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" Sitting sideways in a kayak, I cast a plug into the inky-black dark of a south Louisiana salt marsh. It&amp;#039;s a half-hour to sunrise, but I&amp;#039;m already a mile out after following five other kayak anglers to a tiny island set deep in the wetlands. Now we&amp;#039;re catching spotted sea trout as fast as we can cast. All around me I hear lures plopping into the water and my fellow anglers whooping and hooting. &amp;quot;Whatcha doing over there, Top Dog?&amp;quot; The voice rings out from the far side of the island.  &amp;quot;Filling up the boat, Choupique!&amp;quot; Suddenly, my rod bends deep. This is no 12-inch trout; I can feel the fish all the way into the cork handle. As I scramble to my feet to put pressure on the line, the kayak holds steady. It&amp;#039;s a crazy notion: If I tried to stand in a traditional kayak, I&amp;#039;d be picking marsh muck from my teeth. But my kayak is a new breed, designed from bow to stern to maximize fishability.  For centuries, Inuit paddled one-person sealskin craft in pursuit of halibut, salmon and bottom-dwelling rockfish. Modern sea kayaks have followed those ancestral lines\u2014narrow, cigar-shaped boats that are fast and efficient yet squirrely for all but experienced paddlers.  Not so with fishing kayaks. Wider and far more stable than traditional sea kayaks, they are easy to paddle solo and can handle breaking waves and open water. And they&amp;#039;re tough enough to drag across the driveway and light enough to load on a roof rack. My kayak is a comfortable sit-on-top. Instead of a confining cockpit, it has a self-bailing hull with a padded seat that&amp;#039;s as easy to get in and out of as a lounge chair.  These new fishing-friendly designs have ushered in a golden age of small-craft angling. According to the Paddlesports Industry Association, kayak fishing is the fastest growing segment of human-powered water recreation. These boats are introducing outdoor enthusiasts who might never have considered themselves paddlers to a new kind of fishing adventure.   The author, fighting a redfish, reaches for his pliers\u2014a feat that is tricky in traditional paddled kayaks.  During my three-day deep South blitz, I sample saltwater ponds just a few feet from highways and back-country marshes so vast that I signal the other anglers in our group by waving my paddle high above the reeds. At one point, my host, Jon Deichert Jr., pulls out an iPhone and uses Google Earth to figure out which labyrinthine marsh creek leads to his favorite honey hole.  Deichert, a southeast Louisiana carpenter and president of the Bayou Coast Kayak Fishing Club (BCKFC), and his pals preach the allure of kayak fishing. &amp;quot;I used to fish from motorboats like everybody else,&amp;quot; Deichert says, leaning over the side of his kayak to grab a 16-inch-long redfish. &amp;quot;Once I got into a kayak, that was it. I&amp;#039;ve paddled right up to river otters, ducks and wading birds. I go places I&amp;#039;d never go in a powerboat. There&amp;#039;s less hassle, and I don&amp;#039;t have to spend a hundred bucks on gas just to catch a fish.&amp;quot; Deichert&amp;#039;s crew has brought along a wide assortment of boats. A few of the sit-on-tops differ little from nonfishing models except for rod holders. Some of the hybrid craft look like a cross between a canoe and a kayak, with built-in mounts for fishing electronics and pontoon-boat hulls that provide extra stability for standing anglers. Other outfits sell kayaks with a split hull and rear sections that pivot to form outriggers. And some kayaks have profiles so wide you can stand while paddling.  The Hobie I take to the trout marsh is similarly unbound by traditional designs. It&amp;#039;s outfitted with the MirageDrive propulsion system, a pedal-powered pair of flexible fins that function as oscillating foils\u2014much like penguin and sea-turtle flippers. Not only does the kayak move more quickly than a paddled model, but I can two-hand a fishing rod while cruising across the water. And it&amp;#039;s equipped with a system that allows me to drop the anchor off the stern with just a tug on a cord. &amp;quot;These things stretch the term kayak,&amp;quot; says Brendan Bayard, BCKFC&amp;#039;s tournament director. &amp;quot;Maybe personal fishing craft comes closer to the idea.&amp;quot;  But not every kayak angler goes for the slick new bells and whistles from the R&amp;amp;amp;D departments of boat manufacturers. Joe Barbier, who trades rigging tips like family recipes, prefers make-it-work accessories. The gregarious truck driver proudly shows off his homemade upgrades: a depthfinder mount that holds a transducer in the water; a retractable flashlight system he uses to raise a beam above the boat while paddling in the dark; and an anchor made from a flounder-gig lure that rides vertically inside a PVC tube. A tee fitting allows him to operate a release line from the paddling seat, driving the gig into the Louisiana muck to hold the boat in perfect casting position. &amp;quot;I could buy this stuff,&amp;quot; Barbier says, &amp;quot;but I got a liking for making things I can put on a kayak. Give me PVC, aluminum stock and pop rivets, and I can perform rigging miracles.&amp;quot;  On my last day in the marsh, I try out the catamaran-like Native Ultimate hybrid, which seems as stable as a floating dock. I alternate paddle strokes with casts, the kayak parting curtains of green and gold reeds, its passage silent save for the sibilant hiss of marsh grass on polyethylene. Suddenly a 30-inch redfish jets from an underhang of marsh muck, slashing at the lure not 5 feet from the boat. &amp;quot;Whoa!&amp;quot; I holler, the strike so sudden and close that it&amp;#039;s almost entirely unexpected even though I am, in fact, fishing. I set the hook and hang on as the fish tugs the kayak in a full 360. Three times I reel in the redfish, and three times it screams away. When the fish finally succumbs, finning gently beside the boat, sunlight flashes on its copper flanks. It&amp;#039;s when I pull out the pliers to free the fish that I realize there&amp;#039;s not another soul in sight, no one I can brag to about the catch. Thanks to the kayaks, each of us is off in our own world of water and grass. And I wouldn&amp;#039;t have it any other way. Kayak Tech   &amp;amp;gt; 1. Hobie MirageDrive: Fishing kayaks can be wide and heavy. These efficient, flexible fins propel even the largest kayaks faster than most paddlers.  2. Rod Holders: The homebuilt rig shown here enables the kayaker to paddle while trolling with up to four lines. This DIY setup fits in a plug-and-play system integrated into the kayak&amp;#039;s design.   &amp;amp;gt; 3. Marsh Anchor: Mucky bottoms require a special anchor. This one, rigged from a flounder gig, keeps a boat steady in the softest mud.  The New Nantucket Sleigh Ride  The most extreme kayak angler may be Chicago futures and options trader Dave Lamoureux, who paddles a modified 12-foot-long recreational kayak off the tip of Cape Cod in pursuit of bluefin tuna. He&amp;#039;s had strikes powerful enough to tow him at 15 mph\u2014a contemporary variation of a whale pulling a whaling boat in what Herman Melville described as a Nantucket sleigh ride. In November Lamoureux reeled in his biggest catch to date\u2014a 157-pound bluefin (above). &amp;quot;Tuna are so big and fast,&amp;quot; he says, &amp;quot;the initial hit is extremely violent. I&amp;#039;ve had my kayak cracked.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a5107/4348531/>