SUP fishing

[Yohan1973]

I did a quick search before writing this and didn't find a whole but but here it is. I am completely new to this SUP thing. It looks AMAZING! I currently have a few kayaks and I use them all to fish from. I would love to add a SUP to the family for the same reason. Currently, I'm all about fly fishing but standing in my kayaks ain't all it's cracked up to be. I was just thinking...man it would be great to build a SUP to fly fish from. Sooooooo, who else here has fly fished from a SUP? I will continue to use the search button but if ya' got anything cool to share I am all ears. Oh yeah...this is my first post so I would like to say "what's up" to all the folk here!

[Allan Cheateaux]

I built a board for a guy in Montana. We made it 10' x 34" x 5". He kills it on the rivers up there. He says he can see into  the pools way better and access them more quietly. Id go with something with a crusher amount of float to haul gear and yourself.

[Shoe]

Hey,

My buddies and I have got pretty into fishing from our SUP boards here in San Diego.  I have found that my 12' Laird is more than stable enough to fish from.  It is great being able to spot feeding Yellowtail and cast into them while standing up although I usually drop to my knees after hooking up with a big fish (mostly to thank God).  You should check out the Boardfisher.com website - they have all of the stuff that you will need to get started.  The site also has some pictures from a Baja trip we took last Fall.  http://boardfisher.com/puntaloscabos.html

Cheers,

Dan

[Yohan1973]

Very cool Allan, I'm guessing a 10 footer would be killer for water with a little bit of flow to it. I'm thinking 12 to 14 foot max for the Florida flats and some light duty creeks. I really don't know though. I'm just comparing it to kayaking. Is a 10 footer decent for still water?

Shoe, those are some killer pics. Thank you very much for sharing!

[stoneaxe]

I keep thinking how much fun it would be to hook into a big tuna from a board. You'ld spend the day getting towed but what a blast!

One of the boards I'm considering for next spring is a 12x32 starboard with plenty of inserts to lash down gear. I doubt i'll ever get around to building my fishing cruiser.

[PonoBill]

Actually, Bob, the 12'6" is a great fishing platform. I've done a fair amount of fly fishing and trolling from mine. I plan to take it to the lower Deschutes soon and do some redsides (A very unique local rainbow, descended from the Desert Redband Trout) fishing, maybe a steelhead or two for that matter. I troll a lot, which picks up junk fish and the occasional walleye or bass. You need to get down on the bottom to really fish for steelhead or salmon, though they will rise to a well-presented fly.

For some reason a lot of clumsiness goes away when you're fishing. I have a hard time turning around to face the back of my board when I'm paddling, but when I'm fishing I stand sideways and find myself facing the tail pretty often--just kind of absent-mindedly walk all over the thing.

I made my fishing rig from a milk crate from Office Depot and a bunch of PVC pipe. I'll do some photos soon.

[stoneaxe]

I know the 12-6 works great for fishing. I just figure if I get the 12 x 32 I could set it up for fishing and also get Dave out on it once in awhile.

My fish rig is similar, a milk crate with a sand spike and some pvc pipe strapped to it. I usually carry two rods and a small tackle case, all tied to the crate with lengths of 200lb nylon line.

I'm actually going fishing in a few minutes....its glassy calm out today. Had a big beach cleanup this morning and there were 3 guys in waders bringing in keeper stripers.

[Essoxlupine]

I bought the Jimmy Lewis Distance for fishing and coastal cruising and love it.  Mostly fly fishing for snook, tarpon, bonita, and mackeral on the Gulf Coast.  The only time I wish I had a kayak is for windy days--lot of work getting back upwind.  Very stable and quicker than boards made just for surfing.  I would recommend something in the 12 foot range for flatwater fishing.

The main disadvantage vs. kayak fishing is on windy days.  It's very easy(too easy) to get blown downwind and a lot of work to get back during a good blow.   Standing up is a much more natural casting position for fly fishing than sitting in a kayak.  Much better spotting angle as well.   I usually just bring a few flies, a spool of tippet, and some pliers.  I just tuck my rod in an elastic wading belt when paddling.  I've tried the milk crate on the bow route.  But, it gets to be really a pain if the wind comes up.

[Yohan1973]

Standing up is a much more natural casting position for fly fishing than sitting in a kayak.  Much better spotting angle as well. 

That is the exact reason I'm soooooo interested in these things. Fishing the flats sometime requires some distance casting with the fly rod that I really can't pull off well while sitting in my yak (my back cast drops). Standing in the yak sucks too.  Not only that, Sight fishing for redfish ain't all that great while sitting 1/2" above the water line. I imagine these things would be super fun in the creeks too. I've been doing more searches for information on building these things and ran across a few decent threads and web sites. I'm now debating if it is more economical to simply buy a blank or to build from construction grade material. There were a few threads on swaylocks that were very informative.  WNC EPS blanks and American Blanks seemed to have the best prices that I could find. This one has my interest:

However I would prefer to get one at least 30 inches wide.

Question: who's got the cheapest blanks? Yeah yeah...I know it's a rather insulting question but hey...There is a chance I might mess up the first time! lol

[Yohan1973]

Anyone every try building with this floatation foam provided by R Control?
http://www.achfoam.com/ACH/media/docs/Foam-Control/flotation.pdf

I've followed this company in my profession and plan to use some of there stuff in that sense. I just happen to run across some of there flotation foam. The foam they use in their SIPS is great stuff so I'm sure their floatation foam will be nice too...

[PonoBill]

I tried the sitting down with a breakdown Kayak paddle thing a few days ago--it's really great in high wind. I got the idea from Dave Collin's story: http://www.kenalu.com/2008/08/29/743/   Very kayak-like. My PVC pipe frame makes a great footrest.

[linter]

bill: where are those pix you keep promising us?  pix, bill, pix!!!

[PonoBill]

I have to actually get off my ass and take them

[stoneaxe]

I'm going out again tonight...full moon fishing. They've been getting keeper stripers off the beach in Plymouth...although I got skunked again the other day. Think I'm going to fish bait tonight instead of casting lures. My rig looks just like Shoe's except that I just bungee it to my board. Gotta get some of those stick ons. Bought the parts to make his bait tube but haven't got it together yet.

[stoneaxe]

Skunked again! Fished until 9:00 or so by the full moon. Bait shop was closed when I got there at 6:00 so had to just use lures. Not the way to go. Guys on the beach were catching schoolie stripers on clams and chunk mackerel. Oh well....think I'll try with some bait tomorrow night.