Anybody river fish in a kayak?
Anybody river fish in a kayak?
I do a lot of fishing in the rivers and streams here in Ohio. A buddy and I have a mad river canoe that we use when we both go. When I go myself I have to rent a kayak. I'm looking at some different kayaks for fishing and wondered what any of you might use. I know you can use anything, but there are some pretty nice fishing specific ones out there. The Jackson Coosa looks pretty sweet. The Native Ultimate and Wilderness Systems Commander also look pretty good
Fished in a Native watercraft ultimate once. It was great! Super stable and roomy. I chartered with a guy out of Milwaukee and the guy's kayak was a tandem that he set up specifically for fishing, it had navigation lights, depth finder, GPS (!), cooler etc. It is an incredibly peaceful way to fish plus if you hook into a salmon, like I did, the fish will pull you around! Super cool. For river's I'd imagine you would need an anchor system. I looked into getting one, check Austin Kayak, they have a really good section for fishing. Cheers!
I have both a Native Ultimate and Hobie Outback (among others :) ). As long as you are talking fishing, I assume that means no waterfalls or class V rapids, right? :) The Ultimate is great for that. The seat is the most comfortable kayak seat I have ever tried. I can comfortably sit in it for long periods of time fishing or paddling. It's open build makes it kind of like a cross between a kayak and canoe.
I have some friends I've gone camping/fishing with via kayak on some rivers here in Texas. The Ultimate, with its "tunnel hull" is very stable, but drafts a bit more water (about 6-8" needed) than some of my friends' hand-built wooden kayaks. The Outback doesn't do well with shallow rivers of course, since the fins for the "mirage drive" pedal system need around 1 1/2 or 2 feet of depth, so I just use it on the lake or pretty deep sections of river. Some of my friends have used a Wilderness Systems but I don't remember the specific model.
Renting a kayak at least gives you a chance to see if you like that model before you buy it, what appeals to one person can be very different from what appeals to someone else. Around here some of the kayak dealers have "demo days" where they have a bunch of different models out at a lake where you can compare them for yourself for free, maybe you can find a dealer there that does that?
I found it real handy to have a gps and fishfinder in my kayak, both to find structure for fish, and to find my way back in the dark or figure out how much farther I have to paddle to reach my camp site :) .
I have some friends I've gone camping/fishing with via kayak on some rivers here in Texas. The Ultimate, with its "tunnel hull" is very stable, but drafts a bit more water (about 6-8" needed) than some of my friends' hand-built wooden kayaks. The Outback doesn't do well with shallow rivers of course, since the fins for the "mirage drive" pedal system need around 1 1/2 or 2 feet of depth, so I just use it on the lake or pretty deep sections of river. Some of my friends have used a Wilderness Systems but I don't remember the specific model.
Renting a kayak at least gives you a chance to see if you like that model before you buy it, what appeals to one person can be very different from what appeals to someone else. Around here some of the kayak dealers have "demo days" where they have a bunch of different models out at a lake where you can compare them for yourself for free, maybe you can find a dealer there that does that?
I found it real handy to have a gps and fishfinder in my kayak, both to find structure for fish, and to find my way back in the dark or figure out how much farther I have to paddle to reach my camp site :) .
Which Knife, A or B? get Both! (and C, D and E) :)