Return to Hobie.com
Hobie Forums
It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 6:32 pm

All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 87 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6  Next
Author Message
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2019 11:49 am 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
Pescatoral Pursuit wrote:
ronbo613 wrote:

Image



Don’t look now but envy is lurking over your shoulder, lol.

Glad you were in the right place at the right time.


That's a friend of mine, another retired guy fishing. He doesn't have a computer or cell phone but I told him I'd put him on the internet anyway. He belongs to the Yuma Valley Rod and Gun Club. Recently, I volunteered to help rig 600 fishing rods that they gave away to local kids for their Youth Fishing & Outdoor Clinic. Problem is, 800 kid showed up!

_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: More Great Kayak Fishing
PostPosted: Sat Apr 13, 2019 10:29 am 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
There have been a couple unusually hot early spring days here on the Colorado River, over 100°. That's a bit uncomfortable when you are sitting in direct sun with no shade on a plastic boat. The fishing was also pretty hot so it was worth it to brave the desert heat for some great kayak fishing.

We are after largemouth bass, but there are other fish in the Colorado River like this healthy crappie. It must be crappie season because we've been catching a lot of them lately. Can't complain about some crappie action while waiting for the largemouth bass to bite.

Image

Even on hot days, the early mornings in the desert are just about perfect for kayak fishing.

Image

There was good kayak fishing action. Most of the bass were "one pounders" with a few larger fish. Every so often one of the bigger fish would show up so you have to pay attention, even if you are almost baked to a crisp.

Image

We've been sitting out some windy weather and doing some kayak repairs but we will be back out there tomorrow despite the threat of less than perfect conditions because our 2018-19 largemouth bass fishing season in the desert southwest is quickly coming to a close.

_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 4:23 am 
Offline
Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2019 10:16 am
Posts: 16
ronbo613 wrote:
We are taking a break from the cold and wet Pacific Northwest winter by exploring the desert southwest looking for kayak fishing opportunities.

Image

It's nice to have such beautiful weather in December. There's plenty of kayak fishing potential around here and not too many fishermen.

Image

Image

We need to refine our lure collection a bit to switch from smallmouth to largemouth bass fishing, but I did manage to get a decent largemouth bass within an hour of launching the kayak.

Image

We are going to be doing a lot of exploring and a lot of kayak fishing so I'll post photos and videos when I can. You can keep track of the fishing adventures on my blog. Internet access and phone coverage can be sketchy, but I'll post when I come into town for supplies.



The 2nd pics is looking Fantastic! Congratulation for the fish, its beautiful! :)


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2019 12:05 pm 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
As time runs out on our largemouth bass fishing adventures in the desert southwest, the wind has kicked in again making us miss more fishing days. Along with the wind, the temperatures are starting to creep towards the 100° mark, which is too hot for outdoor camping. Going fishing and running into an air conditioned house is one thing, being outside all day and night when it doesn't get any cooler than 80° is too much. The thing about the desert is that the mornings and evenings are really nice, perfect for fishing.

Image

The action starts early, usually just before sunrise.

Image

On a good day of fishing, you can catch 10-15 largemouth bass or more.

Image

Sitting on a kayak when it's 100° is largely uncomfortable. The only reason to put up with it is because you can catch fish like this.

Image

Hoping that the wind will die down or we will have to go for whatever we can get in marginal conditions.

_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2019 10:45 am 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
As the daytime temperatures crawl into the 100° range on a daily basis, it's time for us to leave the great largemouth bass fishing here in the desert southwest and start heading back to the Pacific Northwest. The bass fishing is still very good, but the hot desert temperatures are a little too much for our modest kayak fishing camping setup.

Image

Fishing conditions have been somewhat marginal, hot daytime temps and double digit wind kicking up suddenly in the late morning or early afternoon. We got an early start for the last few fishing trips and the largemouth bass were ready to go at the crack of dawn.

Image

There was plenty of fishing action. No giant largemouth bass like I caught a few weeks ago, but plenty of hard fighting one to three pound bass with a few bigger ones every now and then.

Image

One day we got blown off the river by a desert storm cell that came up suddenly and by sunset was blowing over 30 mph.

Image

By the following morning, the wind had died down and we were back on the water before sunrise looking for the fish.

Image

The good bass fishing continued. Lots of kayak fishing action with a lot of nice largemouth bass caught and released.

Image

We worked our way back to the kayak launch for the last time, catching largemouth bass all the way.

