New to the sport, new to the forum, need a little help please after my first excursion :)

[romanceinTX]

So, howdy, my name is Roman and I'm trying to make a go out of my kayak experience. Don't get mad, but my wife won't sign off on a boat just yet, so I feel I have to make this work. Hopefully you understand.

I've done tons of what I thought was research - both here and on Youtube about kayak safety. I'm especially trying to be prepared so that the experience is a fun and safe one for my 11 year old son. I want a fun experience that we can have together and create a lasting bond well beyond the time he lives in the house with us.

I chose to launch from Galveston Island State Park due to the "beach" entry, rather than from a dock or a busy boat ramp (I'm new at this and don't need anyone grumbling at me for taking too long).

What I really need help with is this: GISP was just too shallow. We spent more time trying to find deeper water we could use the pedal drives in than fishing Paddling really took the wind out of our sails and we ended up giving up and rowing back to shore after a few fruitless hours of paddling/wading.

What I'm trying to figure out is, did I put in in the wrong spot? Where can we go that is safe, but deep enough to pedal our kayak?

Thanks in advance

[Ron Mc]

right up front, summer and winter tides are the lowest - you might go back there in Oct/Nov and find it perfect

this is for Corpus, but you get the general idea

[impulse]

I'm not sure exactly where you launched, and I have to admit that I just bicycle in the park and don't kayak there. But what I have seen is that a lot of the water in the park is very shallow. Great for a paddling kayak. Not so great for a pedal kayak.

I'd suggest next time, launch at the end of the Park Rd 66, past the campsites. Then take advantage of the channels used by the power boats launching at Waterman's and boats coming out of the neighborhood right there. It's shown on the Google Earth screenshot as Como Lake...

In any case, peruse Google Earth satellite views to look for deeper areas wherever you plan to launch. And understand that there are huge sections of that area of the West Bay that are too shallow to run a Hobie drive. For example, I love paddling the bird sanctuary right outside of Sea Isle where I'm staying, but I can't do it on a normal tide with my brother's Hobie. You can stay 100-200 yards off the bank and be fine. And I see a lot of Hobies out there catching fish. But I like going deep into the reeds.

Live and learn.

[Kayak Kid]

R. tex,

We had a house right across from where your photo was taken. I fished that area, almost exclusively for over 8 years.

There's plenty of water that's deep enough for your peddle boats. You simply need a good marine map of the area to know how to avoid the shallow areas.

Get to know Dana's Cove. I've consistently (mostly) caught my share of specs and reds there. Stay within the geo tubes for all the 2 1/2 to 4 ft. water you can hndle.

Drifting the cove (using drift socks on windy days), fishing live shrimp under a popping cork can produce stingers of nice sized fish. When you move on to artificials, you will have found some hot spot.

During these blistering hot days, the specs generally move to the deeper water that can be found right outside the Eastern Geo tubes.

Good luck. Have fun. And, maybe catch a few fish.

[SWFinatic]

Welcome to the sport! If you base your inshore fishing areas around whether or not you can peddle you will struggle at times especially chasing reds. It's best to learn how to paddle. It's inevitable in inshore kayak fishing regardless of whether or not you have a peddle or paddle kayak and something you need to be able to do.

Here's a video on some paddling instruction that can help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUYEH2c ... ZvtvKQbYYe

[Ron Mc]

A paddle that will move that big boat better than the stock Hobie paddle is the Werner Coryveckan - the largest blade area offered by anyone.

[Tombo]

Post to meet someone to go kayak fishing with. Better yet, if you can spare the money is hire a guide after you have made a trip or two to get used to your craft.

[ben_beyer]

Welcome to the sport. I'd love to have a boat too but getting my wife to sign off and having the time to even use it are my big issues.

