michaelb

It is more a series of decisions, that yes involve trade offs but more that one decision leads to another Do you want to paddle or peddle (and can you afford a peddle kayak) How big of water are you paddling + wind and waves or surf + distance to fishing spots How important is standing and fishing? Do you need to lift it solo, roof top or truck bed or trailer? Most of the best standing kayaks have stadium seats that are all pretty nice. But standing and paddling speed and efficiency don't usually go together. Peddle kayaks can be both fat and wide and fast enough to get somewhere.

First, yes you should buy this, they are great. I do think those are the same things since yakattack only makes the one. the placement on the rail is pretty flexible, so my guess is that you will make this work and don't need more track. I like it mounted just forward of where I can reach forward when sitting (mainly to be out of the paddle stroke area). If I am stowing the paddle to stand and fish, I first slip the paddle blade under a bungie at the front before clipping it in. That ensures that the paddle is out of the way and locked down. But if I am trolling and get a hit, I cram it in and don't look where, and it doesn't matter if I miss placing the paddle by a foot or two as long as it gets in the holder somewhere.

I love skinny dippers, one of the main things I use (and the only paddle tail). I rig them on a weighted swimbait hook with the screw lock. They are heavy and substantial and hold up well, and it takes practice to get the hookset right (delay and wait and make sure the fish has it, then set the hook hard). The colors all have offensive names, and I have had better luck on some colors than others, so this may be one of the options where the color may really matter. I use the green ones "sanchez"; I also like white, and I have tried black/blue.

I do this and haven't really noticed a difference landing fish, if we are talking about bass. I don't always remember to do this with EWG hooks and t-rigs, but that is mostly because I am tying them and changing them regularly. I also just press the tip of the barb down at times, so half flatten it, which does make popping it out much easier too. If the fish gets gut hooked not having the barb makes that process way easier. I avoid anything with 3 sets of trebles, and have been swapping out one of the trebles for a single hook on some of my lures that use trebles. I haven't actually caught enough of anything to really have an opinion yet on the merits of that swap. My primary issue with trebles is hooking pike, and having a fish thrashing between my legs on my kayak full of teeth and swinging hooks.

I have a stake out pole and I have a kayak. I have tried to use it but can't get any purchase on the bottom enough to make any difference. Maybe this is user error; maybe this the condition of the bottom of the lake. I do wonder if the powered poles push down with enough force to hold a kayak no matter what. But at least for a me, a pole that just slides to the bottom, or that I push down as hard as I can push down, doesn't hold the boat.

I think our Abu Garcia vengeance rod is really nice and also happens to be cheap so under $50. Much better than other cheap rods I have tried. My son uses it (but I have thought about stealing it back)

there may be better kayaks for mounting a trolling motor. How were you thinking of doing the mount? I have a kaku kayak, and they have predrilled inserts for a mount. Other kayaks may also be ready to set up. Depending on how you are mounting the motor, these adapters from YakGadget look cool (I don't have a trolling motor and like to paddle, but some days it would be nice to power along for a few miles and fish somewhere new out of the wind). https://kakukayaks.com/ even if you don't get this mount, this site may give a clue as to models that are set up for motor mounts, which includes vibe. https://www.yakgadget.com/

No experience, but I watched the video. Just curious, what about this particular boat interests you? The seat is very high, which may be great for sitting and fishing, but not so great for paddling in rough conditions and wind. So I would be reluctant to try buy that without demoing. But otherwise it seems like a great boat for standing and fishing (and maybe not for the paddling part). I don't really get the trend for square back kayaks. I know it is for mounting motors and power poles. But I would be curious to see how two similar or identical boats paddled, one with a square back and one with a traditional shape. How does that impact tracking and overall speed, etc. I would like there to be track forward of my feet. So the track in the handles are cool, but I would almost never mount anything in that area (it is where you paddle and hitting anything with a paddle stroke is very annoying). I also like track behind the seat, but that is less critical. It wouldn't be that hard though to install more track or mounts if you end up needing that. I see they have 3 solo mounting points, that may take a Ram mount, so that is ok but sort of expensive and fixed in position. So there is my completely uninformed opinion.

