First kayak salmon 2025

[troutcrazy]

Hey, thanks for the reports, everyone.
I've made a couple casual outings to the NY side already, with no fish. A couple days ago I stopped at Fishy1's corner. The bay was still iced in, but I'd be surprised if it still was now, after that big south wind.
Today I poked around the islands, and finally launched the kayak in Keelers. The wind was bad, even in the lee of the shore. Water temp was 36.6, and I didn't find any fish until I found a small patch of 38.6. I caught a nice 20" salmon that seemed half asleep until it got a look at me, and then it came to life, and ran and jumped like it meant it. Took me a while to get it under control in the wind, and even once it was netted I was struggling a little. It broke my brand new yo-zuri in the net. It came home for supper. Also caught a largemouth on a Krocodile.
Gotta wear a dry suit to kayak in water temps like this. On days like this they're pretty comfortable, too. I usually keep a hand towel tucked into my pfd, but the wind took it. A little piece of kit like that makes a big difference, and my hands sure were cold after handling the fish.

salmon1 2025.JPG (136.88 KiB) Viewed 1075 times

[SteelyJoe]

Good fish from the small boat!

A few times each spring I troll w the canoe and can't buy any action off little sticks. My go to is 1/4oz-3/8oz kastmasters in traditional colors off 8lb & 10lb mono on spinning reels wedged into the creel. Main line to barrel swivel, 5' leader same test, direct to lure.

What's your setup? Always trying to improve...

[troutcrazy]

Nice!
I use 10 or 15 lb braided line. I tie on a 6 or 8 foot fluorocarbon leader, 8 or 10 lbs, with a double uni knot. Then a small swivel, and another 18"-24" or so of the same fluorocarbon, and finally a size 00 VMC crankbait snap. The snap allows me to switch lures quickly, and the snap lets the lure have maximum action. I think it really makes a difference, especially with the yo-zuri which has pretty subtle action.

I let out around 100 feet of line, for stealth.

One thing I like about (floating) stick baits is that I can stop paddling and they don't drop to the bottom. Even though the multiple treble hooks are a hazard in the kayak (in the mouth of a flopping fish).

When trolling in the spring I have three main stickbait lures.
-Yo-Zuri Pin's minnow. The guys on this forum told me about this one. I use 2 3/4" rainbow trout.
-Jointed Rapala J5, rainbow trout.
-Shad Rap SR04 (smallest size), Helsinki Shad color. This one dives about 8 feet, which is handy.

I play around with various spoons, too. Honeybees and Crazy Ivans for trolling. For casting I still have the classic Kastmasters in my bag of tricks, too! But if I'm casting I usually reach for the 1/6 oz rainbow Krocodile first. If I can get them to bite spoons, I prefer spoons! Especially if they have a single hook instead of a treble! But they often seem to prefer sticks in the spring.

[Reelax]

Beautiful, hard earned, salmon right there!!!

Thanks for sharing

Congrats!

[Gecha (Gerry)]

That's a nice catch.
You deserve that reward after going through some cold and windy weather in you kayak.
Thanks for posting.

[Mistress]

Nice healthy salmon! I thought about trying a kayak for fishing once many years ago but my better half reminded me I don’t swim (unless you count dog paddle). I give you paddle fishermen and women a lot of credit