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Kayak Fishing for Tidal Largemouth
While I am most at home on a flowing stream or river, fishing tidal waters from a kayak is also a fun and productive experience. Unfortunately, fish kills have impacted my home waters, the Susquehanna and Shenandoah Rivers this year. So I decided to explore a different kind of water. Flat water kayak fishing requires a different kayak, different accessories, and has its own unique patterns that differ from river kayak fishing.
The kayak I chose to equip for the upper Chesapeake Bay is a Wilderness Systems Tarpon 120, a 12 foot sit on top kayak. Longer kayaks (12 to 16 feet) may be difficult to turn in rapids, but they excel on big flat water because they are faster. When you have a solid pattern working, you will want to move as quickly from spot to spot and make the most of your time. Also, getting a brightly colored kayak is a good idea. I want to look like a traffic cone to all of those power boaters! If your kayak is a darker color, consider wearing a brightly colored shirt so that other boaters can see you.
The first time I fished the Susquehanna Flats, I paddled across the mouth of the Susquehanna River. I could see the opposite shore easily, but somehow it seemed like a very long paddle across. My distance perception was skewed from fishing rivers where I can quickly paddle to either shore. After my first trip, to such wide open water, I decided to mount a bracket for my GPS unit. With your launch site marked as a waypoint, you will have a better idea of how far you have to travel to be off the water before dark.
Besides using the GPS for navigation, it is a wonderful tool for marking cover. Before the grass emerges in early summer, fishing isolated submerged logs produces many fish. However, at high tide the water may have fully covered the log. Having a waypoint of the productive cover ensures that you will be able to catch fish from it regardless of tide.
A depth finder is also an essential accessory for fishing flat water. On non tidal rivers, the water can be read by looking at the surface. You don’t have that luxury on flat water. A depth finder tells you where the drop off is at the edge of a weed bed. It marks the channels that fish use during their seasonal movements.
The first time I fished the upper Chesapeake Bay for Largemouth, I had actually been on the flowing part of the Susquehanna for most of the day. The smallmouth action was slow that day on the river, so I decided to drive to the Susquehanna Flats and catch some Largemouth.
The grass beds were not fully emerged at that point, so I paddled out in search of some sort of cover. I paddled for more than 15 minutes before I noticed a small twig protruding from the surface. I had a tube jig tied on from smallmouth fishing, and tossed it toward the twig. Almost as soon as it hit the surface, something big swirled on the tube. I set the hook and reeled in my first Susquehanna Flats largemouth, a 17.5 inch chunk. On the next few casts to the same submerged log, I caught the second and third, 17.5 inches and 18.5 inches respectively. In a few casts, I had seen more action than I had all day trying to coax post spawn river Smallmouth to bite.
Returning several times into summer, I discovered a few other reliable patterns. Once the grass beds filled in, I targeted them. A few nice bass hit buzzbaits and spinnerbaits as I traced the edges of the grass beds with my casts. However, I soon found that at higher tides most of the fish had fully penetrated the vegetation. The spinnerbaits and buzzbaits picked up a lot of grass on the retrieve, so I went weedless.
Texas rigging soft plastics such as HawgHead Bait’s Jerk Shad or a Sizmic Toad was the answer. Most of the strikes came when I would stall the bait in an opening of the grass after quickly working it into position. I preferred to use white plastics because they are easier to keep track of visually. Many of the hits came after the bait had fluttered down a foot or two. Being able to see the bait down in the water was an advantage because the fish would hit it and spit it before the swirl reached the surface. It was important to set the hook quickly.
After learning some new techniques with the grass beds, I returned to the technique that I know best, tube jig dragging. Kayak fishermen have a distinct advantage for fishing docks, some of the most productive cover in this area. The low position of the kayak means that you can skip a tube farther under a dock than the angler who is standing or even kneeling on the deck of a bass boat. When fishing docks, be sure to be respectful of the boaters who use the docks. Giving them right of way, not crowding them if they are working or partying on their boats, and making accurate casts goes a long way towards good relations between anglers and boaters who use the docks.
The tidal waters of the upper Chesapeake Bay are loaded with big healthy largemouth. Exploring these waters in a kayak is a productive way to hook into some of these stout fish. By setting up the right kayak with a few essential accessories, your understanding of the fishery will develop much faster.
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