WAVEWALK FISHING KAYAKS BLOG » cold weather

Northern Kayak Fishing – Now The Blog

W kayak — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:10:20 +0000

Several years ago, I was talking with Jeff McGovern about the kayak fishing phenomenon, and he predicted that unlike other fishing kayaks, the W will become as popular in the northern regions of the United States as in its southern regions.

Jeff grew up in Indiana, and he’d been fishing there out of canoes and small boats for many years, and since then he’s never missed his family’s annual fishing trip to Canada.

So why are fishing kayaks generally less popular among northern anglers compared to their higher popularity with southern anglers? It has to do with the climate up here, which is less clement than the southern climates.
This means both the water and weather are colder, and naturally, people don’t like the idea of getting wet and being exposed to the wind, which had been bundled with the kayak fishing concept since its inception, until the W kayak showed up on the scene, and changed things -
Canoes and dinghies offer their passengers better protection from the elements than sit-in, SOT and hybrid kayaks do, but the W kayak offers as much protection as canoes and dinghies offer, although it’s as lightweight as any fishing kayak (well, it’s lighter, in most cases), and it offers more advantages in terms of mobility, stability, ergonomics, storage, transportation, etc.

So far, anglers in colder regions had many important reasons why they should stick to their canoes, dinghies and motorboats, and not switch to fishing from kayaks, and the wetness and cold came on top of this list of arguments. This is not just a matter of convenience and health, but a matter of safety too: Hypothermia is a serious threat up here, and no one in their right mind would want to risk being in such a condition.

With the W500, these arguments are no longer valid, especially since it’s so also easy to mount an electric motor, or an outboard gas motor on it, and since the performance and convenience offered by such motorized fishing kayak are both considerable and evident.

Indeed, Jeff’s instincts proved to be right this time, as in other cases, and there has been basically no difference in the rate of adoption of the W kayak among northern kayak anglers, compared to that of southern kayak anglers.

We recently launched a new blog called Northern Kayak Fishing, which focuses on fishing from kayaks in colder regions. So far, Rox, Sungjin, John F, Gary T, and Jeff registered as contributing authors to this new blog, and we hope more will follow (and contribute too…)

Yoav

Kayak Ice Fishing (In a Way), And Last Tiger Muskie For The Season – By Gary Thorberg

W kayak — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:39:57 +0000

The Wavewalk kayak can do many things, but breaking thick ice is not one of them. It is too light, and simply rides up on top of the ice. I stopped after a couple of feet, as this could put you in a dangerous position (not recommended).
I think that my lake kayaking is about over this year.
One final Tiger Muskie is a good way to close out the season!
Gary

MinnYaks – Minnesota Fishing Kayaks

Fishing Kayak Review From Tony DeFusco, New Hampshire Fisherman

W kayak — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 10:34:59 +0000

Last year, we published this review for the first time, although back then Tony and his daughter Lisa had not sent us pictures. We felt it was important for our elderly visitors, especially those who suffer from serious back problems, to read a testimonial from someone in their condition who enjoys kayak fishing whenever the weather in New Hampshire allows for it…
Now that Lisa sent us these new pictures of her dad in his W500 kayak, we decided to republish this review, and this rime as a full featured fishing kayak review, including even a good looking bass… -Thank you Lisa!

The 500 is great. It only took a minimum amount of time of actual paddling to get used to the kayak.
The weather is still bad but I am planning to get out next week and see if I can catch a fish.
My daughter Lisa and I have spent many hours fishing out of the kayaks on the weekends but I have not slimed the 500 yet. Today we had to quit because our hands got so cold.
The 500 is very stable and easy to control. The stability is very important as I had a major surgery on my back last year and somehow it messed up my balance.
You have designed a great craft. Thanks to you I can enjoy fishing again.

Tony

Tony hand crafted his own paddle

Opener 2011 – Minnesota Kayak Fishing Trip Report With 18′ Mothership

W kayak — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 02:13:23 +0000

Gary, from MinnYaks wrote the following fishing report on his Minnesota Kayak Fishing blog:
Opener 2011 was a success! (see photo gallery) Weather was lousy, but that made for good fishing. We caught and ate a lot of crappies, caught and released a lot of bass and northern pike. Didn’t really fish much for walleyes, but managed to catch and eat a few anyway. The W500 was really fun to fish from. I was able to go anywhere I wanted, and was never tired, even after hours of fishing. Trolling, casting, bobber fishing, and fly fishing were all easily managed. We tried transporting the ‘W’ with our ‘mother ship’, our 18′ bay boat. It was too easy! The long run into the wind to the fishing spot took only a few minutes! We will be doing that again. All in all, I can honestly say that fishing from the ‘W’ was one of my more memorable fishing experiences to date!

Short Review of W500 Fishing Kayak, by Anthony DeFusco, New Hampshire

W kayak — Mon, 23 May 2011 13:26:03 +0000

Tony is an elderly gentleman from New Hampshire. Together with his daughter Lisa, he picked up his green W500 here, in Sharon, Massachusetts.
In most cases, our clients order by mail, or buy from our dealers, and I don’t meet them face to face, unfortunately. Since I actually got to meet Tony and Lisa, I felt like publishing Tony’s short review, although we normally don’t publish a review unless it’s accompanied by pictures:

Tony