Ah… you always remember your first. Your first love, your first kiss, and your first fish. When you’re a hardcore angler like me, you remember your first fish in a number of ways: first of particular species, first with a favorite lure, first using a certain technique. Sometimes you get lucky. My first time kayak fishing, I rented a kayak off Shelter Island Pier in San Diego. I didn’t really know what I was doing, so I fished a double dropper loop with strips of squid and drifted past structure. All of a sudden, my pole went heavy and I experienced my first ‘sleigh ride’ courtesy of two sand bass.

In this article from Kayak Angler, seven pro anglers recall their first catches from a kayak

kayak_sandiesThe first catch, the one that started you off on the path to becoming a kayak angler, is one you’ll never forget. Whether that first catch was a bass in a frog pond or a king mackerel in the ocean, you’re probably still telling the story. Kayak Angler asked seven pros what their first kayak catch was. Here’s what they told us:

1) Capt. Fil “Fishman” Spencer, one of the original Ocean Kayak pro staffers, kayak fishing pioneer/legend and guide/owner of fishmansguideservice.com. 

–Well first I was on my surfboard and then a windsurfing board I built catching speckled trout and redfish, but when I got my first SOT, over 25 years ago, I was gone, it made things so much easier.

I was going for speckled trout and would limit out at 8am and laugh about the other boaters who were just leaving the docks. I’d hide the fish I caught and if people saw they’d say, ‘you can fish from that?’ I’d laugh at that too.”

2) Amy JohnsonJase Custom Fishing RodsWar Dog Lures, and SHO Baits pro and a Rudy Project fishing team member and BASS CRAZY team member.

–The first fish I caught from a kayak was a largemouth bass! It was about four pounds and took me for a ride in my little eight-foot kayak. That was three years ago.

Photos: Kayak Angler (top), SoCal Salty (above)