For years I wore an XPS brand PFD that was full length (zipped collar up to neck). I used it for a long time, well beyond when its zippers had broken on all of the storage pockets.

The Chinook is superior in every way.

The zippers are much bigger and more durable. I’m someone who liked to have some pockets on my PFD to keep a few items close at hand (key lures, hook file, clippers, etc.). The Chinook has plenty of room for these items – so much room that I can stow my NocQua external battery (for my GoPro) without straining the zipper.

The open chest and sides of the Chinook make it both comfortable and breathable. I’ve used it in the kayak and from shore and never get tired of wearing it. Sometimes I forget it’s even there.

We all know that we should keep our PFDs on when on the water, but we also know that they often become annoying – but not the Chinook. Like I said before: sometimes I forget I’m even wearing it until I need to reach for something and it’s already right there in my vest’s pouch.

The NRS Chinook PRD has the comfort, room, and durability that any fisherman needs on the water and it looks great besides. I highly recommend it, the NRS Chinook Lifejacket is the best PFD I’ve ever worn.

  Steven Kambouris “Kambotrout” 

I had the opportunity to fish Kentucky Lake for the kayak national championship. Leading up to the event I looked at maps and navionics. That’s how I picked out most of my spots before the tournament. So on March, 26 I started my fourteen hour drive to Murray, Kentucky where a group of us got a cabin to stay for the week. I arrived there to see tackle everywhere. Some people got to get out on the water and I got to meet faces that I chatted with over Facebook. After talking and bringing my things inside we talked strategy and what we were looking for and where some of us were going, hoping one of us can stumble on an area that some could duplicate for tournament day. During pre fishing the first day, we had storms rolling in mid afternoon that gave me the morning to look to try some off shore shallow areas and main points. I’m from Delaware so all of this was new to me. One of the best things to do is just attack the lake. Use what you know and comfortable with, and never try to use a different lure that you normally would not use. Keep it SIMPLE. But needless to say, I didn’t get my first bite till I went to a cover and fished a channel swing with a ten foot diver. That would clue me in on the next couple days of fishing. Day two comes around and I drive an hour and a half south near New Johnsvillie, Tennessee to fish an area where it had the right stuff. The water was ten degrees warmer than the northern part of Kentucky Lake and dirty. But I did get some bites off a secondary point so I caught a couple and left. That was pretty much my whole plan. Find areas gets, some bites and move on and save them for tournament day. I tried one more area, took a little drive and fish a channel swing again and caught it on a ten foot diver. It was a Kentucky stud! Pushing 6 – 6 ½ pounds! After that I caught a couple on a lockjaw jigs, football jig and left the area as well saving it for tournament day.

Day three comes, we team up and try a southern area and we get skunked. This was pretty much the tale of the tape. A lot of anglers couldn’t figure out the big bite. It was either one big bite or the rest small or big bite and that was it. Needless to say, we ended early and went back to look at maps for some more areas and figure out a plan. Day four comes and we try this brand new area on Lake Barkley which is a long stretch of rip rap with dirty water. Keep the fish shallow and that was the pattern I was going to run day one and keep my day two spot for the southern area.

Tournament day comes and I start on the riprap. Fifteen minutes in I caught one bass and lost four. My confindence is still high knowing i'm on a good bite but the misses keep adding up. I miss 4 more now and its 10 o clock and I only have 1 bass. So i'm heading to where the creek is. I notice the water temp drop a couple degrees and the creek is getting dirty from the amount of rain but it wasn't milk chocolate dirty just a little stain. The wind is creating a little current and there was bridge that was out the mouth of the creek that funneled the water in, so I casted toward the corners and caught one that boosted my morale and help me focus. I went in to the creek and threw a crankbait. I knew the creek had a drop off that went from 2 – 2 ½ feet of water to 5 and caught one that was nineteen inches long and then had one come off. That was my day. I lost couple more after that ending my day with three fish for 49". I was disapointed but there is nothing you can do. I didn’t want to lose it on day 1 but I did. Day two of the tournament I didn’t go to my southern spot. I felt there was no need to go that far knowing I had no chance in the money, so I followed a friend to his spot. It was pretty the same set up from day one. But there was not a bridge. It was a long riprap that extended to a channel for boats that were coming and going from a marina with a large flat on the back end. Same deal, using a squarebill and cranking a long riprap, I caught three quick fish that put me at 50 inches. The one thing you should never do, never leave fish to find fish and that was I did. I left and to never find another bite for the rest of the day. It was a humbling experience. I don’t regret my decision on where I chose to fish, but just the execution part of it. I can’t wait to go back there and tackle that lake and try some new things that the top five didn’t do to get the big bites. Kentucky Lake gives you so many options to catch fish that you can fish your style, but the name of the game is to find the big one and that is what I failed to do, but that is fishing and it still beats a day in the office.

