I have been wanting to get back into a kayak since last summer, I even sold my boat last season in preparation of moving on. I missed kayak fishing and the number of places I can fish in a kayak vs a boat is a TON more in my area. I had narrowed my search of many kayaks down to the Sportsman 106. I just wasn't sure if I wanted the pedal version or the powered version. Today I had time and took a trip to my local Old Town dealer in Ephrata (Lancaster Marine). Some real nice people there to say the least.

Between the pedal vs powered version, I could not deny the hull design of the powered version over the pedal version. A little taller and a tad wider. Steering with feet for true hands-free fishing is also just a tad nicer too.

I will need to pick up a battery yet and I'm sure I'll want a fish finder, nothing crazy this time around.

Can't wait for it to get warmer!

Sweet!

NICE!!!! Bet you really going to enjoy it!!

Good choice, you’ll have a blast.

I went with a simple Garmin Striker 4cv with portable case and found it great for depth, water temp and finding bait fish. Nothing fancy or expensive.

Enjoy!

The LiTime are the best buy going when it comes to lithium i think. Hard to do better for the price.

if you decide you want something like a humminbird piranha 4” I might know where there is one going for quite cheap…

2 hours ago, Motoboss said:

Good choice, you’ll have a blast.

I went with a simple Garmin Striker 4cv with portable case and found it great for depth, water temp and finding bait fish. Nothing fancy or expensive.

Enjoy!

1 hour ago, casts_by_fly said:

The LiTime are the best buy going when it comes to lithium i think. Hard to do better for the price.

if you decide you want something like a humminbird piranha 4” I might know where there is one going for quite cheap…

Hard to deny the cost of the LiTime over Amped, Ionic, etc and I've seen many Will Prowse videos, I trust his opinion and it's worth a try.

I am not sure about the finder yet. It's been 10 years or so since I have been kayak fishing so I'll need to get use to the layout and operation of this kayak before I decide what size finder can fit and where it won't affect a cast. On my last kayak I had a Raymarine 5" that I was happy with but these eyes aren't getting any younger so I am thinking a 7" might be needed? I'll have to visit Cabelas and see some in person side by side again.

10 hours ago, Craig P said:

Hard to deny the cost of the LiTime over Amped, Ionic, etc and I've seen many Will Prowse videos, I trust his opinion and it's worth a try.

I am not sure about the finder yet. It's been 10 years or so since I have been kayak fishing so I'll need to get use to the layout and operation of this kayak before I decide what size finder can fit and where it won't affect a cast. On my last kayak I had a Raymarine 5" that I was happy with but these eyes aren't getting any younger so I am thinking a 7" might be needed? I'll have to visit Cabelas and see some in person side by side again.

I started out with a reconditioned 5” Lowrance on my old pedal drive, then later moved up to a 7” Humminbird.

Fast forward to today and I have two 9” Garmins plus that 7” Humminbird.

I found that my old eyes weren’t up to the task with the 5”. The 7” was ok when mounted close to my seat.

Adding FFS precipitated getting the first 9”. Added the second 9” so I can run side scan or down scan alongside FFF. I use the 7” for mapping.

You'll love it. I run a Relion 100ah in mine - I would never spend that much on a battery, but a buddy's dad was upgrading batteries in his RV and sold it to me for $150. I put in some connectors to run my power pole off it as well.

For a fish finder, I run a 73SV if I'm lake fishing. I run that off a separate Amped 32ah NMC. I ran the power cord into the front hatch, but didn't hard mount the transducer to the hull. If I'm fishing rivers I generally don't bring the finder, and don't want to bash the ducer off rocks.

Like I mentioned in the other thread, if you're anywhere shallow keep the drive unit unlocked. If it hits bottom it will just pop up and pull the kill switch out. Then remember to close the throttle before putting the kill switch back in..

I've heard the electrical plugs for the battery box and drive can be fragile, but I haven't had an issue yet. The only other gripe I've had with it is I wish the front t-tracks came farther back towards the seat. I like to stick a rod holder in them for trolling, but it's just far enough away to make it awkward. Otherwise it's been a great setup.

52 minutes ago, Kayak Koz said:

I started out with a reconditioned 5” Lowrance on my old pedal drive, then later moved up to a 7” Humminbird.

Fast forward to today and I have two 9” Garmins plus that 7” Humminbird.

