Kayak Fishing Guide

Next time you find yourself trolling for stripers in your fishing kayak (read this for more info post about tandem kayaks) or sea kayaking down some lengthy stretch of coastline, fatigue pooling in your arms and shoulders, ask yourself whether you are kayaking from the core.

If fatigue proves that you're not, add core power to your sea kayaking and kayak fishing with a few simple onwater drills. Chances are you'll find that same stretch of coast less tiring next time you head in your sea kayak or fishing kayak. By rotating your torso and paddling from the core, you'll find yourself paddling faster and further and with deeper reserves.

Try these three simple drills. Each ensures that you paddle your kayak with your core, not your arms and shoulders. Each drill helps you rotate your torso, improving your kayaking stroke.

First, paddle your kayak with a friend kayaking parallel. Have your friend repeat show me your back, show me your sternum. The verbal cue reminds you to rotate your torso so that your partner sees first your sternum, then your back, between each stroke.

If your coach cannot see each exclusively, you are not rotating your torso. Instead, you are rotating your shoulders, indulging what local Boston-area sea kayaking enthusiast David Lewis calls faux rotation. Rotating your shoulders doesn't engage your core in your kayaking stroke.

Next, wrap a colored piece of waterproof tape around your kayak paddle shaft at the ferrule, the fitting where the halves of your kayak paddle join. Place another piece of tape on your PFD, at your sternum. If the tape on your sternum does not stay lined up with the tape on your paddle shaft on each stroke, you are rotating your shoulders, not your torso.

Next, place your hands just a few inches apart at the center of your kayak paddle, and paddle this way for fifty yards or so. You'll find it impossible to make your sea kayak or fishing kayak move efficiently without rotating your torso.

For one, hands too close together renders kayaking with bent elbows impossible, eliminating the easily identified kangaroo punch stroke typical of so many paddlers' kayaking strokes. Second, by removing your arms and shoulders from the bargain, the only way to place your kayak blade forward and draw it back is by rotating your torso.

Concentrate on what the stroke feels like (you will feel strain in your lats, obliques, and abs), and gradually move your hands further apart while maintaining those distinct abs, lats, and obliques sensations of torso rotation.

The technique forces you to rotate your torso as you place the kayak blade forward in the water and draw it back. The drill is most remarkable and vivid in that it forces an immediate activation of your lats, abs, obliques. You'll feel a definite pinch below each armpit, and at each hip, and tension in your abs on each kayak stroke. The muscles will be tender the next day, proof that you've used them.