Florida Kayak Fishing

Welcome to Capt. Ken Daubert's Florida Kayak Fishing Website --- one of the first kayak fishing websites on the Internet. It was designed to demonstrate the advantages of kayak fishing in the unique and beautiful environments available in Florida fresh and salt waters. Also, for over two decades, we have been sharing kayak fishing skills & techniques through books, videos and even custom made fishing lures for others to try in their own environments--- wherever they may apply !

Florida underwater fishing environments are often even more beautiful than above water.

Recent Kayak Fishing

Capt. Ken demonstrates once again the deadly abilities of his latest Eel Fly design on Monster Bass. The Eel Fly is a project that goes back to the early 80’s when Capt. Ken was a fishing guide and designed the fly for his fly fishermen clients to catch bass when topwater flies were not the best choice for success in some environments or on days when the fish were inactive or not willing to hit topwater. Capt. Ken did not sell the flies at that time but provided them for himself and his guide clients. The tails worked well, and he caught many large bass on them, but the tails were not that durable. Now, however, the tails are very durable, and he will soon be providing them for sale to his custom order customers. They can be used to imitate not only Eels, but also as imitations of sirens, mud puppies, newts, salamanders, lizards, snakes and even leaches. If you want to try some, get in touch with him ---

KenDaubert@floridakayakfishing.com


Capt. Ken was not doing much on topwater lures in early winter in central Florida on a cloudy day with cooler temperatures and cooling water. A few rain showers were also coming through. Although the fish were not active, he knew from experience that it was still a potential monster bass day. So, he decided to fish something soft and subsurface that a monster bass might not be able to resist if he could put it right in front of a big one at just the right time and place. So he chose a weighted fly rod Eel imitation that he designed for fishing spring water creeks that was very effective in very clear water similar to the lake he was currently fishing. He had barely gotten his fly line stretched out enough to get the curls removed for efficient casting and made a few practice casts before hitting the target spot. Then, a very beefy built 25-inch monster bass really gave a good stretch to his fly line.

Level #1 Kayak Bass Fishing Finesse 

Recent Kayak Swamp FROG Lure fishing with a Designer Bass FROG™ Lure - Replicant Series Dark Green Southern Leopard. (An excellent example of Finesse Level #1 Kayak Bass FROG Fishing.) By the way, my "reel drag" is bolted tight. It will not give line unless I "back reel" which I rarely do. A great example also of the kayak's "Back Up Drag Factor."

Eel Grass of several varieties is commonly found over vast areas of shallow water in freshwater lakes along the St John's River and much of the saltwater flats, especially on the shallow flats of the Gulf coast.

The book that launched 10,000 kayaks !

Capt. Ken Daubert also wrote the first book ever written on the sport of Kayak Fishing --- "KAYAKFISHING: The Revolution" after a flood of requests for more information about kayak fishing came in from all over the USA and worldwide.
It has been a secret for over two decades that Capt. Ken hid away a few cases of the books for the future kayakfishermen to see if his predictions about the sport actually came true.
You can now purchase a signed copy from Capt. Ken by contacting him directly and see if what he then predicted would happen with the sport --- did happen with the sport !
The Revolution is over --- we won ! 
The Evolution has begun.
Kayak Angler Magazine has called Capt. Ken in various issues "the Father of the Sport of Kayak Fishing" and the "Thomas Jefferson of the Sport". 

Capt Ken with a Monster Bass caught on a large Fly Rod FoamSkin FingerLing™ while kayak fly fishing the expansive eel grass flats of Lake George on the St John's River.

"It was always my belief in those early days of the Kayak Fishing Revolution that Florida Anglers had the most to benefit from Kayak Fishing because we had so many expansive miles of extremely beautiful, shallow, clear water filled with spooky gamefish. The "kayak stealth factor" alone is enough reason to fish by kayak." ~~~CaptKen

Capt Ken with a big redfish caught on a large Fly Rod FoamSkin FingerLing™ on the shallow, expansive eel grass flats at Cedar Key on the Gulf of Mexico.

There are also the expansive mats of dense vegetation that are hard to penetrate quietly and efficiently by larger boats and motors.

Kayak Bass Fishing Finesse Level #1

In the video above, Capt Ken is using a 7 foot "Medium Heavy" spinning rod with a Large Fancy Brown Dasher Abdomen Stinger Model DragonFly Lure.

In this video, Capt Ken demonstrates how the ability of a kayak to slip over and through the heaviest vegetation will allow a kayak fisherman to battle a Monster Bass as the kayak moves quickly toward the bass without paddling. Getting to the bass quickly is important to avoid the bass using the heavy resistance of the vegetation on the line to break the line or tear the hook's hold from their mouth.

 The kayak even allows an angler to use lighter tackle in the vegetation because winding the reel would pull the kayak closer to the fish and allow the angler to fight with both hands on the rod & reel without using a paddle or motor and end up right next to the fish, making it easy to quickly approach a fish entangled in heavy vegetation or logs etc. 

