Back to Fishing Knowledge Hub
Fishing from boats – Casting & retrieving
One approach that is often overlooked is simply casting and retrieving lures or soft baits.
Although trolling, harling and jigging are popular ways to fish from a boat, one approach that is often overlooked is simply casting and retrieving lures or soft baits. A boat can provide an excellent casting platform, allowing anglers to cover water that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to fish or access from shore.
Guides
Using your boat as a casting platform
A boat can provide an excellent casting platform for targeting productive lake-edge habitat. South Island brown trout in particular spend considerable time in shallow littoral areas where food is abundant.
When using your boat as a casting platform, position it within casting distance of the area you want to target – this area could be a weed bed, patch of submerged logs, creek mouth or stream delta. Cast towards the structure or shoreline and retrieve your lure or soft bait back towards the boat, covering the water between the boat and the targeted area.
It can also be exciting to quietly paddle or motor into shallow water, particularly around creek mouths, and target sighted fish. Presenting a lure or dry fly to a trout you have spotted from the boat can be great fun and very productive.
Using a boat to access shore fishing opportunities
It is fun to spend a day on the water trolling, jigging or harling, but it is worth remembering that a boat can also provide access to productive shore-fishing opportunities that are difficult or impossible to reach on foot.
On many New Zealand lakes, long stretches of shoreline have limited or no road or track access, making a boat the only practical way to reach them. Steep banks, dense vegetation and difficult terrain can also make otherwise productive shoreline inaccessible.
Rather than simply fishing from the boat, anglers can use it to travel to these areas and then fish from the shore. This can open up large sections of productive lake margin that receive very little fishing pressure and provide excellent shore fishing opportunities.