    This year I had the opportunity to fish the Mid-Atlantic kayak fishing series. I had a very strong year, my rookie season, finishing second with rookie of the year as well as finishing in 7^th total angler of the year points. In this series we fished many different bodies of water that test the skill of the anglers as well as planning. That is why being versatile and being able to use different baits or plans to catch a limit is so crucial in this sport. We all heard from pros that being versatile is an important skill but a lot of us don’t realize how important it is. This year fishing the series showed me I still have a lot to learn when it comes to preparing and being able to get out of your comfort zone when changing lure. So I’m going to give you a couple pointers as well as experiences that I went through this season.

   First thing is being versatile and understanding the area you are going to fish. In Delaware we have ponds and a couple tidal fisheries but they do not compare to lakes and tidal fisheries like the Upper bay, Potomac, reservoirs, and rivers we fish. One of the hardest things for me this year was trying new things that I wouldn’t really try in Delaware ponds. Pretty much all of our ponds you can catch on a jig, senko, chatter bait, and a creature bait. Not saying they won’t work in other fisheries but you have to be able to adopt to different fisheries as well the conditions. For example, we had a tournament on Rocky Gorge deep clear reservoirs with no vegetation, only rocks, hard bottom, and laydowns that extend to 15 feet of water. I pre-fished and caught good size bass on weightless worm and crankbait, but come tournament time I couldn’t get a bite off of a crankbait and all my fish were small on weightless worms. The top three caught them on a jig flipping laydowns into 10 feet of water, and the other caught his on a ruby style jig head with a creature bait. Two things I would never do or try to do but did open my eyes that during pre-fishing you should try EVERYTHING you can think of that might get you the bigger bite. Do not stay on one or two baits, keep in mind conditions might change and throw your plans out of the window and you need to be able to scrape up and go. 

   Also I learned that you need to be able to adopt and be able to use different stuff depending on the conditions or areas you are fishing. Understand to keep your ‘go to’ on the back burner and find another way to get them to bite. If you have trouble, then try one of your ‘go to’ that gets you a bite. If you always use your ‘go to’ every tournament or time you fish you will never learn to fish new things or have confidence to place that lure down and try something else that could help you get more bites. This year I had to put down lures to try new stuff. If I didn’t, I would never have finished in the top ten or get bites. Fish the conditions and see what you see. If you throw a bait that is only catching twelve inchers, then that is not what the fish want. You have to switch up and try new things or down size and figure out what the big ones want. Never stay complacent with one style, switch it up and learn new ways to catch fish on different bodies of water.

Third is keep it simple. Don’t make it complicated, learn new things but don’t try to learn every new technique. You’re only going to hurt yourself and the result will show. Understand what you are strong at. For me, I have a very strong finesse game when it comes to fishing so I try to be better at other areas of my game. But I do not try to learn everything. I grab a couple techniques, learn them and grow confidence with them. Probably my weakest area is moving baits lipless, spinnerbaits, crankbaits. So this year I made a conscious effort to throw more moving baits and had grown confidence in all of them knowing when and when not to throw them.

The Astral Ronny Fisher PFD is a Kayak Fishermen's Dream PFD. The is one of the most universal PFDs on the market, allow its use in any kayak with any type of seat. This PFD retails at 159.95 and perfect priced for the amount of options on the PFD.

PFDs are so important to wear on the water, because we all know anything can happen to anyone at any time. Having the right gear is the difference in saving your life! Astral really takes this into account when designing their PFDs. Astral designs PFDs for all sorts of water activity's.

Some of its best features are the pockets up front, with plenty of clips and loops to attach other accessories as well.

The front pockets really set this PFD apart from the rest, giving you space to re tie lures, hold drinks, hold your camera or cell phone, even a place to keep your fishing license.