As others said I would work on your paddling and of course check the tides. I fish some very shallow areas currently which is why I paddle. After I fixed the way I paddle, it became a lot easier. Before I was mostly using my arms, which I still do when I am trying to adjust and not anchored but holding a rod. Once I started using my core, it became a lot easier and I can go 1/4 mile easily without a break, a half mile is no problem, and I might take a short 1 minute break if doing closer to a mile but that's typically to make sure I'm not missing anything. My tracking is also a lot better.

Here's a book that helped me and I would also suggest listening to the Bite Me and The Salty Yak podcasts.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/18969 ... UTF8&psc=1

[TroutSupport.com]

Welcome to the sport... I'd love to help you more... it's totally doable to stick with the kayak and not get a boat, but you have to really understand the fish and where to fish when. Como and Dana's are ok this time of year but there are certainly better options. You could look at the freeport marsh and that would be another safe area for you and for your son. Yes, there is lots of shallow water but a lot of the channels and old oxbows will be perfect for peddling... sounds like you could use some intel and education on learning a lot of different areas and getting a heads up of where to fish.

let me know if I can help you
tobin@troutsupport.com

email me is better for fast response...

[romanceinTX]

Thank you guys, all of you for taking the time to read my post and offer your help.

We're going to try again this Thursday if the weather holds up (fingers crossed and hurricane pending). At this point, with safety being my number one concern for my sons' sake, I think we'll try GISP again (we launched from the end of Park Rd 66 where @impulse recommended). This time, we'll head towards the middle of the inlet to get to the deeper water - the goal being getting to Danas Cove, even if we have to wade some to get there and then try to fish the grasslines(?) Any thoughts or better ideas would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!

[SWFinatic]

As far as Thursday's weather the winds are going to be hard to predict and could also be variable. Likely going to have to make a call that morning. The water will almost certainly be higher keep that in mind.

[romanceinTX]

Thanks for the response. I'm intrigued about Dana's for sure. Would you wade to get in the area? Also, i confess, I don't know what "geotubes" are(?) sorry. I googled the term but I don't think that's what you were referencing LOL.

R. tex,

We had a house right across from where your photo was taken. I fished that area, almost exclusively for over 8 years.

There's plenty of water that's deep enough for your peddle boats. You simply need a good marine map of the area to know how to avoid the shallow areas.

Get to know Dana's Cove. I've consistently (mostly) caught my share of specs and reds there. Stay within the geo tubes for all the 2 1/2 to 4 ft. water you can hndle.

Drifting the cove (using drift socks on windy days), fishing live shrimp under a popping cork can produce stingers of nice sized fish. When you move on to artificials, you will have found some hot spot.

During these blistering hot days, the specs generally move to the deeper water that can be found right outside the Eastern Geo tubes.

Good luck. Have fun. And, maybe catch a few fish.

[romanceinTX]

As far as Thursday's weather the winds are going to be hard to predict and could also be variable. Likely going to have to make a call that morning. The water will almost certainly be higher keep that in mind.

Yes, thanks for the reminder. . .might make locomotion easier for sure, but is a surge bad for fishing?

[outbreaker]

Higher than normal tides (for any reason) will scatter fish as they have "New" places to go.

Lower tides will concentrate the fish in deeper areas. Realize that deeper is relative, sometimes only 6" will make a difference.

[SWFinatic]

As far as Thursday's weather the winds are going to be hard to predict and could also be variable. Likely going to have to make a call that morning. The water will almost certainly be higher keep that in mind.

Yes, thanks for the reminder. . .might make locomotion easier for sure, but is a surge bad for fishing?

I can scatter or move the fish. I pretty much fish for reds but in my experience it pushes reds further into the marsh and up into the grass. They can certainly be harder to catch in the grass but with patience you can catch them. I look for grass stalks moving in the opposite direction as the wind or just moving period. This is usually a red in the grass looking for a meal. A weedless rig can help but if you have patience they will come out of the grass for short periods. Or often there are holes in the grass where you can cast into and work a soft plastic. I like to go to a smaller profile bait in these cases too. For me a 3" grub on a 1/8 oz jig head works well.