Your shore/canoe/bass boat rankings

[Swamp Girl]

How would you rank your fishing ability from the shore, in a canoe or kayak with no electronics, and in a bass boat. Out of 10.

 

SHORE: I began as a shore angler and I still fish occasionally from the shore and catch a few with my feet on the ground, so I'd give myself a 5. No, 6 for the half dozen muskies I've caught from the shore. Even with those muskies, I'm no @Pat Brown. Nowhere near.

 

BASIC CANOE/KAYAK: I'm an excellent paddler and love primitive, sneaky fishing, so I'm a 10. 

 

BASS BOAT or TRICKED OUT SMALLER MOTORBOAT: I can't operate a trolling motor or any form of sonar. I could start the engine and launch the boat, as I've trailered boats and run outboards, but that's about it. 2 for being able to launch the boat and start the engine.

[Pat Brown]

I'd say that on the bank I'm pretty aware of the advantages/limitations that I'm gonna have and able to exploit the good parts and avoid falling into pits on a good day probably 80% of the time so we'll say 8/10

 

From a canoe or kayak I'm a healthy 2/10.  I know how to do fishing but the boat mechanics stuff I'm a total novice and I know it - would be a struggle to fish all day from one without practicing.

 

Small boat - I'd say that I'm pretty competent and aware of what the goal is and also another situation where I'm pretty versed in the advantage/pitfall relationship and how to exploit that knowledge.  I'd say maybe 7/10 only because there are times of year where I struggle from the boat and do better on the bank.

[Swamp Girl]

12 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

would be a struggle to fish all day from one without practicing.

 

Pat, you have solid insight into fishing from a small, paddled boat. Boat management is the key to landing fish. I will position my boat in a particular place for a planned cast, knowing that if I hook a nice bass, it will pull me into trouble, so I place the boat where there will be less trouble and give me a chance to land it. If my plan goes awry, as it often does, I have to keep my cool and respond on the fly. Last night, this fish reached weeds because there were weeds in every direction and there was no better place to position my boat. It was dusk, but in the weeds, I saw some weeds move and I went for her with my net and guessed correctly. Even in the net, I could barely see her as she was coated in weeds. 

 

 

12 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

8/10

 

Nah. You're the gold standard from the shore. 24K.

[Functional]

Since I think the question is more geared towards your ability to get places and fish and fish the area well and not necessarily how many/quality you catch I'm going to answer that way.

 

Shore: 3/10. I did some of it in my youth but I was fortunate enough to always be taken on a boat or have access to a boat. My lack of skill here comes in the research area of where I can hike around a lake legally and getting access to areas you need to do some legwork to find the owner. My knowledge of all the ins and outs of that stuff is just very lacking. For the places I do go on foot I can fish to what I believe its fullest extent.

 

Canoe/Kayak: 5/10. I've done it for a few years and still do it on occasion but I wouldnt say I ever got comfortable doing it. I constantly get pulled into cover fighting a fish, blown past spots too easily, etc. What I am good at is using its advantages and getting into spaces bank anglers and boats cant get and fishing. That and being a lot more quiet helps. Dedicating more time to this and the right equipment I'm sure I could bump this up similar to my boat score. 

 

Boat: 8/10. There are few times I catch myself thinking I could have approached a bit of cover better but other than that I know the limitations of my boat and have learned how to attack spots given wind and other conditions well. Some aspects of sonar I could understand better but I can adjust it multiple times a day to the conditions present and get the most out of them I believe I can for now.

 

I'll never give myself a perfect score, always room for improvement. 

 

If were talking quantity/quality of fish then its a toss up. I've caught good fish and numbers in every one of those 3 categories. Some days I'll fish from shore quick in the morning and do well expecting the same on the boat to only catch 1 later that day. Others I wouldnt get a nibble from shore and kill em in the boat. 

[Swamp Girl]

5 minutes ago, Functional said:

I constantly get pulled into cover fighting a fish

 

Isn't it amazing how quickly your situation changes from solid to YIKES!?!

 

5 minutes ago, Functional said:

What I am good at is using its advantages and getting into spaces bank anglers and boats cant get and fishing. That and being a lot more quiet helps.

 

Yep and yep. You sure understand the advantages of a light boat that has no prop in the water.

 

6 minutes ago, Functional said:

I'll never give myself a perfect score, always room for improvement. 

 

You're right. I now regret giving myself a 10 for paddling. I'm now a 9.

 

Quote

If were talking quantity/quality of fish then its a toss up. I've caught good fish and numbers in every one of those 3 categories. Some days I'll fish from shore quick in the morning and do well expecting the same on the boat to only catch 1 later that day. Others I wouldnt get a nibble from shore and kill em in the boat. 