I have them on opposite sides, but I always try to land fish on the anchor side, since the paddle is much more in the way of leaning over the edge of the kayak (sometimes the fish decides and you have to go both ways). You may want to fish a bit before drilling the trolley. Is the clip moveable in a track? For the paddle clip, you may not be sure how far forward you want it, I like it as far forward as I can easily reach, since I don't like anything along the side where I paddle, so that may be something worth testing on the water.

the soft science options do look interesting. I use crosskix 2.0 for kayaking, since I am in and out of the water. They work well, better than crocs, and are comfortable to stand in on the kayak too. I am considering trying the APX version, but can't really pick a color. https://crosskix.com/collections/adults

Now I am going to start shopping for a new paddle (which I don't need). the paddles listed here above look nice. I have one these, but I bought mine used years ago, and I have a carbon shaft, so that would be a nicer model nowadays: https://wernerpaddles.com/paddles/fishing/skagit-hooked-2-piece-straight-shaft [I also can't figure out what "hooked" means vs the regular; but either would be good for paddling]

I agree with Countryboy that this depends on a lot of things and mostly your preferences. Or lack of preference: I loan out my kayaks all the time to family members and friends and not once has anyone paddling any of my boats ever commented on the paddle given. On the other hand, I am extremely picky and only want to use my best paddles; including even taking my paddle back on the open water if someone happened to be using it. So don't be afraid to buy a "decent" paddle from a sporting goods store and use that for a while (and then keep that as your "beater" paddle). Length can vary, do you like a wide stroke or a vertical stroke? I used to like my shortest paddle best (I have a vertical stroke), but in addition to liking how it paddles, I like my paddles to be as low profile as possible when stored for fishing, and shorter paddles stick out less (I also like flat blade shapes since they also lie flat). But now that I have a much larger and wider boat (Kaku Wahoo), I have switched to my longest but still nice paddle. I sometimes paddle standing up, using it like a paddle board, and the length helps, and I may buy an even longer paddle (so 250-260) for use with that boat. The paddling part really matters a lot if you are paddling "far". Everyone's sense of far is going to vary, but anything over 20 min of hard paddling, or about 1 mile, is far enough that I would want a nice paddle. If you are tooling around on a small lake or pond, and not really paddling distances, save your paddle money and use that on more fishing or kayaking gear.

The standing part is easy to match, on its own. what else matters? How are you hauling this, ie does weight matter? what kind of water are you paddling, so any concern about wind or waves or current? How far are you paddling in terms of miles to get to your spots? Any price range? If you want the most stable kayak you can find, that is one thing, but if you need other aspects then you are looking for the best compromise that balances those considerations.

I agree with everyone else that there are lots of cheap spinnerbaits and they all work and you should buy white ones first. But unless you are getting muskie versions, they all should be under $10. I am willing to pay more, so $6-8, because I like to have a closed loop to attach the snap for a leader (targeting pike), and boyah and war eagle both offer those types and are good and I have used them a lot. Bowfin love spinnerbaits and will destroy them, and I have had cheap ones broken in half by a bowfin. But recently I switched to the megastrike version that have a hinge for the hook. while I do think this helps with the initial hookset, I think the major difference is in the inability of the fish to shake the hook by jumping and leveraging on the wire.I don't usually mind pike shaking the hook at the kayak since then I don't have to release them, but with these, so far, fish are staying on and not releasing, even when thrashing wildly and/or jumping. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/catpage-MEGABAITS.html?from=basres

I always wear my PFD and agree that everyone else should too. It is part of my everyday set up. But there is something more to the story here. The lake is not that big, there is no mention that the water was extremely cold. After he falls in, why doesn't he just grab the boat? Even if this is a SIS, and so he can't self rescue, there sounds like other boaters right there to respond. While a PFD provides 15 lbs of flotation, a kayak is going to offer 100-400+ lbs of floatation, you can grab a handle on the kayak and hold on, presumably for hours, even if there some reason why you can't grab the PFD. So in this emergency, keeping a hold of the boat is significantly more important than grabbing the PFD (both is the best of course). It is possible that the boat can blow away in the wind, and I have long wanted to test that situation in the worst conditions, my experience is that flipping the kayak even in strong waves and wind, you should be able to swim back and still catch the boat (and ideally self rescue if you are on a SOT; practice this in waves).

