I started fishing like many kids do, keenly watching a bobber, hoping my worm looked tasty to the granddaddy of all bass. Fishing was spending time with my dad, early mornings, a leaky 12-foot aluminum boat and my own Old Pal two-tray tackle box. I whispered over the edge, “Here fishy, fishy, fishy.”

As I got bigger so did my dad’s boats. He moved up to downriggers and bigger lakes, spending most of his time on the Great Lakes miles from shore fishing for lake trout and salmon. Meanwhile my interests remained on smaller lakes and rivers and my boats went the other way, getting smaller and smaller.

For the last 15 years I’ve lived and breathed canoeing and kayaking. There was the four summers I spent as a whitewater raft guide. One summer I blew off on a 2000-mile sea kayak expedition. I’ve taught whitewater canoeing and kayaking and started a whitewater paddling school. For almost 10 years now I’ve been publishing Rapid, North America’s first whitewater paddling magazine, adding two other paddling magazines along the way—Adventure Kayak and Canoeroots and Family Camping—as my interests stretched into sea kayaking and my focus shifted from running waterfalls to my wife and two children. All the while my dad was wondering why I wasn’t wetting a line in these beautiful lakes and rivers I was only paddling.

Two years ago, when kayak fishing began to really blip on the sonar, I wrote a feature story in Adventure Kayak magazine about a three-day kayak fishing adventure down a class III whitewater river inaccessible by boat—fishing for muskie, in November. People loved the story. Good kayak friends who’d never mentioned fishing before came out of their gear closets with their own Old Pal tackle boxes, dusty bamboo rods and reels spewing nests of 20-year-old line. Real fishermen, guys like my dad, also wanted to go kayak fishing for monster muskie. For me, it was the coming together of two of my life’s greatest passions.

Kayak fishing is now growing faster than a fish story after a couple of Coors. The sport is really big in California, Texas, Florida and New England, but hasn’t yet boomed in freshwater. By publishing 75,000 copies of Kayak Angler, a new special annual issue of Adventure Kayak magazine, we’ve set out to change that. Kayak fishing is inexpensive, and quiet, and easy. You can get on the water very quickly and fish waters you just can’t from a motorboat or shore. It combines two of the greatest outdoor sports imaginable. And best of all, it’s a blast to catch big fish from small boats. If you don’t believe me now, read on.

Inside you’ll find expert how-to articles for kayak fishing, the largest fishing kayak and gear buyer’s guide ever, hotspots to wet a line and paddle near you, and stories to get you inspired. Once you’re hooked on kayak fishing try dropping this issue off at your local barber shop (or hair dresser’s) to drum up some kayak fishing buddies.

In the meantime, I’ll be kayak fishing with my two-year-old son in my lap. He’ll start fishing just as I started…with a worm and a bobber. And if we’re lucky the
granddaddy of all bass will hear us whispering from our quiet kayak, “Here fishy, fishy, fishy.” —Scott MacGregor

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