Kayak Fishing For Lakers
 

Hi All,

I've been trying to catch a laker from a kayak over the past few weeks and haven't had any luck. I have a depth finder app on my phone and I've mainly been going around Locks Island and Governors Island jigging at 60-80ft. Any tips?

Hook a live shiner through the lips and drag it right on the bottom in the sand. North side of Govs has some nice long sandy flats...;);)

Good luck!

Dan

Thanks! Do you think I have the depth rigth?

For stationary jigging look for deep holes 100’ + and use a split body jig. With shiners, you want to be trolling along dragging the shiner right on the bottom or very near. 60 - 80’ of water is good especially on north side of Govs. Very flat and sandy over there...

Dan

Another place with some nice sandy flats is right off of Ellacoya beach.
When we first started trolling for salmon and weren’t too experienced, we caught multiple lakers trolling in that area anywhere from 14 to 40’

Thanks for the tip! I was out today with no luck again. I think I'm getting moved around too much out there to really jig effectively as by the time I hit the bottom I'm usually way out of position to start jigging. Once I get a feel for the wind I can position myself to drift across an area to where I am eventually over top of my line, but this method really does cut down on actual time fishing. I should have mentioned in my original post that I don't have a fishing kayak, so I don't have peddles to help stay in a certain areas. I'm going to probably get at least one trolling mount and see how that goes, it'll at least increase my time with lures in the water. Thanks again!

Yes, the wind is not your friend when trying to get a bait to the bottom, especially in the deep holes.
We tried taking some temperature readings from our 22’ tritoon boat, of where the thermocline might be using an ice fishing camera (heavy camera) and by the time the camera was down 30’ we were 50’ away and the cable was almost straight out to the side! Has to be dead calm to jig the deep holes!

I tried catching Lakers out of a kayak recently also. Launched out of Alton Bay and really couldn't get to deep enough water for lakers but did have some fun with smallmouths in 50 feet of water just past Echo point.

Here's some video that shows how I went about it. I think I could have used a full ounce of weight on the rig I was fishing.

Good luck. :-)

https://youtu.be/JKiei6kHoXU

Great video. Thanks.