Image

Caught our last desert southwest largemouth bass, threw the gear in the truck and headed back to the Pacific Northwest. Much cooler here. So, until next season, this Desert Southwest kayak fishing thread is finished. We will be posting smallmouth bass fishing action from the Columbia River here shortly so stay tuned!

_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Back To the Desert
PostPosted: Tue Oct 29, 2019 11:07 am 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
We left a disappointing 2019 fishing season in the PacNW behind and headed to the US desert southwest to see if we would have better luck on the Colorado River than we had on the Columbia River. The first fishing trip was to a rather remote spot. We'd been here before with moderate success, but rumors of giant largemouth bass keep bringing us back down the long, dusty washboard road to the fishing spot.

Image

Not much of a boat launch, but there aren't too many boats around here anyway.

Image

We are starting to get this spot dialed in because we are catching more and bigger fish out of a relatively small body of water.

Image

Success on the first try got us anxious to get out there again. We gambled on the desert wind dying down for a day or so and headed out back into the desert to set up camp and wait for the wind to die.

Image

We fine tuned our fishing technique to account for the heavy underwater vegetation that covered the entire lake and started catching fish even before the sun came up.

Image

The conditions were perfect for kayak fishing for largemouth bass.

Image

We caught a number of fish at a spot that sometimes does not give up the fish that easily, so changing up the fishing technique and lures to adapt to the conditions really paid off.

Image

The biggest bass of the day was this one with a huge head. When the rest of it's body fills in, this is going to be a big fish.

Image

A great start to largemouth bass fishing here in southern Arizona and we are waiting to the desert wind to die so we can get back out there!

_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 4:24 am 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
The conditions have been near perfect for desert kayak fishing. Calm winds, moderate weather and great fishing at times.

Image

The fishing has been hot and cold, but when you go after the big bass, you probably won't catch twenty fish a day unless you are really lucky. One or two nice fish is a successful fishing trip.

Image

Conditions and fish like this make you want to get out there every day, which is the way it should be.

_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 10:45 am 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
The largemouth bass fishing on the lower Colorado River remains challenging, but after a bit of a slow spell, it looks like the fishing is starting to get better and we are starting to see a few bigger fish. Can't complain about the kayak fishing conditions; except for the mosquitoes, it's pretty close to ideal.

Image

There are a lot of fishing spots that are off the beaten path here. If you are able to launch your kayak without full paved boat launch facilities and are willing and able to camp out in the Arizona desert, there are amazing kayak fishing experiences to be had.

Image

Image

Even if the fishing is not as good as it "usually" is, if you look hard enough and in the right places, there are fish waiting. Time on the water and experience help when the fishing is tough. Sometimes you don't get them, but most of the time, you do.

Image

You probably won't catch a trophy largemouth bass every day, but a few fish like this will definitely get you up in the morning and out on the water for another crack at a big largemouth bass.

Image

_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2019 11:09 am 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
We went out exploring for some new places to fish on the lower Colorado and were rewarded for the effort by finding a great fishing spot on the Colorado River we had not been to before. It's a bit off the beaten path, but worth the effort to find it.

Image

The water here is very clear, shallow and moving along at a steady pace. If you stop paddling/peddling, you will be headed downstream. There are sandbars that can stretch across the entire river where the water is only a few inches deep.

Image

The fast moving current makes potential food go by quickly, so the largemouth bass here are aggressive, hit hard and are very good at spitting out the lure.

Image

I fished with a local kayak fisherman with a Pro Angler 14. It was perfect for holding the kayak in position against the current. Minutes after I took this photo, he landed a 7 1/2 lb. largemouth bass ten yards off the launch beach where I was standing.

Image

I was not as lucky. I caught a lot of hard fighting bass, but the biggest fish were a pound, pound and a half. No lunkers, but a lot of kayak fishing action.

Image

After a couple days of rain and wind, we'll be back out there.

_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2019 1:05 pm 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
We've had some wild weather come through the normally sunny desert with high winds, rain, flooding and wildly changing river water levels. The cold weather, rain and runoff have combined to slow the fishing down although the weather itself can be spectacular at times, like this thunderstorm rolling across the desert eating up the rainbow in front of the storm as it moves across the desert.

Image

Whenever the weather is not a factor and the wind is calm, we are out on the water.

Image

The conditions may be tougher than normal, but the largemouth bass haven't gone anywhere.

Image

Getting to the river has been tougher than normal. Blown down trees and flooding are not everyday scenery in the desert.

Image

The usual spectacular desert sunrises have been replaced by morning wind and ominous looking clouds.

