Kayak Fishing Hacks with Chris Funk
4-minute read + 3 short videos
Chris Funk, one of our kayak fishing ProStaff team members, offers some great advice to other kayak anglers through his social media platforms. We collected a handful of his videos here to give you a few of his kayak fishing hacks.
Bending Branches ProStaffer Chris Funk (photo courtesy of @feral_one_photography)
These hacks will help make your kayak angling more successful and safer:
Stand Up in Your Fishing Kayak
Many anglers like the option to both stand and sit as they fish from their kayak. It’s more comfortable to be able to change positions to avoid stiffness, especially if you’re out on the water all day. And some fishing maneuvers are easier and more effective when standing rather than sitting.
If you haven’t stood in your kayak before, though, it can be tricky to maintain your balance while you fish.
In this 5-minute video, Chris talks about why he likes to stand while he fishes and how he trained his body to balance on an unsteady surface like a fishing kayak:
He bought himself a couple of tools he uses at home to get used to keeping his legs and hips loose and adjusting to constant slight movements similar to a fishing kayak:
- Wobble Board—a rigid round board that’s balanced on a smaller piece in the center. It helps develop overall balance and core strength.
- Indo Board—a name-brand balance board that offers a variety of shapes and sizes. It mimics the motion of a fishing kayak exactly. Much pricier than a typical wobble board, but might be worth it if you’re a serious angler.
Chris was able to progress from being very stiff and wobbly to being stable and steady enough to cast, shoot a bow and other active fishing motions from a standing position. It changed his fishing game.
Fighting the Wind While You Fish
Chris recorded this video after dealing with strong sustained winds for a few days while on an Okeefenokee fishing expedition. In this 7-minute video, he offers several useful hacks for dealing with this kind of wind so it doesn’t ruin your trip:
Here are just three of the many points Chris covers:
- Know your own strength. If you can, paddle into the wind on your way out so you’ll be with the wind coming back. If that’s not possible, be sure you save some strength to return to your launch while you battle high wind along the way.
- Know the body of water you’ll fish on and the wind direction. If you can find spots along a high bank or in a secluded cove that offer some protection from the wind, take advantage of those.
- Feather your paddle. To feather your paddle means to adjust the ferrule so your blades are offset from each other. You can adjust the angle so that the blade that’s out of the water cuts into the wind instead of acting like a sail against the wind.
Chris goes over several more good tips, so be sure to watch the above video!
Sun Safety and Diligence
Part of kayak fishing safety includes protecting your skin during all those hours in the sun. Chris admits that in his younger years, he spent hours in the sun unprotected regularly (as many of us have!).
More recently though, he invested in some high-quality outdoor apparel that covers most of his skin while still breathing and keeping him cool in his Alabama summers. That’s been a game-changer for him.
In this video, he also encourages kayak anglers (and other outdoors folks) to visit a dermatologist annually or bi-annually. Skin cancers aren’t rare, and they’re mostly treatable when caught early.
Take a look:
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Easy Cam Strap Kayak Assisted Rescue Tip
The last of Chris’s videos we’ll highlight here is his technique for using a simple cam strap for an assisted rescue to re-enter a fishing kayak in case of a capsize.
While no one plans to capsize their boat, it’s never not a possibility! It’s part of being on the water—especially if you stand while you fish as we talked about above. (That’s one of the reasons why you should wear your PFD all the time, and not just have it in the boat.)
Since you’re likely to use cam straps to tie your kayak down on your vehicle anyway, bring one with you in your kayak. Then it’s available in case you or someone you’re with ends up swimming.
Take a look at this simple technique for assisting someone to re-enter from the water using an ordinary cam strap:
To see more kayak fishing videos like this, visit Chris Funk’s YouTube channel.
Do you have paddle questions our friendly Customer Service Team can help you with today? Contact them: 715-755-3405 • [email protected]
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