In the end, you need to decide why you need to upgrade from your current boat, what does it lack or do you need in a new boat? Are you looking for better paddling or better standing and fishing, or more storage, etc. I like clean decks with open space for standing and tracks so I can do my own rigging. in your price range, I would want to paddle the Jackson Bite and get to see it in person on the water. I also like the look of the moken 12.5 mentioned above, with the new upgraded seat. But the other boats you are looking may all offer something.

I am neither handed and do things with both or either hand. So I would play tennis with my right hand and badminton or ping pong with my left, which makes total sense. When I bought a bait casting reel, I bought a left handed reel, thinking that is what I was used to, only to find out I have been using my right hand on my spinning reel all those years. Most kids are going to learn from the parents and use the gear their parents had. So a right handed mom or dad is probably not going to switch the handle for a child that may end up being left handed. So most left handed kids grow up using right handed gear and get used to doing things that way (or not, and switch as they understand the differences).

Does the Fx pro have scuppers? If not, doesn’t that make it a hybrid canoe? I would love to own/paddle one but there are other solo double paddle boats out there like the placid boatworks rapidfire that i would get first (if $ no object).

I don't see how weathercocking in the wind would be a design feature; it may be a result of other design choices they made. The physics get complicated, but if the bow is turning into the wind, that suggests the bow is heavy. I assume you are not standing? You would think they would design the boat to be neutral in terms of trim. Boats that are "designed" for this feature have adjustable sliding seats, so you can adjust the trim based on the conditions. So you slide forward and trim forward if you paddling into the wind and slide backwards and trim to be the back if you are running/surfing with the wind. What if you try carrying a gallon of water and putting that in the farthest back spot on the back? Moving gear around to adjust trim is a core part of canoe tripping based on the conditions. Also, you describe this happening right as you stop paddling. That can be a different effect, based on how the boat tracks and how you are paddling. the boat will spin away from your last paddle stroke. this isn't usually a major issue on most kayaks but is a major issue on canoes, particularly solo canoes. You may want to learn to feather your last paddle strokes, or just come in with half strokes and then quarter strokes and then barely any stroke at all and see if you can get the boat to glide forward in a straight line (many reviews though of the bonafides suggest they can't really do this and they don't track straight like this). The simple answer though to holding your position in the wind is to anchor or power pole (on the rear, as you are presumably).

As noted, you do have a large hole on top of the boat already. I would put silicone on the bolts though, that does seem like a good idea. But I get the drilling holes makes us all nervous, and with a SIS (or any kayak really), until you actually use it out fishing you don't really know where you want stuff. So I would think about using gear track and installing that with bolts (some come with backing plates) since you have easy access to the inside. Then you could mount what you want in the gear track and move it around as you want, and depending on where you put it, you can get one or more accessories per track. they don't have to symmetrical either, so you could go with track on the left in front and on the right in the rear behind you. You can then also remove the stuff if you have to flip the boat up on a rack. For a paddle holder, I really like the yak attack rotogrip. https://www.yakattack.us/YakAttack_Paddle_Holder_p/grp-1001.htm

I like the look of the mokens a lot, and would have maybe picked the moken 14 a couple of years ago, but I had wanted a raised stadium seat, and the v1 models don't have that. But it looks like you get that with v2, and at 32" wide, my guess is that will be fun to paddle. The moken 14 is 30" wide so looks to be one of the faster/better paddling fishing kayaks out there; hopefully that gets upgraded to v2 too. But my family likes to periodically announceme that I am not allowed to buy anymore fishing kayaks, so I am going to have make due with what I have now.

