SUP Fishing - Poor Man's Style

[Night Wing]

When I travel down to the Galveston Bay Complex, there are a lot of saltwater flats and marshes which contain flounder, redfish and blue crabs. My 8'11" Hammer is just too short to fish from. So I went on YouTube to see if I could find some SUP fishing videos for more information.

There are quite a few manufacturers which build specifically designed sups for fishing and BOTE is one of them. However, since I like to "think outside of the box", I was trying to find a video (or two) which would fit the bill for me since I used to do a lot of saltwater wade fishing for flounder, redfish and blue crabs.

It took me awhile but I finally found a two videos which really caught my interest because the guy "thinks outside of the box". The first video is actually quite informative since the guy gives the length (10'3") and width of the board (28"), but not the manufacturer. I was really surprised when the guy said the sup was 28" wide. In the second video from the same guy, the board is an old Starboard sup because you can see the Starboard logo up near the nose of the board. This is also another reason to get me a 10'6" sup to add to my lonely quiver which only has my 8'11" Hammer in it. 

In the first video, the only drawback is the Engel cooler. It is not attached to the sup. However this could be solved by securing the cooler to the deck with two (appropriate length) bungee cords with two hooks on each end of eac bungee cord. Run the bungee cords under the sup and attach the hooked ends of the bungee cord to the rod holders which are on each end of the cooler. This way the cooler wouldn't fall off the sup and the cooler should stay stationary on the board.

This type of fishing is great for wading and/or going to a spot where the water is just a little too deep for wading or where the flats bottom is basically all mud where one can sink up to their thighs. If a muddy bottom where one can't wade fish, sight fishing to a fish or fishy looking spot is the perfect solution.

So if there is anyone on the Zoner site who is like me who loves to fish, crab and enjoys a fresh caught seafood dinner, whether they be a registered member or a non-member lurker, I hope you find these two videos interesting. BTW, watch these two videos in high definition and full screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIr-_RVileU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tNOPBamEK8

[Badger]

I think about fishing from my board now and then. I occasionally see people fishing for striped bass with that method.

Ultimately, I would want a board between 32" and 34". I can paddle a 28" board no problem but for fishing, I would want more stability. 

The 10'6 X 30" will work of course but there will be times when you'll wish it was wider. Like when a boat passes by.  A big 10 or 12 inch center fin might help to stabilize it. It's certainly worth a try.

Running bungees around the board will hold the cooler in place but it might surprise you how much drag that will create.

.

[Night Wing]

The cooler basically as three disadvantages. They are:

1) Put a lot of fish in the cooler and the combined weight of the fish will sink the tail of the sup.
2) The cooler will act as a sail in the wind so controlling where you want to paddle will be difficult and it makes paddling harder.
3) The bungee cords under the board will create drag when paddling.

But there are ways to counter act those disadvantages. Instead of a cooler, take along a burlap sack and put your caught fish in the sack. When it is time to paddle to a different fishing spot or paddle back to your vehicle, place the sack full of fish between your feet on the sweet spot of the board.

If one wants to take two fishing poles with them, then wear a wading belt which has two rocket launcher fishing rod holders attached to the belt as in the link below. The wading belt fits around your waist so the rod holders are basically to the right and left of your lower back and out of the way.

http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/-h2o-xpress-quick-draw-wading-belt#repChildCatid=724104

[SUP Sports ®]

Aloha Night Wing,
We've built a number of Hammers that were optimized for fishing/paddling/surfing...
Here's a 10'3" x 31" Hammer that we built for Kristy in Florida, to get her fish on with...we installed tie-downs fore and aft...
Here original white deck pad eventually ended up getting stained with fish blood, etc...so we sent her out one of our stock iconic logo black pads to replace it...

[lucabrasi]

We've built a number of Hammers that were optimized for fishing/paddling/surfing...

ohhhhhhhh Warren. Last thing I needed to see was another custom Hammer.
I know at this point you waiting to hear from me but.........13' something possible? What did you find out?
I know the next time we talk I am done. Every day I thinking...........
 