You will even notice the small loops in the picture above, the whistle is clipped to. This is great for things such as a Whistle, or line cutters, attaching tethers for your cell phone, or even Gopro Or Trolling motor Remotes.

What really set this PFD apart from the rest was its flat back design. This is a very buoyant back rest, but its completely flat allowing the use in any boat, or kayak seat design.

Some of the new kayaks are coming with taller back rests and having this flat back allows you to lean back in your chair and not feel any discomfort while fishing or paddling around.

This PFD also come equipped with what looks like a neck roll, but its actually a Rain proof hood. This is rolled up inside that roll, contained by a zipper for easy access during storms. The best part about it this is the color, which is a Neon Green/Yellow To Enhance visability on the water for boaters or any other safety reason.

The Astral Ronny Fisher is in stock at Delaware Paddlesports, where they offer the colors Charcoal (Grey), Green, and the newest color in the lineup is Camo for those who like to remain Stealthy. You can pick yours up from DPS here http://www.delawarepaddlesports.com/astral-ronny-fisher/. Also stop in and check out their other great array of kayak and kayak fishing needs!

All 3 color designs come with the same options.

Watch Video - HERE

When Hobie announced that they would be making a Limited Edition Outback for 2016 I had to jump at the chance to get one. I've always like the orange color and with all the extras that came with it, it was a no brainer.

Mid December I picked up the most badass Outback I've seen. I knew right away that I needed to rig it up to make it my own. The first thing I wanted to add was the 9” Hobie H­-Rails (part# 84626001) on both sides just in front of the front molded in rod holders.The right side is where I wanted to mount my fish finder and the left would be for my Bluetooth speaker for some tunes on the water.The reason I chose the H­-Rails instead of the gear tracs is the H-­Rails are just more useful to me. There is a ton of accessories that can be mounted on the H­-Rails and they also are great as another grab point while moving the kayak around. Plus they just look awesome on the LE! I mounted my Lowrance Elite­ 4 CHIRP to the H­-Rail with the 1” ball H­-Rail Ram mount (part# 84620101), Ram double 1” ball socket assembly (part# 72023019) and the Ram fishfinder mount (part# 72023024).For the Bluetooth speaker I went with the Redfox Rover.

It's waterproof, has up to 14hrs of play time and sounds awesome! I used the 1” ball H-­Rail Ram mount, Ram double 1” ball socket assembly and Ram small round base 1⁄4­20 1” ball (part# 72023033) to mount it to the H­-Rail. I added two Scotty flush deck mounting brackets #244 in the back to the kayak, just behind the rear molded in rod holders.

I use these for my GoPro mount and my Yak Attack Visicarbon Pro. One the things I changed on the kayak was the side that the cleat for the bungee tie down forthe rudder is on. The last two seasons I noticed that with the sailing rudder installed the rudder would hang up on the cleat when deploying the rudder. Switching the side that the cleat is on eliminated the problem all together. 

Rigging a kayak is fun and customizing it to suit your fishing needs makes the kayak that much more useful. Check out http://www.delawarepaddlesports.com  or swing by the shop and check out all different options that are available for rigging up your kayak.

Delaware Paddlesports team member Zach Moore walks you through some of the cool offerings from Fishal Custom Baits! Check out the video and The Fishal Facebook page below! We carry Fishal at DPS as well! Stop in and check them out!

Fishal Custom Baits Video

https://www.facebook.com/fishalcustombaits/timelin...

When the bass fishing slows down and the air temperature drop into the upper 30’s to 40’s, most people want to stay in their warm bed instead of getting out on the water. For me, it is a great opportunity to have the water to myself and do some pickerel fishing. The Chesapeake Bay tributaries are known for some of the best pickerel fishing in the Mid-Atlantic region. As the air and water temperatures drop, pickerel become more aggressive. For the most part, you can catch them year round, but I find that my bigger fish come in the cooler months. I fish for them the same way I would fish for a bass in the spring and summer months. In the past, I have caught them on anything from wacky rigged senkos to Texas rigged worms. But I find that I have the best luck with fast moving hard baits. Pickerel tend to like shiny baits that have some flash. Most of the time, I find that I get more pickerel on blue mirror lipless crank baits and blue mirror square bill crank baits. I also throw a Bust’em Baits 3.75” paddle tail on Hard Head Custom Baits swim bait hook. I always like to try the baits with treble hooks first because I find the hook up ratio is a lot better. Pickerel have narrow boney mouths and sometimes it can be hard to set the hook. If you can get them on a treble hook, then that is great, but when the bite is slow, often times, you can turn them on with a small paddle tail. The action on the paddle tails draw more bites. Pickerel are aggressive fish that cannot resist the movement of the paddle tail. On the Chesapeake, it is best to fish on rivers like the Magothy, the Severn, or any of the main rivers off of the bay. Fishing around piers, boats, and structure will bring you the most bites during the cooler months.