I found that my old eyes weren’t up to the task with the 5”. The 7” was ok when mounted close to my seat.

Adding FFS precipitated getting the first 9”. Added the second 9” so I can run side scan or down scan alongside FFF. I use the 7” for mapping.

I seen your recent post with your finders. That's alot of screens! LOL but the geek in me loves it!

I am leaning towards the Helix 7 MSI GPS 4, mainly for side view and map contours. Not cheap but I am working with a nice budget with the proceeds of selling my boat so why not right. Who knows, those inches could go up yet, I just need to use it and find out how I like the configuration come spring. I guess I could always buy another drysuit.....ugh, but I don't know how deep I want to get into that. I still love beating banks to scratch the itch when it's cold.

11 minutes ago, Standard said:

You'll love it. I run a Relion 100ah in mine - I would never spend that much on a battery, but a buddy's dad was upgrading batteries in his RV and sold it to me for $150. I put in some connectors to run my power pole off it as well.

Wow! Nice price!

I looked at your color hard, it came down to that one or the once I chose. Apparently, this color was a limited production run with this one being #007. And the colors look great in the back of my truck! ;)

16 minutes ago, Standard said:

Like I mentioned in the other thread, if you're anywhere shallow keep the drive unit unlocked. If it hits bottom it will just pop up and pull the kill switch out. Then remember to close the throttle before putting the kill switch back in.

Very noted! and will do. Just as a precaution, I did pick up a new prop/nut/pin as well as a new lock knob in the event I break any of it. I also picked up 8 check valve scuppers too and didn't hold back on the paddle. I know I won't use it a ton but the lighter carbon one felt much nicer.

Good luck on the setup!

My FF journey was similar to Koz. I started with a 7" and for running 1 thing at a time (no split screeen) and having it reasonably close to you (arms lenth or so) it was pretty good. I got a lot of good imaging from it and learned a lot of things. I also bumped to the 9" when I picked up FFS because the 7" helix wasn't capable of running it. If you think you'll get FFS in the future, then just lay it all out with a 9" now.

And if you're going to do that, just go straight to the xplore units. The helix units have an expiry date. They have discontinued most of them and will only have the smaller ones going forward. They are only ML1 compatible (there is a big improvement going to ML2). Updates and fixes (though minor at this point in the lifecycle) are going to stop if they haven't already. Ongoing support will get limited. Heck, it might even be tough to find a brand new Helix 9 MSI G3n/G4n right now. The 7 is fine if you know that's all you will ever want. Great units. But just know that there is no upsize path available. The next step up is the 9" xplore.

Thanks @casts_by_fly

I had a couple of Garmin Echomap Ultra 10"ers and FFS setup on the boat I sold. This time around, I just want simple but with your comments, I suppose I probably shouldn't close the door.

If you were used to having FFS and using it a bit, then I agree that I wouldn't shut the door on it. You could always start with none and see what you miss.

3 hours ago, Craig P said:

Wow! Nice price!

I looked at your color hard, it came down to that one or the once I chose. Apparently, this color was a limited production run with this one being #007. And the colors look great in the back of my truck! ;)

Very noted! and will do. Just as a precaution, I did pick up a new prop/nut/pin as well as a new lock knob in the event I break any of it. I also picked up 8 check valve scuppers too and didn't hold back on the paddle. I know I won't use it a ton but the lighter carbon one felt much nicer.

That does remind me of another gripe - I have a carbon handled paddle and the rubber strap on the OT paddle holder is a bear to secure. I was hoping it would stretch a bit with use but no luck yet. I can't remember the brand / model of it right now so it may just be an issue of that one having a large diameter handle.

The prop stuff is always good to have, I haven't broken a pin yet but I did bend one. That was a bear to get out. Don't bother trying out the MK weedless prop - it fits on the hub but the blades are too long and hit the hull.

I haven't felt the need for any scupper plugs, the hull stays pretty dry and drains fast if water does get in.

I pulled the trigger on the LiTime. I even picked up their charger with the order. I was just going to grab a Noco 10amp but LiTime's was $20 cheaper and if I ever have an issue, they can't blame the charger. ;)

Yeah, for a single battery charger it just makes sense.

Did you get the 100 AH Bluetooth?

1 hour ago, casts_by_fly said:

Yeah, for a single battery charger it just makes sense.

Did you get the 100 AH Bluetooth?

