Fishing Unpressured Water- A guide by Eric Jackson

Fishing Unpressured Water- A guide by Eric Jackson

KBF Challenge Series in the Apex Tyr- An addicted Fisherman’s Dream Event/Boat combo

I love fishing where I know I am the only person throwing lures to the bass.    It makes the experience special and more enjoyable.   Fishing behind others adds a different feel to the sport.   

If you haven’t tried it, attempting to find a pond, lake, creek, or part of a lake, bay, swamp, flat, etc. that nobody else gets to creates an incredible overall fishing experience.    Yes, it often takes more effort on the front end, but the fishing, and the solitude make it all worthwhile. 

A part of my whitewater career over the years was finding creeks/rivers that have never been run, or rarely.    Any location that takes effort to get to, means it weans out the weekend warriors without the time, dedication, or knowledge to find and then go.  Fishing, for me, really hits all of my key buttons when I approach it that way as well.

Finding rarely fished locations that have a lot of good fish to catch is a skill in of itself.   There are several factors you need to consider to do it consistently, and really take advantage of the benefits it can provide. 

First, lets look at the main things that keep boats out of quality fishing locations;

• • Shallow Water- this is mostly defined by the boat you are in.
  • Rapids- this is limiting by your whitewater skills and equipment choice.
  • Weeds, basically any emergent vegetation that stops trolling motors, big motors, pedal drives, and paddle kayaks that experience a lot of drag in weeds, or have too deep of a draft for extremely shallow water.

Now, let’s look at access-  power boats can go fast and hit any place on a lake they can get to and have enough ramps to choose from to make all powerboat available locations to a boat feasible.    If you want to avoid them, AND avoid other kayakers, you need to try this:

1. Looking at Google Earth or similar, find 3-4 locations up creeks, or even in shallow bays that are not accessible to big boats.   
2. Now- look at each of those and see how far away from spawning grounds, from the main lake or river these places are.    The closer you can get to the main body of water, but away from other boats, the more likely to find good fish, and not find another fisherman.   
3. Find your closest public access point.  Using OnX hunt or FarWide you can find where it is legal to get in and out.   Using Google Earth you can find dirt roads, etc that are not listed.   

One example of a lake that you would was 100% fishable on the main lake by boat is Lake Ouatichta in Arkansas.    However, I found a bay that had a super shallow entrance that stopped all power boats from getting into it.   I also found a public dirt road that put me in the sweet spot.   I fished the FLW Cup for kayak fishing the same time as the Forest Wood Cup for Bass boats.    My day 1 total was 98” (over 20 pounds) when the winning bass boats were pulling in 13-14 pounds.     Not a single other kayak or bass boat in my area.     While these areas take effort to find, it can be fun looking for them when you are on your computer or phone.   

Another Example would be where John Cox won the Forest Wood Cup on Lake Wheeler.  I fished upstream of where he went by about 5 miles to where it was choked with down trees.   This is another form of obstacle that gets in the way of kayak fisherman.    Somebody in a heavy plastic, pedal drive kayak wouldn’t get 100’ down the area I was fishing.   On average I had to pull my boat over a log every 50’.   Even with my 40 pound Apex Tyr, it was annoying, but it was worth it to have a 100 fish day and get 2nd in the Wheeler KBF Event (I lost due to an open mouth violation on 2 fish).    

A third example is what I am doing right now in the Alabama Challenge Series event for July of 2023.   I found a creek that has topped out Hydrilla/millfoil/coontails/duckweed/Lilly pads for miles!   I put in near a bridge and have several places that produce lots of fish.   In one creek arm, there is a  spring area (got 93” in 30 minutes on one day), a creek with canopy of trees where I was sight fishing for a school of about 20 bass from 12-18” in a clear area.    Another place that I fish only with a frog (because I love the frog), but realize I would likely do well punching and have had 50 fish days.    I am behind the leader by .25” so far, due to not having any really big fish yet.   I have 100.75” with 5 fish over 20”.   Admittedly, I only land about 30% of the blowups, and seem to hook and then lose the really big fish so far.   But that is a personal fishing issue to solve, not an issue with the location or quality of fish.   

Another example is fishing at Rock Island, TN, and running the rapids to get to the fish.   I am leading the TN Challenge series with 101.5” of smallmouth right now with about 8 hours of fishing.   The Tyr does awesome in the rapids and more importantly, when I lower it down the rock cliff to get into the gorge, it is lightweight and easy to do (relatively).   

Of course another great river with rapids that I love my Tyr on is the Ottawa River in Canada.   Other kayaks work well in these rapids as well such as the Coosa, but the Tyr has the advantage both on the water and any portaging (such as Gavin’s on the middle channel).

Let me give you a feel for what it is like to fish one of the creeks I fish.    It takes 1.5 hours of paddling to get to the furthest area I fish, one way.   That is not fishing along the way, but straight paddling.   Out of the 1.5 hours, about 1.25 hours is in topped out weeds.    In any other fishing kayak with scuppers or a deeper draft/heavier boat, it would add between 30 minutes and forever to get there.   At some point the effort just isn’t worth it and looking ahead at a long 1 mile stretch of weeds that never end and struggling to make your boat go anywhere is very demoralizing.    The Tyr glides almost effortlessly over that stuff.     Bringing enough water, the right clothes, and minimal gear is critical.

Here is a Video I made from my fishing yesterday on Lake Guntersville on the way down to train for freestyle kayaking in Columbus, GA.

I hope this helps as a guide and you’ll find yourself somewhere catching fish with nobody in sight and the fish being completely unpressured.

🙂

EJ