EDITOR’S ANGLE


FRESH MEAT. PHOTO: SCOTT MACGREGOR


PADDLE BETTER, FISH BETTER


I’ve always been known as the paddler of the group on my travels,


usually because I’m with bass fishermen who’d


rather let an engine do the work for them. When I visited Kayak Angler’s headquarters last spring however, I was surrounded by real paddlers, people who have literally devoted their lives to paddling. Watching Rapid Media founder Scott MacGregor and


Adventure Kayak editor Virginia Marshall ferry across the rap- ids with subtle flicks of their wrists and tilts of their boats, I was amazed. They could dance around rapids and rocks more ef- fortlessly then I could walk from the riverbank back to my truck. Instead of muscling their way through the moving water and looking like they were about to pass out, they were smiling. By using the right techniques, these paddlers could get behind rocks and current and sit there resting quietly like the rapid was a rocking chair. My fishy brain immediately switched from wonder to plotting:


If I were to paddle like that, I could hit the spots other kayak anglers only dream of casting into as they blow through the rapids. I could pick off unsuspecting trophies from the eddylines before they realize I'm there! While I was paddling in the bow of a tandem canoe with Rapid editor Emma Drudge sitting in the stern, guiding us


68 KAYAK FISHING || Annual 2015


through what they told me would only be “the dry lines” (ha!), I was doing some serious thinking. If I could paddle like this in the salt, I could cover more ground and fish as many spots as I had time for, not as many as I could muscle. Both of us soaking wet in the canoe, Drudge taught me about ferries, surfs and technique. She taught me to use the current, not fight it. I watched intently as the other paddlers carved where I would have flipped. I banked all the information I could and replayed it in my mind that night and again later, during the long drive home. Back in my home waters, I started dancing in the surf. When


the whale watching boat threw a wake that had once flipped me, I surfed to my next spot. When my buddies were straining against the wind with inefficient paddle strokes, I was slicing through and resting smuggly until they caught up. I’ve since started correcting people who call me the paddler


of the group and tell them instead about my co-workers. While I still can’t see myself making a habit of jumping into a boat without bringing a rod, I do know becoming a better paddler means that I can focus on what really matters—spotting my next trophy under that eddyline. Ben Duchesney is the web editor for Kayak Angler magazine. Find him surfing online at www.kayakanglermag.com.


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