 i will just send you an email for the details. Gracias

ok......I just read the original post more bettah.
You don't want to run bungees around your board. Been there, done that when I built my Kaholo and before I put my anchor points on it. Couldn't wait to get it out and was on the fence exactly what and where they would go. I seriously had noise like a strap on top of your car all tightened up like a guitar string depending on how I was going with the wind. I actually used a nylon strap but yes, it does create drag like Badger said, it's a pain in the ass, and it keeps slipping around. NSI makes great after market tie down anchors, others are out there as well.
I fished last summer quite a bit on a Jimmy Lewis Mission. Lots of float, plenty stable, fun, all sorts and all that but really was kind of a pain to fish off of. Actually not to fish off of per se rather than go out all day and fish off of. A tad small for a crate on the back and in front but I did it and it seemed more squirrely sitting down on the crate than standing up is. 200 lbs or so here, 230 litre board. When fall hit and the water cooled it was fine for paddling but to try and fish and concentrate to keep from falling when falling was either an issue or would just ruin the day I put it away. I will fish off of it again for sure, it's a great and fun board but as mainly a fishing platform I would not recommend it. I got some other aircraft carrier boards I would recommend but they are bigger than what I want now for every day goofing off. Somewhere in between and a custom Hammer been calling my name for almost a year. Length I want, width I want, thickness I want, which makes the liters I want which makes the board I want...........till the next idea comes along. "damn, this is nice........if it was a little more thin then I could make the nose like this and the tail like this..I wonder.........."
Not trying to make this an ad for a Hammer but 28" is too narrow. Yeah, you can do it but for your fishing platform....hell, we just out putzing around out there, at least I am when I gots all my crap...make sure you more than wide enough. All sorts of ways doing it but darn if I could imagine packing another rod on a belt around all day. I not sure how long you go out for but for more than a couple hours it is nice to have that stability and places to put all your stuff on the board and not in you hand or on a belt.

[Night Wing]

@WarDog

Then problem is still the cooler. Here on the upper Texas, it's windy during the springtime months. The fishing sup for Kristi is nice, but it isn't practical for a place where there is enough steady wind (12-17 mph, gusting to 20 mph) that is going to push against the cooler and turn it into a sail.

The only months on the upper Texas coast that doesn't have lots of wind are the months of July and August when that big high pressure dome of air just parks over us. While there is not much wind, the air is being compressed towards the surface and that increases the heat index temperature wise to 108-112 degrees F. That is some serious heat and the danger of getting a heat stroke increases when one is getting tired and is pushing one's self to keep paddling.

This is why I mentioned a burlap sack which can be folded when heading out to fish. The burlap sack will never catch any wind. When I went saltwater kayak fishing, even though I had enough room in my tank well to take a cooler along with me, I never did. Why? Because if the wind caught the cooler and if you needed to paddle from north to south to your fishing destination, but the wind was coming at you broadside from west to east, you'd be fighting the wind pushing against the cooler located at the tail end of the sup, while trying to paddle from north to south.

If your fishing spot was a mile or more away, you'd be pretty tired when you reached your fishing destination. Then, you'd have to fight the wind again on the way back to your launching point. And it will be harder to paddle on your way back than when you started if the cooler has increased in weight if it is now half full of caught fish. This is why in windy conditions, a cooler on the tail end of sup (or kayak) which can catch the wind is not a good idea.

I do like the idea of tie downs though. My now sold Hobie had 14 tie downs on it.

[Night Wing]

@lucabrasi

With my bad lower back, I would never try to fish from a 28" wide sup. A 10'6"x30" sup is what I'm looking at mostly for flat water cruising and a little sup surfing.

If I can fish or crab from it, then this would be an added and unexpected bonus. And since I'm 150 pounds, a custom 10'6"x30"x4" Hammer would have 160 liters of volume and this sup should fit the bill for me for all three criteria.

[yugi]

@WarDog

Then problem is still the cooler. Here on the upper Texas, it's windy during the springtime months. The fishing sup for Kristi is nice, but it isn't practical for a place where there is enough steady wind (12-17 mph, gusting to 20 mph) that is going to push against the cooler and turn it into a sail.

The only months on the upper Texas coast that doesn't have lots of wind are the months of July and August when that big high pressure dome of air just parks over us. While there is not much wind, the air is being compressed towards the surface and that increases the heat index temperature wise to 108-112 degrees F. That is some serious heat and the danger of getting a heat stroke increases when one is getting tired and is pushing one's self to keep paddling.

This is why I mentioned a burlap sack which can be folded when heading out to fish. The burlap sack will never catch any wind. When I went saltwater kayak fishing, even though I had enough room in my tank well to take a cooler along with me, I never did. Why? Because if the wind caught the cooler and if you needed to paddle from north to south to your fishing destination, but the wind was coming at you broadside from west to east, you'd be fighting the wind pushing against the cooler located at the tail end of the sup, while trying to paddle from north to south.

