If you’re new to the sport or just new to kayak fishing, prepare yourself to be thoroughly humbled. No matter what your background or skill level, kayak fishing demands a steep learning curve. Finding a guide or instructor to help you get started is crucial for overcoming the inevitable hurdles every novice faces, so you can advance more quickly to your goal of catching fish.
Here are ten reasons why you should seriously consider starting with a guide:
- Master the Elements. When you’re kayak fishing, you’re in a much smaller vessel than other fisherman. The winds and waves and tides will push you around in ways you never experienced on a larger boat or imagined while daydreaming on shore. A skilled guide can share critical experiential knowledge acquired over years and years of fishing and save you a great deal of time and frustration battling the long-winded lessons of trial and error.
- Learn the Marine Wildlife. When you’re perched mere inches above the churning, deep blue in a kayak, everything becomes magnified. An active pod of spinner dolphins can feel like an unpredictable water spout, a mahi mahi can look like a shark, and a humpback whale can feel like a Russian submarine. It’s like cruising down a busy highway in a go cart with no roll cage. A competent guide can help negotiate the marine wildlife with essential safety tips to ensure you hookup with the right species and avoid those sea creatures you’d rather not encounter.
- Local Knowledge. Local knowledge is invaluable. There is no one course in Hawaii kayak fishing that can possibly cover everything there is to know. Each island has its own unique elements to consider, and each corner of each island has its own nuances to learn and navigate. It’s the little things, as well as the big, that can trip you up when you’re starting out somewhere new. Where to park? Where to launch?
- Safety is Sexy. Being well prepared is not just a matter of minimizing the frustration that inevitably accompanies learning a new trade. It’s a matter of keeping you safe in the case of an emergency so you can make it back to the beach after each launch with good tavern-worthy stories. An experienced guide will cover safety as a first order of business.
- Enter the Deep Blue. When you bravely insert yourself into the elements, you can quickly be overwhelmed with the realization of just how large the ocean is, and how very, very small you are. Navigating the deep blue is an entirely different beast to comprehend (but never to be tamed). The winds and currents behave differently out at sea, and you’ll want an experienced deep sea angler to help you with this monumental chapter of kayak fishing in Hawaii.
- Targeting Different Species. Some skills just can’t be mastered while sitting on your couch following instructional youtube videos (yep, we’ve all been there). Each passing season will bring a different set of species to target. Each new species requires, you guessed it, a whole new skill set. Learning the best way to target each species is like traveling the world and trying to learn a new language everywhere you land. By the time you figure anything out, the target species will be well on its way, and you’ll be perpetually stuck chasing your tail.
- Gear Up. Novice anglers can be a goldmine for a bait and tackle shop owner. If you don’t know exactly what you need, it’s very likely that you’ll overspend on pricey models and gear you just don’t need. The last thing you need is to break the bank on a truck full of unnecessary gear, only to learn over time the hard way that you still don’t have all the essentials.
- Networking. Starting with an experienced guide is a fast track to easy networking. The greatest advantage the experienced local anglers have over a novice is their network of friends to share information with. In Hawaii it’s called the coconut wireless, and its faster and more reliable than the internet. Weaseling your way into the local fray on your own can take decades. Paying a local guide is the most effective way to support the local economy and enter the local’s good graces.
- Avoid Cultural Exile. Every corner of each island has its own unique cultural heritage and vibe, which is not necessarily obvious to a novice angler. Parking in Uncle Allen’s parking spot and launching on his reef could springboard you directly into cultural exile, which can easily take another decade to crawl out of. Learning to respect the locals is as important as learning how to tie a mean Palomar knot.
- Study the Changing Tides. If you embark on a new kayak fishing adventure on your own, you’ll inevitably figure some things out over time. But what you may not realize is that your skill set needs to change as the conditions change. Learning how to kayak fish in the summertime will not set you up for wintertime success. The swells will change, along with the target species, and the ocean you think you’ve begun to dial in will change drastically.
Those are 10 reasons to strongly consider starting with an experienced guide. If you spent all your funds getting setup with gear, and you’re on a tight budget, try and find another experienced angler who can show you the ropes. At the very least, make sure you check out these critical kayak fishing safety tips before you drift into the belly of the beast.