 

We just never know, do we?

[gim]

@Functional assessment is pretty close to mine too.  I haven't fished from shore in almost 30 years because my family always had a boat growing up.  The trespass laws and private property that have control over most of the water access here also inhibits me from even attempting it and I have no interest in fishing from a pier with a dozen other people when I own my own boat.  I hunt a lot in the fall on private land and I'm very familiar with the laws associated with trespassing so I don't take them lightly.

 

My canoe skills are very minimal, as are my yak skills.  I've been in both a couple times, but they were basic models and not really fully designed to fish out of.  As stated above, I've always had access to a fishing boat so I use that.

 

I do have a 12 foot aluminum jon boat that I use for duck hunting.  I also use it in midsummer to float a shallow river for smallmouth, which I hope to attempt soon here.  I haven't used it 4 out of the last 5 years because of drought here though.  So with that, I'm pretty good.  Its stable and can draft through 2 inches of water.  Its very tough to steer with one person though, as the front is square shaped.

[Functional]

8 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

You're right. I now regret giving myself a 10 for paddling. I'm now a 9.

🤣 I think you are an exception with paddling. At the very least give yourself a 9.9! I wouldn't be surprised if you've bumped a fish or 2 on the head early in the morning. 

[TOXIC]

My skill doesn’t change no matter where or what I’m fishing from but my ability to get to the fish does.  If my skill can pick out a spot on the bank where there’s fish, I’ll catch ‘em, if my skill in not turtleing a kayak holds, I’ll catch ‘em, in a bass boat it’s a whole different game.  😉

[Bankc]

I do better with less.  I do best from the bank, especially on smaller ponds with limited access.  It limits my options for where to fish and without the electronics, boat positioning, and all of the other distractions, I focus more on maximizing what I have before me.  In a canoe or kayak without electronics, it opens up more places to fish, and I tend to get more impatient and overwhelmed by options.  Add a sonar to that, and you've given me another dimension to work with.  My mind focuses on "what else", instead of maximizing what I have access to.  In a full on bass boat, I'm sure I'd be completely lost, trying to play complex video games with live scope instead of actual fishing. 

 

The less I have to worry about that's not my lure, the better.  When 100% of my attention is on my lure, I do a lot better. 

[Swamp Girl]

6 minutes ago, Functional said:

🤣 I think you are an exception with paddling. At the very least give yourself a 9.9! I wouldn't be surprised if you've bumped a fish or 2 on the head early in the morning. 

 

No lie: I have bumped many bass and oh, do they scurry!

 

5 minutes ago, Bankc said:

The less I have to worry about that's not my lure, the better.  When 100% of my attention is on my lure, I do a lot better. 

 

I love to be surprised and ^this^ surprised me, so thanks. Bonus: It makes sense to me!

 

6 minutes ago, Bankc said:

In a canoe or kayak without electronics, it opens up more places to fish, and I tend to get more impatient and overwhelmed by options.

 

Been there.

 

Me: "There. No, there! Or over there?"

[Zcoker]

I'm a hardcore 10 from shore. I started out on the beaches here in south Florida and full steam ahead into bass fishing where I applied a lot of my shore-bound knowledge. When I started catching 7-8 pound bass consistently from the bank, I knew things were going in the right direction for kayak fishing. 

 

A good 9 for kayak fishing....motorized kayak fishing! I'm still learning but I'm an ace in the glades, espeically at night in the pitch blackness. I fare well in the daytime, too, but near 100 degree temps keep me in check....or at least keep me in the coolness of night. 

 

Boats I never really go into. I mean, I've owned them before, sure, but never took them to the limits like I did the other two forms of fishing. I used them mainly on the west coast of Florida to get out to various islands. Once on an island, I'd tie off the boat, setup camp, and it was never used again until I left. 

 

With those rods in the back, I'm gonna need a bigger boat! lol 

 

 

[A-Jay]

How would you rank your fishing ability ?

Isn't this like grading your own 6th grade math exam ? 

I strive to prevent what I can't do 

from interfering with what I can.

Just Fish Hard

A-Jay

[WRB]

At this time I couldn’t get to or out of a canoe or kayak and unwilling to walk terrain around our local lakes. It’s back seating a bass boat or the my recliner chair. 
I can still catch bass when I’m a boat but limited as a passenger and in my tackle choices.

