Launch a Summertime Adventure: Kayak Fishing for Smallmouth Bass

Kayak fishing has become one of the fastest growing segments of outdoor sports, and for good reason. It’s fun. It’s challenging. It’s ecologically friendly. It lets anglers reach pristine areas away from maddening crowds that shore-bound anglers or those in larger boats often can’t access. Many of these magical places are waters teeming with smallmouth bass!

You can drop a kayak into a backyard pond or drag it to the edge of a wilderness stream. Launching one is a relatively simple feat that seldom requires a dock or a ramp. A kayak—and kayak fishing—is also affordable. Even the most elaborate fishing kayaks are priced under entry-level bass boats.

Given their relative cost, and their ability to reach stretches of water that boat owners can’t, kayaks offer many advantages. They’re especially effective for anglers seeking smallmouths on rivers and streams. However, kayak fishing does come with its own set of considerations and challenges.

BOAT CONTROL

Controlling your boat is key with any vessel, but it’s especially crucial with kayak fishing, and even more so on the flowing creeks and rivers smallmouths inhabit. You can’t fish an area effectively if you can’t position yourself to make casts in wind or current. Thankfully, most kayaks sit low in the water and are quite maneuverable in wind and current at the hands of an able paddler. However, kayak paddling—and control—is a learned and not always instinctive art.

Jeff Little is a hard-core kayak angler based in Maryland, and he’s literally written the book on chasing smallmouths from a kayak (In Pursuit of Trophy Smallmouth Bass: My Life in a Kayak). He also runs “The Little Stuff,” a YouTube channel focused on small steps to improve fishing success, which has a kayak focus. He stresses that every kayak angler must master essential kayak skills, whitewater skills and kayak safety protocols, layering this foundation with specific kayak fishing capabilities, before venturing after flowing-water smallmouths. Boat control is at the heart of each.

Properly positioning your craft and maintaining that position while casting to a fish’s strike zone trumps even casting accuracy in many cases. Sometimes this may even mean beaching your kayak and getting out to fish.

The most successful kayak anglers, Little says, are very particular about where they’re positioned in relation to where they are casting. You want to be in position to present baits to fish in a way that makes them eat, whether you are flipping or skipping a soft plastic under a branch or crossing a current seam with a spinnerbait.

“Your paddle is the best way to adjust your position,” Little says. “It propels you forward, but if you need to skip a tube or a finesse jig under an overhanging bush, you can use a sculling draw or a draw stroke so that sidearm cast gets through to that tight little hole.”

Modern fishing kayaks have come a long way, with most featuring intuitive storage compartments, rod holders, gear crates and tracks for mounting accessories. Many also utilize cable-controlled rudders and pedal-driven propulsion systems that enable hands-free casting and boat control.

Anchors are another positioning tool. Trolley systems, offered by many reputable manufacturers, make deploying anchors much simpler, as they can be lifted and dropped from a seated position. However, understand that anchors pose significant risks in fast current, high water and snag-filled river bottoms. Fast water can flip a kayak tied inextricably to a log or boulder. After learning from experience, Little now follows two important rules when using anchors: have a sharp knife attached to your life jacket, and position the anchor line close to the seat to easily cut it in case of emergency. Shallow-water anchors, like Power-Pole’s Micro Anchor or even a simple stake-out pole, are other options in suitable water.

Electric motors can improve range, reach and boat control. Many anglers have adapted standard transom-mounted trolling motors for kayak duty, but dedicated lightweight options are also available. Perhaps most notable is Torqeedo’s Ultralight series kayak motors, powered by light and compact lithium batteries. Some kayak models, like Old Town’s Sportsman AutoPilot line, include an integrated trolling motor.

During a warming trend this past March, Little ventured onto a prime stretch of central Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River. He was forced to position his craft in fast water over 10-foot depths to reach giant smallmouths stacked in still-water pockets 4 to 7 feet deep near shore.

“I held my position in high flow with foot-control steering and the Torqeedo Ultralight 1103 motor and caught smallmouth after smallmouth, the top five measuring 95.75 inches, which would be good enough to win most kayak bass tournaments [usually scored by cumulative fish length rather than weight],” he says. “There is no other way I could have held that position without a motor.”

When selecting your chosen method of propulsion, consider the average depth of the waters you’ll fish. Trolling motors and pedal-drive systems often hang down below your kayak and can scrape bottom in very shallow water. Many pedal-drives retract or can be pulled up into the kayak, as can trolling motors, but this can become onerous in consistently shallow areas. That said, both offer considerable advantages over a paddle alone when it comes to boat control.

BAIT BASICS

Smallmouth bass were born to inhabit the moving water of rivers and streams. Experience and instinct guide them in attacking prey from ambush positions. Spinnerbaits, crankbaits, bladed jigs and small buzzbaits all tap into that predatory instinct. However, smallies are equally adept at scrounging for easy eats wherever they can find them.