If your fishing spot was a mile or more away, you'd be pretty tired when you reached your fishing destination. Then, you'd have to fight the wind again on the way back to your launching point. And it will be harder to paddle on your way back than when you started if the cooler has increased in weight if it is now half full of caught fish. This is why in windy conditions, a cooler on the tail end of sup (or kayak) which can catch the wind is not a good idea.

I do like the idea of tie downs though. My now sold Hobie had 14 tie downs on it.

I thought you said you didn’t have wind for downwinding. One can have fun downwinding in a wee breeze, Captain.

On a SUP a cooler placed over the fin will not affect direction of the board. On the front it would greatly.

A kayak it will front or back because you don’t have a fin.

It’s physics of sailing, Captain.

[yugi]

...
 if the wind caught the cooler and if you needed to paddle from north to south to your fishing destination, but the wind was coming at you broadside from west to east, you'd be fighting the wind pushing against the cooler located at the tail end of the sup, while trying to paddle from north to south.
...

At sea, Captain, one can simply say heading south in a west wind.

[Night Wing]

I thought you said you didn’t have wind for downwinding. One can have fun downwinding in a wee breeze, Captain.

We don't have enough wind or water conditions for down winding.

Since this is night time as I type this; in the morning when it gets light enough to see, check on the two links below. Once on the page, then scroll on down the page and then click on the streaming videos for each link and you'll see the Gulf of Mexico looking offshore from the Bolivar Peninsula. What you're going to see is no wind or wave conditions for down winding.

https://www.bolivarpeninsulatexas.com/Webcams/Bluewater-Beach

https://www.bolivarpeninsulatexas.com/Webcams/Sunrise-Beach

The shelf of the Gulf of Mexico close to shore is very shallow. Because of the shallowness and underwater topography, we don't get big waves or swells like they do on the east or west coasts where one can down wind.

The bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is a like a big shallow bowl. In order to reach 60' of water depth (10 fathoms) off of Galveston, one has to travel offshore for around 35 miles. To reach 60' feet of water depth (10 fathoms) off of Freeport, near Surfside, one has to travel 8 miles offshore. There are some places in Christmas Bay where I can walk out 100 yards from the beach and only be in waist deep water and I'm 5'8" tall. And the waves will be around 9" (nine inches) in height.






 

[Beasho]

I am a minimalist with regards to fishing off a SUP.

NO tie-downs, no coolers, NOTHING on the deck.  Unless its a dog and a kid.

You can do just fine with a 28" wide 12' board.  Or a 10' X 36" board.

Here I am fishing with a hip-pack and my 12' SUP gun catching ling cod in California. 

[Beasho]

Here with a 12' Windsurfer one.  It probably is more like 26" wide:

[Night Wing]

...
 if the wind caught the cooler and if you needed to paddle from north to south to your fishing destination, but the wind was coming at you broadside from west to east, you'd be fighting the wind pushing against the cooler located at the tail end of the sup, while trying to paddle from north to south.
...

At sea, Captain, one can simply say heading south in a west wind.

Off Topic:

I guess in that other topic where I said "I wasn't going to take our advice", hit a raw nerve with you. You might want me to play your game, but instead I'm just going to put you on my Ignore List on this site where I won't be seeing your comments anymore. Which means you can now go pester someone else and see if they'll be dumb enough to play your game.

[Beasho]

This board is 36" wide.  I have fished with the dog on the front, a kid on the back and caught loads of Stripers.

This is Gibson.  He seldomly jumps off, but has when I have had a kid on the bow and been hooked up with a fish in the rocks. 

All part of the adventure.  NOTHING CUSTOM.   

Just a wide, stable board, a hip pack with gear and a fishing rod.  No need to make things complicated.  This fish was 36" long.  The biggest I have caught on a SUP was 45".

[yugi]

...
 if the wind caught the cooler and if you needed to paddle from north to south to your fishing destination, but the wind was coming at you broadside from west to east, you'd be fighting the wind pushing against the cooler located at the tail end of the sup, while trying to paddle from north to south.
...

At sea, Captain, one can simply say heading south in a west wind.

Off Topic:

I guess in that other topic where I said "I wasn't going to take our advice", hit a raw nerve with you. You might want me to play your game, but instead I'm just going to put you on my Ignore List on this site where I won't be seeing your comments anymore. Which means you can now go pester someone else and see if they'll be dumb enough to play your game.

Not at all. No one needs to take anyone's advice.

On said topic you seem to have a very good idea of your needs and what you want and that's cool.