Watercraft Fishing

Danann Gallagher
Hook, Line, and Seeker
Jim Arnosky

Fishing from a boat is very different then fishing from land. On a boat you have more methods at your disposal, and more tools you can try. You can also reach greater depths and explore more water than you could on land. However there is a other side to fishing from a boat, Jim Arnosky says, "Out on the water, everything on land seems far away. your boat becomes an island unto itself with a singular view of the world and a language all its own" (Arnosky 75). The concept of being alone is definitely something some people would enjoy but definitely something others would not. personally I enjoy fishing from a boat but for me it has more to the variety of new methods you gain access to and the ability to easily change your position are great benefits of boats. one of the best and most common methods of boat fishing is trolling. This is when you have your lines out behind the bow and the boat is moving forward at a fairly slow rate, usually 1 to 2.5 MPH depending on the type of fish. Trolling has the benefits of allowing you to cover a lot of ground well keeping your lines in the water. This method can also be accompanied with Downriggers, which ae devices that allow you to drop your lines lower in the water so you get access to different kinds of fish. The salmon in the picture below was caught trolling with downriggers at a depth of 33 feet near Point defiance, Tacoma.

Fishing on the open water doesn't always mean you're on a motorboat, you can be on other water craft such as a canoe or a kayak. These make great fishing vehicles as there lack of an engine and shallow hulls makes them able to venture places many other vehicles cant. Arnosky supported this when he wrote, "Because a canoe can float in just a little water, it can go places few other kinds of boats can get to" (Arnosky 89). As smaller boats can provide access to more remote locations they can also be used to simply get offshore if lager boats aren't available. for example my friend Thor and I where fishing at a lake in eastern Washington. We where on the shore for a few hours and caught a lot of trout, however most of them where fairly small so we deiced to take kayaks out on the water. After an hour or so Thor ended up catching the biggest fish of the day.

So do you think that going through the hassles of fishing from a boat are worth the extra maneuverability and methods you have access to?