I’ve been fishing reservoirs with conventional tackle out of a pedal drive kayak for about the last month, and so far the pedals are far superior to paddling for this application. I do have two  questions for situations I haven’t fished yet:

 

1) When fishing rivers, do you still use the pedal drive or am I better off using my paddle? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use a pedal drive while river fishing.

 

2) For those that fly fish, how tangled up does your fly line get in the pedal drive? Is it to the point I’d be better off leaving the pedal drive at home if I’m bringing a fly rod?

I think most everyone paddles the rivers, too risky to damage the drives unless it's a deeper river.

 

I don't flyfish out of my kayak, but I'd think if you got a stripping basket you'd be okay.

8 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I think most everyone paddles the rivers, too risky to damage the drives unless it's a deeper river.

 

I don't flyfish out of my kayak, but I'd think if you got a stripping basket you'd be okay.

Good info on the rivers, that’s what I assumed but wanted to be sure.

I’d have to lay everything out in my kayak, not sure I have the space for the pedal drive and the stripping basket in mine.

 

The more I think about, if I were to fly fish out of the kayak I’d probably be treating it like a SUP to help with spotting fish/easier to cast so I wouldn’t really even be using the drive.

3 minutes ago, bigbassin' said:

Good info on the rivers, that’s what I assumed but wanted to be sure.

I’d have to lay everything out in my kayak, not sure I have the space for the pedal drive and the stripping basket in mine.

 

The more I think about, if I were to fly fish out of the kayak I’d probably be treating it like a SUP to help with spotting fish/easier to cast so I wouldn’t really even be using the drive.

They have stripping baskets that strap around your middle so you don't have to lay them out. If you're spotting fish you would likely be standing though, and that's going to make the drive pretty useless.

1. I generally fish out of a different kayak from than my pedal drive for shallow rivers.  There's more than one reason, but the main one would be that it gets in the way.  I bought a plug console for my pedal kayak https://oldtowncanoe.johnsonoutdoors.com/accessories/hull-deck/predator-pdl-floor-console since it didn't come with one so I could still use it if I took a friend without a kayak.  I do see some pedal drives out there on the shallow rivers, the Perception one a few times and the Jackson Coosa FD and Cruise FD quite a bit.  For me personally, I don't think they'd be worth the effort.

2.  @Bluebasser86's idea of a stripping basket is novel and may be a solution depending on how you're approacing things, but with the pedal drive you'd have to be really careful to keep it from interfering with the drive.  Then, where to stand is another issue.  If you look at the most purpose built kayak to date for fly fishing, the Jackson Mayfly, you'll see the lengths they went to avoid places onto which your line could get tangled (no foot pegs, etc.), and I would bet that the pedal drive will pose an opportunity for frusturation.

I use my pedal drive wherever I can.  I use it on rivers but I have to be a lot more careful of the water I'm in.  I fish the Mississippi River a lot and most of the time I find myself paddling because the weeds are too thick or the water is just too shallow.  It's worth it to have on though.