Kayak Fishing

White gas is a cheap and ubiquitous camp stove that creates high heat and burns clean. They key is to heat and prime the fuel first to yield a blue, hot flame. Here's how.

Among the calls you can listen in on -- for those who go sea kayaking or kayak fishing in New England -- are a grounded fishing vessel's call first picked up by two Coast Guard stations.

The Coast Guard regularly updates its public affairs site with recordings of VHF radio calls made by boaters, sea kayakers and fishermen.

What's most handy about Google Earth for sea kayaking and kayak fishing is that you can save maps as emailable files or as clickable files on message boards, or as jpgs.

The keys here while kayak fishing: time your trip according to the tides (Eldridge is the best resource for tidal data), fish the rips with care, and carry a compass and vhf radio should the fog settle in for the afternoon.

Google Earth is free, easy to use, and useful: it automatically generates latitude and longitude coordinates for easy gps integration.

In the Pacific Northwest, you need to know which local hazards are treacherous, which are remote, and which run in cycles - even if they hold thousands of the salmon you're in pursuit of.

Talk to kayak fishing nuts about how to kayak fish new areas and you'll get two different answers. Best way to go fishing in a new area, one will argue, is with the careful and deliberate, foot-by-foot pre-planning of the amateur ichthyologist.

The Cape Ann towns of Gloucester, Rockport, Ipswich and Essex, as well as Manchester, have a lot to offer anyone interested in sea kayaking (ocean kayaking), kayak fishing, mountain biking.

Spincast fishing rods and reels are handy in a kayak. Their primary advantage is agility. If you fish go kayak fishing often, consider a short two-piece spincast fishing rod under 6' in length.

It's for a lot of reasons- fast tidal waters, remote fishing flats miles out to sea, big striped bass and bluefish and the idea of navigating challenging waters - that kayak fishing enthusiasts with sea kayaking skills fish Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds.

Even the briefest, shortest two-and-a-half mile stretch of New England water, say the coastline of Cape Ann, contains microcosms of every type of fish habitat and sea conditions kayak fishermen can expect to find in New England.

Keep in mind that your legs, hips and knees are the only tools you have to stabilize you kayak if, while you are landing your fish, a wave rolls in, a boat wake bears down, or a heavy fish pulls repeatedly on one side.

Kayak fishing for bluefin tuna in this area requires a fair amount of preplanning, some basic safety equipment, and an anticipation of fishing waters that are relatively remote.

Fishing, New Hampshire's Isles of Shoals has several advantages: not much in the way of on-water congestion, or what anglers call pressure, an ample supply of fish,and numerous ledges, outcropping and coves.

The western shores of Cape Ann (Gloucester, MA), from Lanesville to Halibut Point, are accessible via small boat and kayak from a small number of ramps and put-ins, most notably Dun Fudgin' ramp behind Gloucester High School.

Buy an inexpensive kayak to easily reach saltwater species that too often frustrate from shore.

Revere and Lynn's Rumney Marshes and Saugus river present well-developed striper fishery with deepwater areas and tidal-trench marshes.

The southwestern shores of Cape Ann off Magnolia offer access to several distinct fisheries on striped bass, bluefish, cod, flounder and mackerel.