EDITOR’S ANGLE


So many questions. PHOTO: LAURA HAMBER


Great Expectations


MY SON DOUGIE doesn’t know that kay- ak fishing is a fringe sport hardly on the so- nar of Berkley or Rapala. He doesn’t know that most fishermen stand up in boats that do 30-plus miles an hour. Dougie has never seen red- and silver-flaked metal- lic paint. At three years old, all he knows about bass fishing is drifting worms past rocky shoals in a kayak. Like Dougie, kayak fishing is just be-


yond infancy. This is an early stage of de- velopment where growth is irregular and it occurs in spurts. A stage when different parts of the body grow at different rates. Editors of magazines sometimes feel


like parents arguing about what is best for our little sport and wonder what it will be when it grows up. We ask ourselves questions like: What


is kayak fishing? Should we have canoes in our buyer’s guide? (They’re allowed in kayak fishing tournaments.) What about inflatables? What if it has oars, flippers or a trolling motor? These are important questions when


it comes to putting together a magazine, and the answers will shape kayak fishing. A kayak by definition is, “A canoe of a


type used originally by the Eskimo, made of a light frame with a watertight cover- ing having a small opening in the top to


sit in.” This traditional definition pretty much eliminates every fishing kayak on the market today. So we need to cast the net a little wider. As the publisher of paddling magazines


my layman definition of kayaking is less anthropological and more posterior. I fig- ure if you’re sitting on your butt and mov- ing across water using a stick with two blades, then you’re kayaking. And this is what you’ll find when you flip through our “2008 Fishing Kayak Buyer’s Guide.” Where my definition breaks down is


with innovative companies like Hobie and Native who offer foot-operated propulsion systems. While traditional kayakers shud- der at the thought, anglers don’t seem to give a rat’s ass (nor I bet would the Eski- mos who would have loved the ability to chase seals, harpoons in both hands). In the last five years we’ve seen mar-


velous innovations in fishing kayaks, but they still, for the most part, look like kay- aks. This is because the growth spurt now is in four main areas—California, Texas, Florida and New England—where kayaks work really well. Our office is in God’s country, rugged Canadian Shield blessed with deep inland lakes, rivers and scruffy lumberjacks. This is largemouth, walleye and muskie terri-


tory. It is a land opened by the voyageurs, a land rich in canoeing heritage. For three years my fully rigged sit-on-top


kayak has hung out the back of my pickup. Never have I met a guy in a plaid flannel shirt who hasn’t asked, “Why wouldn’t you just canoe?” And then, “Where does the trolling motor go?” As freshwater fishermen find kayak


fishing the definition of what is a fishing kayak will become even more murky. They are likely to become more like canoes. But what does it matter? Had we’d started this magazine 10


years ago when anglers were bungie- cording tackle boxes to longboards, we’d have called it Board Angler. Maybe in 10 years when Dougie is a teenager he’ll look back laughing at this photograph of us on my sit-on-top kayak, “So that’s why you called the magazine Kayak Angler.” No matter what kayak fishing becomes


I just hope we’ll be fishing together in something without a metallic paint job.


SCOTT MACGREGOR is the publisher of Kayak Angler, Rapid, Adventure Kayak, Canoeroots and Family Camping magazines. Dougie caught more fish last summer.


www.kayakanglermag.com… 7


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52