Gear Used:

Wilderness Systems ATAK 140

Lews BB1 Pro and Lews Speed Spin TLP3000

Duckett Fishing rods

Columbia Sports Wear Cold Weather Gear

Check out the video here.

Locating the fish is only the first piece of the puzzle; the next is getting the fish to bite. Once you find the fish, pay close attention to the water clarity. This time of year water clarity is important when it comes to bait selection. For clear water with 5 to 10ft visibility I like to go with a smaller bait with a more natural color like Watermelon or Green Pumpkin. For me, my go to summer time pattern for clear water is a smaller finesse worm about 5” either Texas rigged or on a shaky head. I like to keep the weight around 1/8 to 3/16oz. If that doesn’t seem to be working I will speed up my fishing and go with a square bill crank bait or a diving crank bait. This allows me to cover a lot more water to try and figure the fish out. Having the square bill is important for fishing cover, which is where most fish go during these hot days. If the water is more stained I like to flip cover with a dark jig with a Bustem Baits craw or throw a spinner bait with at least one Colorado blade. The Colorado blade has more vibration through the water and draws more attention to the bait. I like to stay around cover with these baits when the water is stained.

Regardless of all the above mentioned techniques, one bait I always throw in the summer time is a top water bait. I typically have found my bigger top water fish coming on a black buzz bait. I try to throw it up as close to shore as possible and burn it back to the kayak. If I am fishing in a place where there is thick vegetation I will throw a frog. This year I switched over to the poppin frog and I seemed to have more success on it. It keeps the bait in the strike zone a little longer which allowed for a better hook up ratio. No matter what top water bait you go with it is important to make sure you are on the water just before sun up. The bigger fish do most of their feeding either at night or just as the sun is going up. You chances are much better if you get on the water early. Fishing the hot days of the summer can be frustrating, but know where fish go and throwing the right baits will produce more fish when others are not catching them.

Gear User:

7’0 MH Bustem Baits Custom St Croix Rod

Lews BB1 Pro 7.1:1

100% Berkley 15lb Flurocarbon

Columbia Sports Wear PFG clothing.

While in the process of buying my new Jackson Coosa HD, I just knew that I was not going to go without having a kayak cart any longer. I began combing through the Delaware Paddlesports webpage in search of the perfect cart for my needs. After a quick search, I found the perfect match: the ATC (All Terrain Cart) by Seattle Sports.

Many of my frequent fishing trips involve pulling the kayak down a pathway approximately 3/4 of a mile. Now that I push the kayak on the cart, I am able to fish the river and then float back down stream. The cart is very sturdy and is supposed to have a carrying capacity of up to 300 lbs, which I can easily believe. The wheels are 16” bike tires. They are great for going across many different types of terrain, although I would imagine they would dig into sand too much and may impose a challenge. The cart can also be adjusted to fit narrow or wide kayaks, canoes, or even small john boats. The overall height places the kayak at a more comfortable and natural position, which is a more manageable height when pushing or pulling the kayak to and from your destination.

The cart is pretty easy to attach to the kayak, especially when you utilize the kickstand to help keep the cart in place. Personally, I prefer to place the cart directly under the seat’s position in the kayak. I find that this is a good balance point once all my gear is loaded into the kayak. I intentionally try to balance it so that I am almost having to hold the kayak down so it isn’t putting any strain on my hands.

Finally, I’m not much on disassembling the cart when transporting it, but it doesn’t take much given that there are knobs that tighten the wheels into place. I am happy to say that this has been one of my favorite accessories that I have bought since kayak fishing.

Check out the video!

https://youtu.be/Tbgwk1FIWxY