“We always think of the smallmouth as this hunt-’em-down predator species, and they are that,” Little says. “But they’re scavengers as well. That’s where finesse and dead-sticking minnow-style baits fit in my approach.”

Little’s stream arsenal includes the above reaction baits, which capitalize on aggressive fish, as well as finesse-style offerings for reluctant or scrounging bass. Among his favorite baits and rigs are a jig and craw, a bladed jig with a minnow trailer and a Finesse BulletZ jig with a Scented Jerk ShadZ.

Crawfish are a smallmouth staple almost anywhere the two collide. Little’s favorite jig-craw pairing is a black, skirted finesse jig trailed with a Z-Man BatwingZ craw-style plastic. The bait’s buoyant ElaZtech material mimics a defensive claw-ready craw posture. Little says this combo has caught tons of big smallmouths.

For the bladed jig, Little uses the ChatterBait JackHammer. A product of a joint venture between Z-Man and Evergreen Baits, this bait was a poorly kept secret in kayak bass fishing circles before Dwayne Taff took home kayak fishing’s first $100,000 winner’s check at the 2018 Kayak Bass Fishing National Championship. Now, it’s even more well known. Little adds a 7-inch Z-Man Scented Jerk ShadZ as a trailer.

“It’s a big meal that is super noisy … and big river smallmouth love it!” Little says. “A lot of guys think it is too big for river smallmouth. They can keep thinking that way.”

The Finesse BulletZ jig, with its bullet-head jig and No. 1 VMC EWG hook, allows a largely snag-free minnow presentation with a Texas-rigged Scented Jerk ShadZ. The 1/6- and 1/10-ounce versions do the bulk of Little’s work on most moving waters. He has this setup tied on whenever he’s fishing rivers, and he works it like a Ned rig and often dead-sticks it.

When choosing where to fish, keep current in mind. Smallies usually hold in areas that let them use current as a food conveyor without having to fight that same current. Current seams, holes, drop-offs and depressions are all put to good use. Same goes for boulders (front and back sides), deadfalls and the tail end of islands. Eddies can be hugely productive, too, as can the slower water at the heads and tails of fast water.

LITTLE TIPS

In his live classes and YouTube channel videos, Little layers smallmouth savvy over kayak know-how and best practices. Here’s a mix of tips he’s shared with me, as well as tidbits from online.

Rod size matters. Select rods that are long enough to maneuver around the kayak. Little likes rods more than 7 feet long so he can clear the front of the kayak when a fish crosses from left to right. He uses spinning tackle almost exclusively on smallie streams, employing his own self-made custom rods. His most versatile rods are a 7-foot-2-inch medium-light power, a 7-foot medium and a 7-foot medium-heavy, which he says will handle a variety of different baits.

Most spinning reels work for stream smallmouths, but a slightly oversized reel or higher gear ratio will pick up line quickly in the face of fast-moving current and lightning-quick bronzebacks. For most baits, fluorocarbon works great as a main line or leader because it sinks quickly and offers improved abrasion resistance; however, mono or braid may pair better with topwater presentations.

Kayak size matters, too. Conventional thinking might suggest that shorter kayaks are more maneuverable. That’s not always the case. In low-water situations, they’re apt to run aground. Little prefers inflatable kayaks for low-water encounters.

“Their advantage is their shallow draft and stability,” he says. “They just don’t want to flip over! You have a stealth advantage, too. When your inflatable bumps a rock, it doesn’t go boom!”

On any kayak trip, always put safety first. The beauty, adventure and ever-appealing simplicity of kayak fishing can be intoxicating, but don’t be lulled into careless nonchalance. As many casual kayak anglers have discovered, failing to prepare for safe and effective kayak fishing proves often to be preparing for failure. In a worst-case scenario, though, it can lead to disaster.

“Kayak anglers today make up the lion’s share of deaths in water sports,” Little warns. “Kayak fishing has even overtaken whitewater deaths.”

Combat this unfortunate truth with knowledge, training and available tools. Gear up, and prepare yourself as needed. You may find some of the best, most overlooked smallmouth action atop a kayak on passed-over creeks and rivers across the country.

RIVER RESOURCES

• Digital tools to help you find and fish under-the-radar smallmouth water.

Most state agencies list public ramps, but much of kayak fishing’s magic stems from getting off the beaten track to access seldom-fished rivers and streams. To help find such out-of-the-way places, Jeff Little suggests OnX Hunt. Although the app was designed for hunting, the top-end version provides nationwide public and private land boundaries so you can stay on the right side of landowners—and the law—when accessing streams.

Another useful resource is the U.S. Geological Survey Water Data site (waterdata.usgs.gov), which provides real-time stream-flow data that helps you home in on specific waters and stream segments. Don’t overestimate your ability to navigate safely in your kayak. Know your level of experience and capability, and don’t push your limits. Drop your kayak only into stretches of water that you can navigate and fish safely.

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• This article was featured in the June-July 2024 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe.

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