Yeppers. I had Bluetooth with the ionic battery I had previously and really liked that feature.

10 hours ago, Craig P said:

I seen your recent post with your finders. That's alot of screens! LOL but the geek in me loves it!

I am leaning towards the Helix 7 MSI GPS 4, mainly for side view and map contours. Not cheap but I am working with a nice budget with the proceeds of selling my boat so why not right. Who knows, those inches could go up yet, I just need to use it and find out how I like the configuration come spring. I guess I could always buy another drysuit.....ugh, but I don't know how deep I want to get into that. I still love beating banks to scratch the itch when it's cold.

I still love my Helix 7. One reason why I kept it is that have have the map card with SmartStrike for the southeast region where I fish. It comes in handy, especially on new lakes.

if I had multiple kayaks, that one would be in my armada for sure.

Congrats! Also hello fellow PA fisher, located in Lititz here. Tight lines and hope to see you tearing it up out on the water once it warms up!

LiTimes offers huge value, I’ve got a 36v 50ah powering my NK300. Very efficient and I love trying to kill it on an 8 hour session. The Bluetooth monitoring is great.

Nice Yak!

13 hours ago, Dangerfield said:

LiTimes offers huge value, I’ve got a 36v 50ah powering my NK300. Very efficient and I love trying to kill it on an 8 hour session. The Bluetooth monitoring is great.

Nice Yak!

Awesome! I think I am going to pick up another smaller one for a future graph.

Things are coming along nicely with my new kayak. Sorry, this is going to be a long post, what else is a guy to do in single digit temperatures? Shovel snow? Ugh! I am thankful that part is over, for now.

I mentioned in another post about ordering a LiTime 100ah battery. That has already been received and set up in the battery box and being store inside as the garage is cold right now in PA.

I wanted to get the kayak off the floor to work on and some of the kayak stands sold online seem cheaply made to me for their price. With that, I found myself at harbor freight and found these 40" work platforms. Strong and reasonably priced, they can pull double duty for me with painting or working overhead in a room with 8' ceilings. 9' for you taller people. ;) If the hull on my kayak were shaped different, I would have continued the search but it sits perfectly flat on these and I like having something that is a multi-tasker. And did I mention, strong!

I spoiled myself with a BlackPak. I am a minimalist when it comes to fishing tackle but this crate with a latching lid and endless customization is going to be great for all of those incidentals most kayakers like to have on hand in the event of issues. What really sold me though were the rod tubes with built in hooks on bungies to hold the rods in place.

I do have an Engle cooler with 4 rod tubes leftover from prior kayak ownership but since I wanted to get fancy this time around with the BlackPack, I still needed a cooler solution, and I found this kayak chair cooler online. For less than $50, I am impressed with its quality and size it expands to. I can get an 18 pack into that thing easy! LOL More like a couple bottles water, a coffee thermos and some granola bars but a guy can dream right! At the very least, it will be nice to have a purpose-built organized solution.

Finally, you can see a fish finder on the seat. I thought long and hard about this one with wants, size, future possibilities, financial commitment, etc. I decided all I really wanted was something small with superior side imaging. Of all the brands, you cannot go less than a 7" screen to get great side imaging and through my research, the Helix 7 MSI G4 won. With that, the search for a non-network version (cheaper) ensued and as luck would have it, I found it for $599.99 at a.....forgot how to use English's not far from me. With $60 in store rewards, even better!

I ordered a Ram track mount today as well as a Nocqua battery to complete an easy install next week. I even threw in a guardian angel to the order as well. I do not intend to fish in the dark, it's just not my thing but it will be a necessary item for early morning launches.

I still need a couple of things like a tow/flip strap, I'll make that, a good multi-tool, a net and I am sure I'll think of other things.....

Thanks for reading if you made it this far! ;) Of course, the obligatory pic!

Good luck with the Nocqua. I’ve owned three and all three went bad. They would all only charge to a max of 12.01v. The chargers wouldn’t stop flashing since they were trying to get them closer to 12.4v.

I gave up on them.

14 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

Good luck with the Nocqua. I’ve owned three and all three went bad. They would all only charge to a max of 12.01v. The chargers wouldn’t stop flashing since they were trying to get them closer to 12.4v.

I gave up on them.

All 3 were bad? That is some incredible odds. What were you powering? What satisfied the requirement?