You don't "need" an anchor trolley, and so it would be fine to see how things work out as you fish off your boats and particularly how your kids handle things. To me, the primary function of the anchor trolley is to move the anchor line to the back of the boat. Moving it to the front of the boat is nice, if you want to spin into the wind, but it is not required. It is hard to fish on a kayak when it is windy, and it is doubly hard to fish into the wind when it is windy (it is better to paddle to get out of the wind vs battling wind and waves usually). You can also probably rig up some form of anchor trolley without drilling, particularly if you are only doing a trolley on the back half of the kayak. You want the anchor to be attached at or near the rear of the kayak. If you can't reach that point, you have to have some solution. The trolley lets you handle the anchor at your side, and then move the anchor to the back. You can have a fixed anchor line to a clip at the back of the boat, and just leave the anchor hanging there, so the anchor goes up and does at the rear and you never touch it. I don't like the anchor hanging there, but this can work. You can also have your anchor clipped to the back of the kayak, and have a second grab line connected to the anchor line below the rear clip; to pull up the anchor you can use that 2nd line to pull the anchor line into reach and then use that to bring up the anchor. This may be a good solution for kids. Almost any weight can hold a kayak. I have 3 lb diver weights and they work fine on my smaller kayaks but aren't enough to hold the bigger kayaks. I have an 8 lb mushroom anchor that is more than enough; I may buy a 5 lb mushroom because the 8 lb is a bit heavy and seems like overkill. Your claw anchors will be fine most likely; I don't like dragging up mud and weeds on the boat, so prefer an anchor that is easy to keep clean. With kids on kayaks, I would absolutely put a float on the anchor line. If you don't, my guess is that at some point, maybe even day 1, someone will unclip an anchor, drop the line ,and that will sink to the bottom to join the anchor lying there on the bottom. There is also a bit of a safety issue with anchors and kids and lines all over the boat. so I would be careful about rigging this to reduce the chance someone could flip with the anchor on board and a line they could get tangled with (another reason I prefer a 3lb weight is I can easily swim with it and hold it up).

I just bought a pair of danco pliers as an upgrade/replacement; they arrived today and look substantial and pretty nice. My previous pliers had the side cutter, which can work well if you get use to that, but I wanted to go back to having the cutter inside the jaws again, I also liked the look of the more substantial jaws with more leverage. I rarely need pliers for bass, so these are mostly for dealing with pike. I did not like having the split ring tip, I do think it can get in the way if you are dealing with a deeply swallowed hook, and I also didn't want crimps, since I have a crimper. So finding fishing pliers (for a reasonable price) with straight jaws without any of that is harder than it may seem. https://www.dancopliers.com/category-s/107.htm They have endless colors; the option I picked only came in a strange color scheme ("peacock bass") and if this matters, the actual color is duller and less bright than what is pictured there.

I was also going to suggest a paddle tail swim bait on a screw lock weighted hook, since you can slide those just above the bottom and stay out of the muck. I use skinny dippers, but there are lots of choices.

If you are carrying the boat on a trail to the lake (I assume alone?), then for me, size and weight do matter. It is amazing the difference between carrying a 50lb boat vs. a 75lb boat (it's 50% more; but the weight feels like it goes to infinity). I have portaged trails to a lot of lakes; I am picturing the adirondacks. It is worth thinking about the launch options too. Often there is a not a beach or shore to set up your boat; the bank is steep and rocky and you are looking at a mud flat with a rock or two to stand on. So keeping the boat simple and the gear simple is also important, as well as looking for a boat that can slide into shallow water easily (bigger, flatter generally better); but given your weight you may need to do a wet launch in almost all conditions. If you are buying new and don't have a lot of experience in kayaks, it would be great if you could demo some boats. Are you planning to stand? there are lots of great options with comfy chairs you could sit in; standing may be trickier and take practice and balance. the nucanoe F10 is 39" wide and weighs 62 lbs. The jackson bite is 36" wide and weighs 69 (I like the look of the bite a lot; but have never been on one, and I wonder how comfortable you would be standing on one?).