Without A Paddle

[BigOnFishin]

I have been fishing for quite some time now and I would say that i am at that level of experience where fishing from the shore just isnt good enough anymore. HOWEVER, i can not handle a boat right now. I start college next year, money is always a factor, storage, etc. What should i do? I fish the Smith Mountain Lake area, mainly the northern part. Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

[CPBassFishing]

do you have a family canoe, kayak, anything? you can get an aluminim dinghy for under $200 at BPS and get two paddle mounts for it.

[roadwarrior]

Find a bass club you can join as a non-boater.

 

 

 

 

[BrianinMD]

If you can swim a kayak would be a good option, just be mindful SML is large don't get out into the main lake the waves from big boats would not be to fun.

[jhoffman]

zodiac and a small motor

[J Francho]

I would not go out on SML on a kayak.  At least not far out.  The advice to join a small club as a non boater is very good. You will learn a ton.

[Fishes in trees]

A few suggestions.  First, joining a bass club as a non-boater isn't a bad idea.   Secondly, find some old geezer who has a boat and a truck and would go fishing more often if he had someone to help him drive to the lake, load/unload the boat, and what not.

 

Third, considering that you are getting ready to start college, I'd suggest that maybe, just maybe, your bank fishing game could use some more polish.   I know that I wasn't at the top of my bank fishing game when I was a freshman in college.  JMO

[esoxangler]

Here's a thought, what about a Float Tube, not the most glamourous but it will get you away from the shore. I had a buddy years ago that would wait till the water warmed up enough to be comfortible and then slap on some fins, jump into hs float tube and off he would go. Of course he usually fished smaller bodies of waters that did not have a high boat traffic, if it did he would keep it closer to shore for safety reasons. He used to catch some nice fish doing this.Tubes can run from 70.00 into the several hundreds.

[Ratherbfishing]

Here's a thought (for what it's worth):  Instead of trying to go "up" (in terms of floating platforms), consider going down in the size of the bodies of water you fish. I don't know what you are accustomed to or what's available to you but larger lakes can be difficult to fish from the banks.  Access can be quite limited.  Small lakes, ponds, and rivers, on the other hand, can offer really good fishing without having to scale cliffs or wade dangerous currents, etc.

[Tuckahoe Joe]

You could always lash some logs together and build yourself a raft....you know...kinda like Huck Finn style.

[Crestliner2008]

Roadwarrior is spot on. Best alternative to a temporary situation. If you are hankerin' to have your own rig, there are lot of 12' open fishing boats on sale for a reasonable price. You just have to shop around for one that isn't too beat up.

[PondBoss]

Get a good quality tube to fish out of.  Granted it is slow to cover a big body of water, but you can drive around and get in anywhere.

[OkobojiEagle]

http://www.bigfishtackle.com/forum/gforum.cgi?category=66

 

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