Thinking about a kayak

[TyGuy02]

I'm ready for winter to be through so I'm thinking of open water. I have a 14 foot aluminum fishing boat with a 15 hp Johnson, but had nothing but problems last year. I want to splurge and buy a 10k nicer boat but I think I should wait for a few years once I get done with nursing school. So I'm contemplating a kayak. I've only used a kayak once and I know it wasn't of the fishing variety, but I see by pictures that many are. So here are my questions:

1. How do they handle in a breeze? Will it be better than my 14 foot fishing boat because that thing is horrible if I'm by myself and there's no weight in the front of the boat. From what I remember of canoes they can be tough to handle too, solo.

2. I do most of my summer fishing solo, but my wife does like to come along sometimes. Should I get two cheap kayaks, one double, or one single and use the boat when she wants to come along?

3. Most of the lakes that I want to fish are little ponds, and have little to no public access. I haven't been able to fish these even with my little boat now, but if I went on a larger lake, how much of an area would I be realisticly able to fish?

4. Cost, how much would I be expecting to pay after upgrades. I have a marcum and would want a mount for that.

Any help would be great, thanks

[ted4887]

Great to see a new person thinking about pursuing some fish in a kayak. Let me tell you that it is, in my opinion, more satisfying catching a big fish in a kayak than anything else that floats.

1. They don't handle that great in the wind, but you are able to anchor them down, and you can pretty well sit still if the anchor is decent. I've never really been overly concerned with windy conditions when I've wanted to fish, unless it's creating white cap conditions.

2. If it was me, i'd stick with just buying one single person kayak right off the get-go. Tandem kayaks would be a bit tougher to fish out of, so i'd keep the boat. The boat, if nothing else would allow you some ability to fish a bit more area.

3. The amount you'd be able to cover would be completely based on how good of shape you are in, and the type of fishing you're doing. Generally when I go out, I single out a specific area to target, and will do as many passes as I want, before making myself uncomfortably tired. Generally I fish one bay or one stretch of dock areas for 4 or 5 hours. Also, it will depend on how well you can sit in yours. Make sure the kayak you look at is comfortable enough that you could stand sitting in it for multiple hours.

4. When looking at new kayaks, i've found that if you're looking at fishing kayaks, you likely won't need to add on too much, as the "fishing" packages generally will include a rod holder and anchor. The transducer information I don't have for you though.

The price range on kayaks can go from a few hundred dollars all the way into about the 2k range if you start looking at ones with trolling motors built in.

Also, there are multiple threads on this topic in this forum, that will include a bunch of good info for you.

Personally, I fish with the Old Town Vapor 12 xt, and I know many others like the Ocean Kayak. When I purchased mine, the money I saved made the Vapor a better deal for me. But I would definitely take the OK over mine.

[mainbutter]

2) I had the same conundrum, I wanted the ability to take a 2nd person out, but most of my fishing is solo.

I opted for a 13'6'' 2 seater canoe. Not only was it the cheapest option I was able to find at ~$300 on sale at gander, but it really does solo great. I actually prefer it as a solo-er than a 2 person boat, but it does well with two people.

I could not find a 2 seater kayak that I was able to solo nicely

[mainbutter]

3) The lake I fished most often last year is around 500 acres. Fishing 8 hour days or so, I'd generally hit about half of the shoreline, with a little bit of open water paddle-trolling. I'm not in great shape either. It all really comes down to fishing low wind days, planning drifts well, and weighting your canoe to fight any wind when you do have to paddle into it.

[TyGuy02]

My one perception is that with a canoe a little bit of wind can really push you all over the place? Would it be better with a kayak, having a lower center-of-gravity, or am I wrong to think that?

For gear, would I need a dry-suit for early/late season? Anything else that would not come with a kayak/canoe?

[ted4887]

The wind will make you drift just like most everything else. The one thing with a kayak is that paddling is very easy, and so adjusting yourself for a controlled drift is simple. It doesn't take many strokes to get you on the right course. Generally when it's windy, i'll adjust my kayak in a position where the wind will drift me where I want to go. Paddle back, and restart the same controlled drift if it was productive.

[EJ_Mac]

I think a canoe will more readily allow you to switch from solo to tandem than a kayak.

Many tandem kayaks either have two separate cockpits or one large cockpit, but with seats that may be difficult to adjust for solo paddling: you really need to be able to get in the center of a tandem boat when paddling solo to "trim" it out. Sometimes you can just put weight in the forward cockpit area, but that's not the optimum way to do it, IMO.