Eric Packard

Quite a few kayak anglers have electronics on their boat today, some even with real-time imaging sonar. But what about those of us who can’t or don’t want to invest in those rather expensive devices? What are we to do? Well, we go old school. We look at the weather, read the water, and use knowledge gained from years of fishing without electronics. We’re trying to avoid blindly casting in the hope of lucking into a fish. The author hooked up while tossing jigs to the riprap.

Mistakes? We all make them now and then. But picking the wrong movie on a Saturday night or making a mistake while out kayak fishing are two very different things. Picking the wrong movie may get you banned from choosing the next few and you’ll get stuck watching romcoms. But a wrong move while out casting on that prized fishery may cost you your life. Listed below are the top five biggest kayak fishing mistakes that I have seen while out on the water.

In 2024 I was invited to jump on a boat to catch striped bass — out of season! After learning it was to participate in a George Mason University Fisheries Ecology Lab study on the catch-and-release of striped bass, I was all in. The study was to determine catch-and-release mortality of striped bass in their natural environment. A fixed 9.0 percent catch-and-release mortality rate (CRM) is generally used by fisheries managers.