Image

The conditions may be slowing the bite, but you can still pull a great day if you get lucky. On this day, I caught three largemouth bass about this size

Image

And trolling beneath some diving birds netted me two Colorado River striped bass

Image

When you are lucky to catch a couple small fish with tough fishing conditions, catching largemouth bass and stripers on the same day would be considered a huge success.

With slow fishing on one section of river, we were off to try our luck on a different section of the Colorado River that was a bit more sheltered from the prevailing and non-stop wind. Plus, you only have to go a few feet from sleeping bag to kayak, which is a rare thing these days.

Image

The significant rainfall did not raise the level of the river water here, but it did make the current run about as strong as it gets. Paddling upstream is a job, getting the fishing lure and kayak all heading in the desired directions was a challenge. And if you hook a fish, hang on!

Image

We headed to a nearby backwater to get a break from the strong current and see if the bass were willing to bite off the main river channel. Unfortunately, the backwater was nearly completely clogged with seaweed.

Image

It's difficult to believe that big fish can live in this weed choked backwater, but they do. After catching a few small fish, a cast into a clump of seaweed in water that could not have been more than a foot deep, resulted in a battle in the underwater jungle and a nice largemouth bass.

Image

On the paddle upstream back to the launch, I had enough energy left to paddle a short ways upstream past the launch and drift back for a few more casts hoping for the last cast fish and the "one last cast" strategy paid off again.

Image

The rain seems to have left the area, but the wind has not.

Image

We are currently waiting to see how the wind shapes up for the next few days and we will be back out kayak fishing as soon as possible.

_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Huge Bass Redemption
PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2019 1:27 pm 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
While the rain has been raining, the wind blowing and the fish not biting, we have had time to work on our backlog of video production. This video is from earlier this year when I farmed a huge Colorado River largemouth bass, only to come back the next morning with another big largemouth bass that didn't get away. If you are a true fisherman, you never really have a bad day fishing. If you don't catch any/many fish or the big one gets away, the real fisherman is out there ASAP to get that average back up there.


_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Last edited by ronbo613 on Wed Feb 05, 2020 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Mon Jan 20, 2020 8:10 pm 
Offline
Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2020 3:26 pm
Posts: 5
I'm new to the forum and Hobie yaks.

I enjoyed your posts and pictures.

My dad and his wife winter in Yuma. We have spent the last several Christmas's with them. My did and I have fished around Yuma, but there has been little catching.

We couldn't go this year, but I your post brought up good memories.

Sent from my SM-G935U using Tapatalk


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Mon Feb 03, 2020 10:29 am 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
pcolapaddler wrote:
I'm new to the forum and Hobie yaks.

I enjoyed your posts and pictures.

My dad and his wife winter in Yuma. We have spent the last several Christmas's with them. My did and I have fished around Yuma, but there has been little catching.

We couldn't go this year, but I your post brought up good memories.

Sent from my SM-G935U using Tapatalk


Welcome to the forum.

The waters around Yuma have great opportunities for the kayak fisherman. There are many recreational and touring kayakers but relatively few kayak fisherman. You will find a number of duck hunters using kayaks, mostly overloaded with decoys and dogs. There is good fishing for largemouth, smallmouth and striped bass, catfish, bluegill, sunfish and crappie. The dead of winter is not prime fishing season so you must adjust your expectations, but still plenty of fish to be caught. The weather is a factor, mainly the wind. As I write this post, the wind is blowing 20-40mph, full Laurence of Arabia dust storm. Just like any place else, look around, find the easy launches and look for the fish. Watch and learn from local fishermen.

Perhaps I'll see you out there.

_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 12:09 pm 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
Colorado River Kayak Fishing 2019


_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 12:22 pm 
Offline
Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:32 pm
Posts: 469
Location: Out There
We are mainly looking for those big largemouth bass here on the Colorado River in southwest Arizona, but there are other fish to go after as well. Depending on the water conditions and habitat, there are smallmouth bass lurking in the faster moving currents and around rocks. On a unusually foggy morning, we headed out on the Colorado River above the last couple dams to look for smallies.

Image

Trolling a rattletrap crankbait, I was soon hooked up with a Colorado River smallmouth bass

Image

Image

The morning fog lifted to a beautiful winter day on the Colorado River

Image

I managed to get one more smallmouth bass before turning downstream and heading home

Image

We have been having major wind events lately with 30-40 mph winds kicking up big sandstorms and no kayak fishing. Looks like a few relatively calm days coming up and we are ready to get back out on the water!

_________________
Waterman at Work - Kayak Fishing Photos, Video,Kayak Rigging - Blog


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 87 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6  Next

All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Jump to:  
© Hobie Cat Company. All rights reserved.
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group