Team Fishgator is currently two fanatical kayak fishermen: Kevin Webster and Paul Shipman. We primarily fish the lakes, streams and rivers of Western New York, but they also travel anywhere given the opportunity.
Kevin Webster
Kevin is an internet marketer and web analyst by trade, but is found on the water in a lot of his free time. Originally from Buffalo, NY, Kevin now resides in Scottsville with his wife. His favorite species to fish are pike, smallmouth bass, and wild trout.
Currently, he fishes from a Liquid logic (Native Watercraft) Manta Ray 12 foot kayak. He is an avid fly fisherman, but resorts to spinning and baitcasting rods when the conditions call for it, or on unfamiliar water.
Record catches so far are an 18 pound steelhead hen on a fly, and a 7 pound largemouth on a Senko. Ask about the musky that got away at Black Lake though…
Kevin’s other hobbies include fly tying, and finding new ways to rationalize the weather not being too bad to take the kayak out for a spin.
Paul Shipman
Paul with a nice Finger Lakes smallie.
Paul is a college professor in Biological Science, with his Ph.D. in Zoology from Oklahoma State University. Paul misses his old stomping grounds in Kansas and Oklahoma, but has fallen in love with the incredible diversity of fishing to be found year round in Western New York. His favorite species to fish for are primarily smallmouth and largemouth bass and wild trout, but he’s generally happy to go after whatever is biting. He currently resides with his wife, two children, and two dogs, 30 miles south of Rochester, NY.
Paul is also a pro-staff member of Team Malibu Kayaks and fishes from a Stealth 14 and the eXtreme. He is a perpetual student of fishing and loves to experiment with new methods, but generally uses spinning combos for deeper open-water vertical presentations and baitcasting setups for shallower horizontal presentations in cover. He is also beginning to spend more time with a fly rod in his hand. Paul particularly loves to kayak fish on rivers.
Paul’s other hobbies includes ice fishing, writing, hiking, and tinkering around on cars and 4×4 trucks. Because of his interest in working on cars and trucks, he had the opportunity to participate as a contestant on the TLC feature show, Full Metal Challenge, starring Cathy Rogers and Henry Rollins which was filmed in the United Kingdom, and aired in 2003.
I kayak fish in the finger lakes alot during the summer, i mostly go to candice, hemlock and when my wife and i go up to ADK we fish around tupper lake area.
where do you fish with your kayak around the fingerlakes area and which are kayak friendly