Tom

[Swamp Girl]

3 minutes ago, WRB said:

At this time I couldn’t get to or out of a canoe or kayak and unwilling to walk terrain around our local lakes. It’s back seating a bass boat or the my recliner chair. 
I can still catch bass when I’m a boat but limited as a passenger and in my tackle choices.

Tom

 

Tom, I'm not that far behind you. Fishing from two docked canoes has eased my way in 2024.

 

 

 

 

[Catt]

23 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

I strive to prevent what I can't do 

from interfering with what I can.

 

That pretty much keeps me busy all day.

 

1 hour ago, TOXIC said:

My skill doesn’t change no matter where or what I’m fishing from but my ability to get to the fish does.

 

Exactly 👍

[Susky River Rat]

Bank: 0 

 

canoe: 6

I’ve caught a lot of musky in a canoe.

 

boat: 6 I’m nothing amazing. I just fish for fun and hope I put the puzzle pieces together.

[LrgmouthShad]

Shore: 7

Kayak: 6

Bass Boat: 3

 

Although I fish from a kayak the most, I rate myself higher from the shore because bank fishing ain’t too difficult to figure out. @Bluebasser86 reminds me that I have a bunch more to learn from the kayak. 

[Swamp Girl]

3 hours ago, TOXIC said:

My skill doesn’t change no matter where or what I’m fishing from but my ability to get to the fish does.

 

I disagree. Your ability to get to the fish is a component of your skill. If you can't decode an FFS screen, you're not as skilled as a basshead who can. If you can't read water from the shore, you're less skilled than a shore angler who can. If you can't paddle a kayak into a twisting swamp, again, you're not as skilled as the paddling fisher who can. 

 

And your lack of these skills will affect your ability to catch fish. 

[LrgmouthShad]

Kayak fishing is about taking the area you’ve got and squeezing it for all it’s worth. You may also need to be willing to relaunch. Squeezing an area is what I need to figure out about kayak fishing.
 

You’ve also got to take advantage in any way you can of the fact that you are a lot stealthier than a boat. 

The problem I think I have with kayak fishing is that I tend to fish out of a kayak like I should be fishing out of a boat. 

[Swamp Girl]

6 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

You’ve also got to take advantage in any way you can of the fact that you are a lot stealthier than a boat. 

 

Exactly. A basic kayak can't do what a bass boat does, but it can do some things better. Good luck getting a bass boat in this marsh:

 

[LrgmouthShad]

3 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Exactly. A basic kayak can't do what a bass boat does, but it can do some things better. Good luck getting a bass boat in this marsh:

 

I like to fish big lakes mostly because they are like a giant puzzle to me. But yes, you’ve got to fish a marsh or snarled pond or two if you own a kayak. Been there, done that, and will continue to. What I’m talking about is what you need to do if you are on a big lake. You can’t run main lake point after main lake point after main lake point. You just can’t run that many. So it’s a game of… what do I have available to me? How can I best exploit it? Is there another region of the lake that might be better? 

[Catt]

20 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Your ability to get to the fish is a component of your skill.

 

No it ain't 😉 

 

Some of us bank fish marshes, bayous, & swamps where the shoreline ain't well manicured. Just because you can access the water doesn't mean the are ever there.

[TOXIC]

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

I disagree. Your ability to get to the fish is a component of your skill. If you can't decode an FFS screen, you're not as skilled as a basshead who can. If you can't read water from the shore, you're less skilled than a shore angler who can. If you can't paddle a kayak into a twisting swamp, again, you're not as skilled as the paddling fisher who can. 

 

And your lack of these skills will affect your ability to catch fish. 

I understand your point but everything you listed is part of my skill.  If I’m on the bank and fish are deep beyond my reach, no amount of skill will catch them.  If the fish are up in the rivers and I can’t get there by kayak, or the wind is such I can’t get to them, that’s beyond skill.  I see it on st Clair.  We fish beyond where the yaks can get, that’s beyond skill. As for FFS, that’s another debate.  It could be said that it removes skill from the equation.  😉

[Swamp Girl]

7 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

I understand your point but everything you listed is part of my skill.  If I’m on the bank and fish are deep beyond my reach, no amount of skill will catch them.  If the fish are up in the rivers and I can’t get there by kayak, or the wind is such I can’t get to them, that’s beyond skill.  I see it on st Clair.  We fish beyond where the yaks can get, that’s beyond skill. As for FFS, that’s another debate.  It could be said that it removes skill from the equation.  😉

 

I think I understand.

[Mobasser]

For me, I think Im 8 from the bank, 8-9 from my canoe, and 7-8 from a boat. I fish mostly a smaller quarry lake and I've learned some good spots to cast from the bank.