Paddler News Feed

 

Chrystal Murray has kayak fishing in her blood. Born and raised on an island off the coast of Charleston, S.C., she spent her childhood fishing the Gulf Stream on her father’s deep-sea boat, “The Mustang II.” Transplanted to Clearwater, Fla., in 1976, she now has graduated to smaller craft, namely Ocean Kayak sit-on-tops, which sponsors her in tournaments.

When not floating and fishing the Gulf, the Osprey Bay Kayaks guide can be found surfing, hunting or horseback riding, or traveling to such exotic fishing locales as Panama, Cuba or even Wyoming to guide fly-fishing trips. Perhaps her biggest claim to fishing fame came six years ago off Boca Grande, when she became the first woman to hook and land a tarpon from a kayak. “Tarpon are renowned for their spectacular and unpredictable leaps,” she says. “That fish went maybe 70 lbs. That’s small by seasonal standards, but from my perspective in the kayak he may as well have weighed 270.”

A member of the HYPERLINK "http://www.florida-guides.com/" Florida Guides Association, Murray, who also serves as the editor of Onshore-Offshore magazine, has caught everything from sharks and snook to redfish and flounder from her sit-on-top. And she is showing no signs of letting up anytime soon. “All I need is a satellite map of an area, a legal place to park and a space wide enough in the mangroves to drag my kayak through,” she says. “I really enjoy exploring land-locked ponds in coastal Florida--you never know what you might find.”
--edb

Andy “Iceman” Allen

With a nickname like Iceman, you’d expect Andy Allen to have a fantastic fish story about poise under pressure. Not exactly. The chronic kayak angler and Team Malibu charter member actually is an iceman—he owns Allen Ice Company in El Cajon, Calif. When he’s not fishing, Allen slings ice, including the 300-pound blocks that sculptors make into everything from ponies for little girls’ birthday parties to a solid ice chopper for a motorcycle convention. (We don’t know where the young lady in a bikini and heels came from, and but it wasn’t Allen Ice.)

Keeping San Diego County cool is a seven-day-a-week job, which means most of those days Allen is on the water well before dawn. “I hit the beach running,” says Allen. “Nobody needs ice before 10 a.m., but the problem is that’s when the Yellowtail really start feeding. I leave them biting all the time.”

Allen loves to hunt for big keepers, and delights in feeding his family a freshly filleted Yellowtail or White Sea Bass. “I love being the primal provider,” he says. “I can catch bass with the best of them, but I really only go after them at tournaments.” The Team Malibu angler won the La Jolla Kayak Fishing Tournament in 2002 and placed second in 2003. Last year he took third at the Galveston, Tex., Extreme Edge Tournament last year with the first redfish he ever caught.

Allen also moderates the popular Big Water’s Edge online forums, and is the brain behind West Coast Whoppers, the SoCal kayak fishing community’s year-long online competition to catch and photograph the largest fish. At press time, the Iceman was sitting in fourth position, “But I just caught a 27-pound Yellowtail that should move me into second.”

Dean “Slowride” Thomas

You can tell Dean Thomas is a Texas boy before the second word comes out of his mouth, but it took the lifelong fisherman the better part of 20 years to make the move from the Houston oilfields to Aransas Pass on the Gulf Coast, where he runs a modest guide service. “I guided on the side for years, and I always dreamed of fishing for a living. One day I just said ‘I’m going to do it. I can always go back to the oilfields.’”

Thomas named his business Slowride Guide Services to honor his wife’s brother and sister, both of whom were killed in car accidents. “The Fogdog song ‘Slow Ride’ was his favorite song,” he says. The nickname stuck, and so did the business.

That was four years ago, about the time Thomas bought a kayak and ventured into the vast un-fished shallows around Aransas Pass. “The kayak is the ultimate weapon around here,” he says. “You use a kayak to glide into those areas and a mediocre fisherman performs like a pro.”

Thomas bought a few more kayaks and began introducing other anglers to this ultimate weapon. Three years on, his trusty fishing skiff lies dormant except for occasional service as a kayak ferry. The Wilderness Systems team member is a formidable presence at kayak fishing tournaments, and when he’s not fishing with clients he’s fishing in tournaments or just for fun. The oilfields may as well be a world away.

“It was great, at first,” Thomas says of the day his dream of fishing full-time became a reality. “Then I realized how much work it was.”

Sidebar1: What’s In a Name?
Kicker: Top kayak angler nicknames

To be anyone in the world of kayak fishing, it seems, you have to have a nickname that sticks. Not one left over from grade school, but one earned the hard way: by trolling tackle and talking about it incessantly. Here are a few of our favorite kayak fishing handles.

Name: Jim “Saba Slayer” Salazar
Rationale: Jim and his son were trying to name their boat. After passing on such monikers as Tuna Tamer, they were fishing once and couldn't get their bait below the pesky Mackerel. That's when the name Saba Slayer stuck.

Our take: Those same Mackerel have now come in handy as bait for his new passion of catching lobsters off his kayak, which has stacked his freezer to its gills.

Name: Jeff “Rhino” Kreiger
Rationale: Look in the dictionary: "Thick-skinned mammal with strong horn."
Our take: Any fish that gets in a tug of war with him quickly finds out why he's called Rhino. As for the thick skin, he doesn’t care what anyone says about him, and you couldn't meet a nicer guy. As for the strong horn, we'll leave that alone--but ask him about his days as a streaker.

Name: Andy “Iceman” Allen
Rationale: Allen owns a wholesale ice business. “Everybody thinks it’s from Top Gun or something, but I just sell ice.”
Our take: Nice occupation—and nickname—to have when it comes time to keep your catch (and celebrate with a few cold ones).

Name: Todd “C-Level” Groessl
Rationale: You’ll always find Groessl where the fish are—sea level.
Our take: After bagging an epic West Coast Slam last year—Yellowtail, White Sea Bass and Halibut, each over 40 pounds—it’s a wonder Groessl’s kayak didn’t sink below C-level.

Name: Cory "Ruthless" Routh
Rationale: “I’m just the opposite of Slowride—when I’m in a fishing mode all I’m thinking about is how to get that fish on a line.”
Our take: Routh lives up to his nickname, using any advantage—including his training as a fisheries biologist—to reel in striped bass by the hundreds.

Name: “Cucamonga” Keith Martin
Rationale: “I’m from Cucamonga.”
Our take: Heh heh, Beavis—he said “Cucamonga.”

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