Kayak Bass Fishing Finesse Level #5

7.5 ft "light action" spinning rod with 10 lb. braid and 15 lb monofilament line while using a "custom" DragonFly Lure  

Capt Ken demonstrates the "Giddy Up" technique to reduce the friction of thick vegetation (lily pads, hydrilla & broken off floating eel grass) on the bottom and sides of the kayak and to promote momentum, using the power of the battle with the bass to move the kayak through the heavy cover toward open water and to the big bass without picking up the paddle. This technique combined with the "Back Up Drag Factor" of a kayak account for the ability of a kayak fisherman to use light tackle and great finesse to catch Monster Bass even in heavy cover.

Capt. Ken developed a style of fishing by kayak that capitalized on a kayak's advantages in shallow, clear, calm and sometimes very weed choked water. This "style" of kayak fishing developed as a combination of the "stealth" factor of kayaks and the light tackle "finesse" fishing techniques that would not alert large nervous fish in very shallow water to his presence. Capt Ken's "style" of kayak fishing has 3 simple rules. The #1 Rule is NO WAKES in the vincinity of potential big fish in shallow water while paddling, or especially while casting, even with a flyrod. Basically, "don't spook the fish with the kayak" (stealth).

Kayak Bass Fishing Level #4 

This 23 inch Bass was caught with a Small Head Hook Fancy Brown Dasher DragonFly with a 7.5 foot Medium Action Spinning Rod with 10 lb. braid and 15 lb. monofilament leader on an extremely calm surface at mid day in the middle of the summer heat in central Florida on a sunny day.
 The #2 rule is "don't spook them with your presentation of the lure" (finesse). Rule #3 is to present the most convincing lure possible that would "trigger" their natural instinct with what biologists term as "super stimulators". Many of his most successful lures actually started as fly rod offerings, and he later converted many of them for use on conventional tackle also. Some of the smaller lures can be used on a fly rod or a spinning rod. His preference is for lighter tackle whenever possible, because it could be used for greater finesse fishing.

To his surprise over the years of developing this "style" of fishing, some of the smallest versions of these lures were often the most deadly on bigger fish at certain times due to their increased finesse factor, and he eventually learned the value of the "Micro Lures". Stealth and finesse are always a factor, but sometimes, the biggest fish actually "prefer" tidbit size meals, especially during the heat of a Florida summer when their appetites are sometimes reduced. On this website, you will see the video proof that backs up that claim. {see the Finesse Bass Fishing Page}.
The early Fly Rod FROG Lures were originally developed in the late 1970's. Capt Ken used a custom homemade shooting taper that he called the "FROG Lure Cannon" because it would blast one of these larger but lightweight FROG Lures out over the water with only one backcast. He used an altered 9 weight sinking tip with a narrow loop to loop running (shooting) line on an 8 weight fly rod.

Very early version of CaptKen's Fly Rod FROG Lure

The FROG Lure image above was an actual full size fly rod FROG Lure designed and fished by Capt Ken in the late 1970's and early 1980's. It nailed some monster bass in Florida in the mid 1980's and the 1990's.


The "custom" conventional tackle Designer Bass FROG Lure™  in the Original Series comes in an infinite variety of designs, species, colors & variations. It can be anything that you have in your imagination or his own. It is designed for spinng rods and baitcaster outfits. This one is an Original Series Hybrid Southern Leopard with DNA Hot Legs

This large group of 90 custom, "registered" Signature Series Designer Bass FROG Lures™ went to Japan where a large fishing tackle distributor sold them to retail stores for baitcaster & spinning rod bass fishermen in the Osaka area.

After designing a new line of full size conventional tackle Designer Bass FROG Lures™ with more weight for casting on spinning and baitcasting rods, he also designed a Micro FROG Lure version which was designed for casting on a spinning rod with 6-20 lb braid line, but it works equally well on an 8 weight fly rod.

This 26 inch Monster Bass was caught on an 8 wt. fly rod with Capt Ken's Designer Bass Micro FROG Lure™

Original Series Light Green Leopard Micro FROG Lure

Capt Ken developed a style of fishing by kayak that capitalizes on its advantages in shallow, clear, calm and often very weed choked water, and he designed a whole series of fishing lures that enhance the advantages of this "style" of fishing. For the last 13 years, he has been making some of the custom designed fishing lures available to a limited number of fishermen. Of course, all of them are extremely weedless. Contact Capt Ken if you want to experience some of the fishing lure items below and throughout this website. The current mission of this website is to promote this particular style of fishing and to share some of the "custom lures" that have evolved while doing it.
Capt Ken also has two other websites for specialty lures with their own particular "style" for fishing them. They are also as "revolutionary" as the Kayak Fishing Revolution, and they are:
The FROG Fishing Revolution
and
The Fly Fishing Revolution

Copyright 1999 Ken Daubert. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.
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