I have a surf fishing buddy that also fishs from a kayak. I would like to build him a surprise birthday rod he can use while in his kayak. I've never built a rod for kayak fishing but sure would like to, seeing how this kind of fishing is taking off. I would apprieciate any suggestions on sizes to use. Species fished will be stripers & blues primarily. Probably casting, I would think . Thanks

Make sure he will be throwing plugs before you build him a stick. My friends mostly live line eels or bunker off the yaks.

Sincerely,
Dan Colville

It would help if you could the specs for his actual kayak and know the distance between the cockpit and the bow. The rod tip should be able to clear this distance so that when the fish crosses under hull you get the line to clear. If the line will not clear then the fish will be on one side of the boat with your rod tip on another. A 7ft rod will do in most cases but some of the longer kayaks used for bigger salt water (13,14 ft) will require a 7"6 rod.

With any luck Erik Kunz will pipe in on this one.....He is a yak fishing maniac.



Derek L. McMaster
Rohnert Park, CA

Born to Fish, FORCED to Work

Here's a kayak rod I posted the other day on the photo page. There are a few things you can do to make it special. One is to try to design it to float by putting an oversized EVA foregrip. Sometimes this works, other times it's just not possible. The rod I posted will float the rod plus an ABU6500CL3 reel plus a couple ounces of lead.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Another (especially if floatation is out of question) is to design a good anchor to attach a rod leash. I like the Palm Support Reel Seats (PSSMD20) for this. The trigger is nice and wide and can be drilled out as a place to tie a leash that is out of the way of the reel and will not interfere with rodholder use.

A third thing is to design the butt length so that the reel is in a comfortable position when seated. For a trolling / drifting rod, shorter butt grip works fine. For a plugging rod, you may not want to go too short so the rod isn't unwieldy for casting.

I use almost exclusively 7-foot rods and paddle a 14.5 foot kayak. I don't have a problem reaching around the kayak if the fish makes a run. Some guys like them 7'6" to a little over 8-feet depending on their preferences. I must have long arms or something.

For heavier / saltwater applications, I like to use composite rods because the tips are more forgiving. You can't get away from high-sticking the rod in a kayak a lot of times, and the E-glass tip on a composite rod is more forgiving than a lot of graphite rods when high sticked.

Have fun with it.

Erik

This most be getting real popular, Lamiglas and Quantum have started building factory rods for yaks.

so has american rodsmiths and shimano. down here in texas kayak fishing is really taking off and i've really gotten into it myself but i use mine mostly for bay fishing and some lakes though this year i plan on doing some rig fishing since there are rig's that are only a couple miles out. should be an interesting first trip. by the way for most of the people who bay fish in texas they seem to like a 7.5 inch handle on there kayak rods. myself and a few others still use longer 10 to 11 inch handles but well we're in better shape and our guts don't get in the way as much

I do a bit of Yakkin for stripers and blues too.
I find 6-8 ft. nice in my yak and a 7-7 1/2' just about right.
I'll use 9 & 10 ft flyrods but they can be a pain with the length at times.
Other than that, action will be determined more by use, intent, and personal pref.