Paddle boards and fly rods

[fishrising]

Not looking for skepticism or pros cons of doing so, but interested to hear real life experiences of how those that do fly fish from a paddle board, carry their fly rods.

I assume you have a pack, back, sling or hip. How do you attach your fly rod to it? Are you using something like the Fish Pond Quickshot? Something similar? Looking for ideas.

Planning to bamboo fly fish both trout/bass on rivers around me as well as for schoolie stripers in some back estuaries from my paddle board.

Thanks in advance!

[Brooks]

I've got a little Orion cooler from Jackson Kayaks (it's like a Yeti but even more fancy if you can imagine that) that has a track on it that accepts Scotty Rod holders. My inflatable SUP has lash-points 3/4 of the way back on the deck that I strap the cooler to. Then I can sit on the cooler as a raised seat and paddle it like a flat kayak. When standing up, the cooler acts like high-back ski boots on the backs of my lower legs--which helps this wobbly old guy stay up and avoid the dancing-monkey-swimming-monkey-in-the-river with a fly rod (instead of a football) situation.

My wife mostly uses the SUP and I usually take my Clearwater little one-man raft. They both are quite fun this warm time of year for our local short floats. I did take the SUP to Honduras for some fun adventuring, but that's another story.
https://jacksonkayak.com/orion-fishing-collection/

[mlarocco]

I recently fished East Lake in Central Oregon (Newberry Crater). There was a 30ish man fly fishing from a paddle board. He simply laid his rod or paddle on the board depending if he was fishing or paddling.

Observation:

1. Fishing from a canoe, pontoon boat, float tube etc... the casting arm is closer to the water. It can impede some people's backcast (graphite people sometimes use 10' rods to gain the extra 12"). The paddle board guy was making long casts which can be key on a still water (could be he was just a good caster)

2. I'd be afraid of stepping on the rod when I was paddling

3. Like a wading fisherman, all gear had to be carried on the fisher's body

4. He did not have a net. When he hooked a fish he would bend over and shake the hook loose (he was flexible)

5. I see people take their dogs out on PB's. Guess you could use a milk crate to put gear in

When the wind came up he got off the water. I assumed he was concerned about stability but maybe his day was over anyways.

Watching him I had no desire to take up paddle board fly fishing (though it did make me wish I had my 30 year old body again)

[Doug K]

if I didn't already have a fleet of canoes, I'd get something like the NRS purpose-built fishing SUP, which has mounts for rod holders..

I installed a velcro loop on the shoulder strap of my fishing bag, and a small loop off the side of the bag. The reel seat goes into the small loop, the velcro goes around the rod. Typically this is for a second rod when I'm walking around, it would work SUP too.

[rosco]

By paddle board is like the NRS. I have a rack with rod holders like Bote sells. I use a Engle bate cooler in front of it as a seat. I fish lakes for bass and can also fish slow moving streams for trout. I use a small length of chain as an anchor. I am looking at figuring out some kind of fin for the front so when I anchor in a little faster moving water I don’t swing back and forth. It’s stable it I’m facing upstream. I am going to try reversing my setup since my board has the same mounts front and back (and face the back) then I could drag a lite chain or anchor easily to fish. It is certainly stealth and extremely effective. The rack keeps my rods safe and my Brittany likes to ride on the bow. Nothing better on a hot day to hit a lake, catch some bass and swim to stay cool.


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[rosco]

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[Recurve1.1]

No info on fishing from SUPs but when I go canoeing on lakes I use rod floats for fly or spin. I would hate to lose a cane rod (or any rod) overboard - these things really work. Take a little getting use to but worth it if the rod falls in. A friend dropped a pricey rod overboard and never recovered it.

https://www.amazon.com/Shoreline-Marine ... 050&sr=8-6