WAVEWALK KAYAKS

I decided to re-edit and republish this blog that was initially posted over a year ago because it’s both important and interesting: A big and powerful fish may be smaller and altogether weaker than you, but being in its natural element while you’re not gives it an advantage that may compromise your kayak’s stability and make you tip over, or get you somewhere that you don’t necessarily want to go to in a long ’sleigh ride’, or simply make you lose the fish because you’re too busy controlling your kayak. This is about a maneuver that Jeff McGovern and myself developed while brainstorming together. It’s called the ‘Combat Position’, and it’s possible to execute only when you’re fishing from a W-kayak. It goes like this: As soon as you realize that you’ve hooked a big fish you need to swiftly reposition yourself along the saddle as forward in the cockpit as possible and most importantly -in the riding position (’Mounted’), with your knees tucked into the front-hull tip openings, as you can see in ‘1′ in this illustration. As a result of your forward move your W kayak’s bow will dip in the water (see ‘2′) while the stern will come out of the water (see ‘3′). In this position your W kayak will be ‘planted’ in the water, and offer maximal resistance to unwanted change that big fish may generate, whether such change is tilting sideways or going forward. In this position you won’t have to worry about balancing your W fishing kayak, and you’ll be able to focus on your fish while its own capacity to outmaneuver or destabilize you is reduced to nearly zero. All that fish could do now is swim forward or sideways, and since your W kayak will generate a lot of drag in this position the fish will get tired much sooner, and become less of a problem for you when it comes to reeling or pulling it in.

Photo of Brandon Cutter with a striper he caught off Cape Cod, MA

A big and powerful fish may be smaller and altogether weaker than you, but being in its natural element while you’re not gives it an advantage that may compromise your kayak’s stability, get you somewhere that you don’t necessarily want to go to in long a ‘sleigh ride’, or make you lose the fish because you’re too busy controlling your kayak.

This is a maneuver that Jeff McGovern and myself developed together as a ‘think tank’ and ‘R&D team’. It’s called the ‘Combat Position’, and it’s possible to execute only in a W Kayak:

Upon realizing that you have a business with a big fish you need to swiftly reposition yourself along the saddle in the riding position (‘Mounted’) and as forward in the cockpit as possible, with your knees tucked into the front hull tip openings – see ’1′ in the illustration below.
As a result of this change in weight distribution your W kayak’s bow will dip in the water (see ’2′) while the stern will come out of the water (see ’3′).

In this position your W kayak will be ‘planted’ in the water and offer maximum resistance to unwanted change, whether such change is tilting sideways or going forward.
Being in this position will free you from the need to balance your kayak while you’re fighting the fish, and let you focus on your fish whose capability to outmaneuver you was reduced to almost zero.

All the fish could do now is swim forward or sideways, and since your W kayak will generate a lot of drag in this position the fish will soon get tired and become less of a problem to reel in.