SUP Fishing - Poor Man's Style

[Night Wing]

@Subber

I saw him wobbling around a little when he was standing on it, but he wasn't in any duress balance wise. He has very good balance. But just looking at him, I'm pretty sure he weighs more than my 150 pound weight. Even though he gave the length and width of the board, he didn't provide the liter volume of the board. That might also explain some of the wobble balance too if the liter volume is low and the board is not moving across the water. It's easier to balance on a board with low volume if one is moving over the water because of dynamic lift.

The board I'm thinking on and is my leading contender is a 10'6"x30"x4" @ 160 liter Hammer. At my 150 pound weight, it should do well for flat water leisurely cruising, surfing the mushy waves which are the norm off of Galveston Island/Bolivar Peninsula and maybe a little sup blue crabbing instead of fishing. Crabbing in the marsh flats, I can sit right down on the board and enjoy the scenery while I wait for a hungry crab to take my bait from a hand line.

Bottom line, the 10'6" board will be strictly geared toward flat water leisurely cruising with occasional trips down to Galveston/Bolivar (and Surfside) just to see how well this board surfs. My main surfing sup is my 8'11"x31" Hammer and you can see it's specs in my signature. This short Hammer is pretty good as a flat water cruiser for me, but a 10'6" Hammer would give me a better glide because of it's longer length and 1" narrower in width.

[Night Wing]

@krash

When I was researching sups in the Spring of 2015; I looked at Bote, Dragonfly and Cayo, but the drawback was the 32" width and the weight. I've got a surgically repaired left shoulder and this evening, I'm having an MRI procedure on my right shoulder since it is giving me problems. I might have to have an operation on it so a sup's weight is very important to me if I have to carry a sup a long distance over uneven terrain and/or marshy wet ground conditions.

Where I fish, it's mostly in salt marshes and we don't have to worry about sharks. What we have to worry about, if wade fishing, is stepping on a stingray because our water color is brown so you can't see the bottom. Our bay systems are loaded with stingrays and every year, the emergency room at John Sealy hospital in Galveston deal with lots of people who've been hit on their foot, ankle or calves from a stingray barb. This is why when wade fishing where I go in thigh deep water, I have to shuffle my feet instead of normal walking. Shuffling the feet, if there is a stingray in front of me and I can't see the bottom because of the sandy brown colored water, the sides of my feet will brush a stingray and it will move off in an instant. I've seen the disturbed water they leave from the clouds of silt stirred up from the bottom which reach the surface when I've touched a stingray with the sides of my wading boot.

Just beyond the surf zone out off the beach in the Gulf of Mexico, we have a good population of juvenile bull, bonnethead and blacktip sharks and they'll hit a stringer of fish if they find it. This is why I'm thinking of just staying in the salt marshes and catching blue crabs from a sup. Put the caught crabs in the burlap sack, wet it down to keep the caught crabs cool and alive and then when I head back to my vehicle, put the burlap sack between my feet on the sup while paddling. Nothing to drag in the water. I've thought about it as best I could.

BTW, thank for posting the photo of the end of the push pole.

[krash]

Weight, for sure... I fully understand but for different reason. I had serious heart issue, open heart surgery aortic and mitral valve replaced... heart muscle was perm damaged and spent 2 months in hospital heart ICU, after 2 different pacemakers I could walk and talk again but had to have a 3rd replacement with imbedded Defibritator... after recovery the heart is still not good and never will be. I'm physically limited in lifting strength although I can still leisurely paddle.
Had to find another option to get back on the water, sold my 55 pound kayak and picked up a 38 pound kevlar solo canoe which is great except not for standing. Had to up my game so I could get back to standup sight fishing... flats here are crystal clear like drinking water, with grassy brown to sand bottom, chasing fish commonly called the Grey Ghost for a reason, Bonefish.

So the DragonFly was a attempt that due to its weight did not work out for the same reason you speak of. Its listed at 45 pounds but in real life weight with deck padding and fin attached is closer to 50. Humping it from storage to car, car to water can be assisted by carts and lifting it on/off the car can be assisted by sliding but still its a hump.

Many places I fish are not smothe surfaces, there are not always parking space for a trailer, and dragging a hull up/down or across the ground is not good for the hull, but necessary to get into the water most times.

I wanted lighter,  I can man-handle the canoe so less than 40 pounds is my target.

Finances are an issue as well , but the DragonFly went.. I decided to try a more minimalist approach and picked up a beater project SUP Epoxy/EPS-Foam and see what it would do. After paddling it and seeing what I need I found that the cooler acting as a dry box holds everything except the paddle and push pole, although the fin was to long/deep for my home waters many days I need to be in or traverse water less than a foot deep. Experimented with a couple fins and found something that works and it works most of the time. The board with fin attached, which also has led strip lights the length of the hull down the rails below the water line and a hastily installed 8" hatch for battery to power the lights, 2 carry handles I added and 4 of the ez-plug attachment points and a couple bungie tiedown weighs 36 pounds (actual weight).

The 3 main cons are:
1) its delicate and some day I'll accidently puncture the hull on an unseen submerged obgect
2) the hull design is very noisy (hull slap) if there is any chop
3) it will not paddle upwind, perhaps this could be solved with the proper 9" fin. I did add a small (ventral) fin 20" forward from the center balance point but this did not seem to help.

[stoneaxe]

Krash....more power to you bro...keep on paddling. I was thinking about your situation and what you might do to make getting your board to/from the water easier. I have a Mule SUP carrier that I plan to use behind my bike. I was thinking about how easy it would be to incorporate some wheels into the tail of a SUP. Drill a hole through the board across the tail 2" from the end. Install an axle and epoxy in place, add some of the wide plastic wheels like those on a golf hand cart. They would make it far easier to transport and would have almost no effect on the performance on the water.

[Bean]

Hmm, so the wheels would actually act as outriggers.  That's a pretty cool way to add stability to a narrower (lighter) board.