with "floatin cowboys" here.  It's a  nice kayak.  Anything in particular you'd like to know about them?

-Allen

Allen,

I live in the Tri-cities area.  Right now I have Oldtown Loon 111 and 138 kayaks.  I'm hoping the X-factor will have similar speed, being longer but also wider.  The Prowler big game is sort of also on my list but being almost 2 feet shorter and an inch wider I'm afraid it will be too slow. 

What I'm looking for is a sit-on-top that is dry, wide enough to stand on (I like to sight fish and flyfish a lot), plus it will give me a chance to stretch ever once in a while.  I'm 6-4 and about 220.  I also don't want it to be slow. I have used a prowler 13 but felt it tippier than my loons. I'm going to test paddle one hopefully in a couple weeks in Coeurd'Alene.  What made you sell your X-factors and what do you use now?

Thanks!

Mike

To save me a bit of typing, I'll point you towards some older threads that discuss the XFactors and the Big Game.

http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/bb/index.php?topic=237.0

http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/bb/index.php?topic=279.0

I sold the XFactors because I picked up a sponsorship from Ocean Kayak.  So now I currently own a Big Game as well, in addition to a Prowler 15, which is my primary kayak.  I'm 6-3 and 215#.

-Allen

Allen,

Thanks for the links! 

Mike

Hi Mike,

Jay here, a friend of Mark and Matt V.

I had heard you were looking into a sit on top, curious to see what you think of the X-Factor.

 I decided on the WS Tarpon 160 (yellow, as not to get run over here on the weekends!) and have been very happy so far. I took it out around Alki point, and Lake Union in Seattle, last month, totally different in the ocean, ferry waves were fun, not as scary as I had thought, can't wait to go back!

There are a couple of us here in the Tri-Cities that fish(spin and fly) together for bronze backs, we tried in vien to Fly fish for carp quite a few times. My goal is to catch a salmon and/or steelhead this year...and at least one carp on a fly.

Have you done any sturgeon fishing from a yak?

Here is a link to a local kayak forum that is mainly white water paddlers where we are trying to start a flat water/fishing sub forum. It's on DKCC.org

http://dkcc.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3380

Take care
Jay 
greyshins@charter.net

Welcome Jay.

Who are Mark and Matt V?  Sorry if I've already met them here, but putting names with login names gets confusing sometimes.

Regarding sturgeon.  Oh YES!  The topic has come up in some of the recent thread.

You're more than welcomed here, as are others from DKCC.

-Allen

Mark and Matt are local fisherman here(Tri-Cities) that Mike and I both know. Not on this forum yet

As for sturgeon, I've seen pictures of Mike with some big fish.

 I'll check for the sturgeon thread, thanks for the tip Pole Pole...been reading your posts as a lurker for quite some time, always cool stuff.

Thanks again
Jay

Hi Jay!

I'm picking up my X-Factor Friday in CoeurdAlene.  Mark showed me a picture of you with a nice largemouth a couple days ago.
Haven't caught sturg out of the kayak yet.  Have caught some carp on flys though, as well as a couple oversize sturg.  Might be difficult for a good sturg photo if connected to a 10 fter and trying to paddle to shore, but I will try it sometime.

Mike

Carp are known as "poorman's bonefish" for a reason. They're smart fish. Sight fishing for them, without spooking them, is tough. Once they're on alert, it gets harder to fool them. I've had my best success by casting well ahead of feeding fish (weightless nymph) and twitching/slow retrieve once they come in range. Awesome when they see it , speed up, and take. Banks Lake is where I usually fish for them. Good visibility, and the carp are everywhere, in the shallows, once it warms up.

Hey Mike, I use to live over there in Burbank, on Ice harbor drive across from the park. There is an area over there by Burbank, south. The sloughs just south of the tracks. Lots of carp out that way and few ppl. would use a leach or woolybugger. There are some monsters out there.
I have 2 X-factors I bought from Allen and I like them, good choice I think. I now live in Port Angeles.
Good luck
Matt

Hi Matt,

Glad to hear you think the X-factor is a good choice.  Hopefully I'll have mine Friday.  I'm anxious to get out and do some saltwater fishing with it.  The northern tip of Vancouver island is my favorite fishing place, but haven't done it in a kayak yet, although I'm intimately familiar with it (in 12, 14, 16, and 24 ft gas boats).  I'll wait till August and before I go there.  Neah bay might be a possibility this summer also.

Mike