One of the first tips I was ever given when starting to fish from a kayak was to buy 2 things, a paddle leash and a back up paddle. I thought to myself, hmm, who would loose a paddle and wouldn’t a leash get in the way? So, just because I respected the person who made the recommendations I bought a backup paddle (a small cheep wooden paddle made for canoeing).
My third trip out on my new fishing kayak I hooked into a decent sized redfish. I put the paddle in its mount (or so I thought) and got on with the fight. The redfish had stamina like none other and the fight lasted about 15 minutes, all the while dragging me around the backcountry of mosquito lagoon!
I finally boated the fish, a gorgeous 36” redfish. I wanted to take a picture but the sun was at the wrong angle so I reached for my paddle to spin the boat and to my surprise, the paddle was gone. It was nowhere to be found. I snapped a quick picture of the fish and revived it before watching it swim off.
Luckily I had my back up paddle stowed in my front hatch. I grabbed the paddle and started to head back to the launch (I didn’t want to spend the day paddling with the back up, it was not a great paddle). Happily, on my way in, I saw the yellow fins of my main paddle slowly floating away in the current.
If I did not have my back up, I would have never been able to retrieve my main paddle and would have had to walk in some pretty gnarly oyster bars to get back to the launch.
After that trip I bought a leash and still carry a back up. The leash never really gets in the way, and has saved me from having to use my back up numerous times!
So my advice, go buy a leash and a back up!
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