Best Way To Start

Hey everyone, I'm very novice to fishing and even more so to kayak fishing. Not sure if I have had bad luck or just no luck at all at catching anything of any kind on lakes. Ponds I've caught plenty from. But I would like to start catching some from a lake preferably Ray Roberts, texoma, and lewisville. Anyone have any suggestions for the best way/ place to start catching/learning how to catch fish. And then start advancing my skills from there. Im determined to learn just apparently not starting in the right direction. Any advice would be appreciated.

One thing that helped me is breaking down the lake into smaller sections and fishing them like a pond. But sometimes, there just might not be fish there!

yep - you can't treat a lake like a pond... kayak's are a little slower than boats so you have to plan out in advance how and where your going to fish and launch appropriately (that or know where the fish are). Biggest advantage to a kayak - you will end up fishing both different places and in different ways than you do from a boat.

I would suggest investing in a few books on your favorite species and ordering from Amazon, even general books on fishing are very informative and usually very interesting to read.

Thanks guys, now for someone like me would you suggest learning lures and such first or just learning how to fish with minnows and worms?

I can help you catch catfish at the lakes mentioned. Bass...well....not so much. Usually they all migrate to other lakes when im on the water cause I never even get a nibble. Hahaha.

Trent

1st sandbass are usually easiest fish to catch. Next, look at reports on forum where other fisherman are catching them on each lake. See if you can find launch close to area. Sandbass have 2 things they key of off (size of bait) right now on most NTX lakes 2 inch shad. Find artificial that is close to this size. Next is "presentation". If you see fish chasing shad and doing top water then "presentation" is horizontal. Throw lure out let sink 1 or 2 seconds and reel in fast. Horizontal.
Nezt is if you find sandies on "structure" (hump or point) you may need vertical presentation. For sandies this is normally called jigging.

If you want to most likely I will be going to fork this weekend and I can show you how to Not catch fish.

Well I wish I could get out there with yall. Right now my only day off every week is Monday. So if yall ever go on a Monday definitely send me a message!

Trent, I think not trying to fish Lewisville would help your success rate I'd love to fish Ray Roberts in the yaks so I may have to PM you once there's a place to park.

Have at it! Just let me know.

Safety first, when fishing a bigger lake, have a flag, a whistle, lots of drinking water, and wear a pfd. Go with someone with more kayak experience if you can. The upper part of Range Creek at Ray Roberts would be a good place to start (good protection from the wind, boats are going really slow up there with all the standing timber, easy launch off the southwest part of the 377 bridge) In Texas wind, some good anchoring systems are key to fishing many of the bigger lakes--especially in the summer when more fish tend to move out deeper. Ray Roberts has lots of timber, so a clamp anchor (see rigging section) is a good thing to bring. Clamp anchors are cheap and easy to make and are very light--just clamp onto a tree branch. First few times out there, just take a few rods and a few of your confidence baits/jigs--keep the kayak as light and as uncluttered as you can.

If I am reading this right you want to learn about fishing and kayaking, research can only do so much for you time on the water is what will improve skills. I know Texoma well, Ray Roberts fairly well and soso on Lewisville, before I can point you in any direction I am asking for some specifics,

What do you want to learn to catch first? Crappie, Bass, Sandbass/Hybrids/Striper or Catfish? I recommend focusing on one at a time until you find the one that satisfies your fishing needs both for the fishing itself and what you want on the table if you want that too.
Do you want to learn to fish with artificial baits, live bait, prepared bait or all of the above?

I will tell you some things you need to look in to depending on budget, get the best electronics and maps you can afford they will help you locate fish and fishing spots. Get the best rods and reels you can afford, they will last longer and will help you when learning new techniques. Learn to take notes and see patterns of weather that are conducive to fishing, notating cloud conditions, wind direction and speeds, water temps and moon phase will help you find spots when you have similar conditions in the future.

Bert, I currently have the ascend fs12t kayak with the lowrance elite 4 hdi and it has downscan and then I also purchased the navionics app for iPhone as the gps on the finder didnt seem as detailed and as easy to read on the fish finder. Ideally would prefer to learn large mouths and then learn catfishing as I have always been fond of eating catfish when someone who knows really how to prepare it good does it.

Catfishing is easier to learn than bass fishing, you can pretty much catch them 11 months out of the year other than the spawn and even then you can still catch some good eating sized fish. Bass fishing has a lot of techniques that you will need to master to pattern them all year long. Most of the year I fish fresh dead shad whole or cut on a Santee Cooper rig, carolina style slip rig or three way rig drifting and catch lots of blue cats, once you figure out the bait patterns it is not too difficult to catch them or use them to catch cats. Fileting and prepping I can show you, it is not that hard.

Bass fishing, what techniques are you familiar with and what have you tried? Bass should be transitioning to a good carolina rig bite soon and I think that is one of the easier methods for learning to use soft plastics and what the bite feels like for bass. What type of rigs do you currently have for spinning and bait cast?

I would offer to take you out this weekend but weather is not looking good Saturday so I won't be able to check off enough things on the list for the boss lady to let me out Sunday either...

Thank you again for the in depth answers. Now this time of year where should I be looking for cats and what to look for on maps and fish Finder? Right now I only have two 6 foot zebcos ones a push button and the other is a spinning reel the push button is what I've used for cats since it has a heavier 20 pound line. But do plan on spending more on equipment once I learn what I really need. Also for cats do you anchor off or just let the bait and kayak drift?

This time of year I drift using a drift sock try to keep it below .5 mph with a santee cooper rig with a circle hook, main lake points near deep water especially if a channel is near by is where I start if fishing a lake. Be conscious of the fact that they are coming off the spawn, blues usually run up creeks and channel cats spawn in rocks, with the current in the lakes start near where tributaries come in the lakes. Timber near channels, channels, channel ledges, main lake humps and flats near channels can all be good it all depends on the wind direction and bait. Structure with cover is best in other words a stump field with a bunch of lay downs is going to work better than open water most of the time if bait is there if bait is in the open water fish there the predators will follow the prey.

If I find or create a spot I anchor on it, by creating a spot I mean chumming as I drift I use 20% range cubes as they are the easiest to handle and try to recreate the drift using my gps if I caught fish in it. I use 40 - 65 lb braided main line with a 25-80lb fluorocarbon leader and 4-12 aught circle hook depending on the size bait I am using and size cat I am going after. Mostly use the 5/0 with a 25 lb leader on 40 lb braid and set the float 4-6 inches from the bait to keep it off the bottom. I use the pro angler rods both in my bait cast and spinning set ups, basically I use everything from pro angler but hooks as I like 0 offset circle hooks, line since he does not sell any and slip bobbers as I have not run out of what I had when I started catfishing regularly. For spinning reels I use the Diawa Regal bite-n-run reel as I can use the bait clicker if I anchor the rod + reel set up is about 100$ and is practically bullet proof, baitcast set up I use 5600 and 6500 abugarcia ambassador c3 and c4 reels these are much more expensive so your set up will start around 150 with them and I am confident that the reels will hold up my oldest is 15 years old and newest is 12 years old and the only repair that has had to be done to them was when I lost a part while cleaning it.

Learn to use a cast net it is the only way to catch shad and that is the best bait for blue cats 95% of the time.

Another tip, if you are fishing an area and see sand bass on top water chasing bait try to fish under them the cats will move around under them cleaning up their messes.