The obvious answer is “No!”. As a rule, fishing kayaks and waders are mutually exclusive, unless you’re kayak fishing in a small, very shallow body of water that has a non-muddy bottom that you can easily stride in.
Waders make you heavy and clumsy, and if you fall overboard in deep water they will prevent you from swimming, and might prevent you from being able to get back in your kayak – A perfect lose-lose situation, especially if the water is cold, because then you’ll be looking at hypothermia, which leads to paralysis and loss of consciousness.
Even in shallow water, where you can stand on the bottom, waders might limit your movements to a point where you become exhausted from walking in deep mud, or in water that gets above your waistline. Again, this is especially true in cold water and weather, and it’s more dangerous if you’re wearing heavy rubber boots.
To those who’d say they’ve fallen from their fishing kayaks waders on, and nothing happened, we would say “good for you!”, but such cases are by no means an excuse for being reckless – It doesn’t pay in the long run, and you don’t want to be on the news – at least not as the subject of a ‘kayak fishing accident’ story.
If you must wear something on your legs because you have to wade where you fish, you may want to consider wet-suit pants.
Got to say I have considered them but then I return to reality. What I normally wear here in Florida is Seal Skinz socks. I prefer the ones that are about knee high. There is not much else on the market like them and they work very well keeping your feet warm and comfortable. When I’m in Canada fishing for a solid week each year I wear them and a pair outdoor heavy sandals all week. I’m mobile and can move around easily. A number of the sit on top folks in Florida wear waders but then again we are talking water in most cases that gets knee deep at best in the productive fishing spots. I think mostly for them it’s to keep from getting soaked. With the W for the most part I don’t need them to stay dry. If it is going to be a wet day I’ll just wear a light weight breathable rain suit.
I do a lot of shallow-water fishing where I alternate between fishing from the kayak and wadefishing (not necessarily with waders on). I’ll often tie the kayak to me and pull it behind me while I wade. My question is how easy is it to get back into the W when you are in water that is mid-thigh to waist deep?
Dan,
It’s super easy. Much easier than doing so with other kayaks, due to the W’s super stability.
Here’s a couple demo videos: