Kayak Fishing and Paddling - The New Standard in Fishing Kayaks. Fishing Kayak Reviews, and Kayak Fishing Trip Reports, Movies, Pictures and Articles By and For Kayak Anglers.
Paddling a kayak in tandem isn’t easy, as anyone who tried would tell you.
Getting two teenage brothers to do something together isn’t easy either, as frustrated parents would attest.
Therefore, putting two teenage brothers in one kayak and getting them to paddle it in tandem should be considered a particularly ambitious project, unless that kayak happens to be the Wavewalk W500:
The paddlers are 14 year old Yadin and his 11 year old brother Yanay.
Their aggregate weight is 235 lbs.
Any kayak designer, paddler or angler would tell you that a kayak can either track well, or turn easily, and that the longer the kayak’s hull the better it would track, but the harder it would be to maneuver, and vice versa. In the narrow and restricted world of traditional, mono-hull kayaks this is axiomatic, meaning that it requires no proof, since everyone already knows it to be true.
Wavewalk has already proven that its W300 kayak was a great tracker for a 10 ft long kayak, and did not require a rudder to help it track even under strong wind. The W300 also astonished quite a few kayak paddlers and designers by showing them that a paddler could lean it into the turn, and make very sharp turns - again, without a rudder.
Now we offer the W500 that’s much faster than the W300, and tracks considerably better. In fact, kayakers and kayak anglers compare its speed to that of a 14-16 ft long, fast fishing kayak, or a 12-13 ft long touring kayak.
The question that some kayakers and anglers have asked, and rightfully so, is whether this great tracker could maneuver easily without a rudder.
This demo movie shows how riding the saddle from its rear end changes the kayak’s hydrodynamics in a way that makes it highly maneuverable:
Leaning into the turn makes steering even more effective.
When tight maneuvers are no longer required, the paddler can go back to paddling the W500 kayak from the middle of the saddle. In that position, the W500 is perfectly balanced fore and aft, tracks perfectly, and can achieve its highest speed.
No rudder is required for either tracking or turning the W500 kayak. If you’ve used a rudder with your kayak you’d know it is really good news. This is because rudders cost money, they impede your kayak, and they have a nasty tendency to harvest seaweed and get stuck in the bottom when you’re paddling and fishing in shallow water.
In other words, rudders are pain…
By the way, aboriginal kayaks made by arctic circle people had no rudders, since the people who crafted and paddled them were better paddlers than we are.
It summarizes various rigging projects that we know about in this field, thanks to W kayak anglers who’ve contributed their creativity, insight and pictures…
It’s not often that a major, mainstream fishing magazine reports the fact we offer something new, useful and exciting to the fishing world.
Mike Genoun, the editor of Florida Sport Fishing magazine published this short news story in the New Products section of the magazine’s March issue (paper):
Donavan Campbell is a W kayak stream fisherman from North Carolina, who contributed a fishing kayak review of his W300.
His wheel system offers the advantages of being low-cost, simple, easy to make, and lightweight for carrying on board. It’s all-terrain, and easy to attach to the kayak.
-”Wanted to pass along pictures of the wheel system my dad and I created for the W300.
We utilized a 1/2″ aluminum tube as an axle inside a 3/4″ aluminum tube, attached plastic wheels and mounted (drilled through both tubes) aluminum shelf brackets as guides and as a place to attach the bungee.
Important thing to me was keeping the weight to a minimum (complete set weighs about 3lbs) because when you river fish, where you put in is not where you get out; the wheel system goes with you.
Additionally no ball bearings or anything that would rust as the wheel spins on a plastic bushing, the axle does not turn.
Has proven to be very stable and quick to attach and detach. Everything was purchased at Lowes Hardware for little less than $50.
No problem maneuvering any terrain now.
I imagine in a couple of years the plastic bushings and wheel will need to be replaced but this is a minimal investment. Hope someone finds this helpful.
Following Rox’ recommendation, we tested the clamp-mounted rod holder from Tite-Lok, and decided to add it to our selection of optional rod holders.
The advantages we see in this rod holder are:
1. Versatility - You can mount and dismount it within seconds, and change its location along the cockpit’s spray deflector. Both vertical and horizontal angles are easily adjustable.
2. Quality - This device is built to last.
The Tite-Lok 5615 clamp mounted rod holder attached to a W500 fishing kayak’s spray deflector.
The Tite-Lok clamp mount rod holder viewed separately from the kayak
Note that the clamp offers two different attachment spots fro the rod holder: on the side and on top.
Price: We’re offering the Tite-Lok rod holder with a clamp mount for a $45.
Some fishing kayak manufacturers try to lure potential buyers by offering bigger hatches, and additional space to put gear on top of their SOT kayaks’ decks. Obviously, those solutions are neither effective nor user-friendly, but what else can you do to solve the storage problem if you’re a manufacturer of sit-in or SOT kayaks? -Not much.
The W500 offers several times more storage than any kayak on the market - be it a fishing kayak or a touring kayak, a sea-kayak or an ‘expedition’ kayak.
Not only that, but the storage offered by the W500 is internal, dry, and always accessible to the passenger - be it an angler, a paddler, or a camper. In fact, there is so much room in the W500 kayak hulls and cockpit, that it can comfortably accommodate a second adult passenger on board.
The total storage space available on board the W500 kayak is 14 cubic feet, or 0.4 cubic meter. It’s way above the kayak league, and comparable to the storage space offered by canoes and some small motorboats.
The notion that kayak fishing is booming has been repeated for years by various interested parties, but a search in Google News archives revealed these intriguing facts:
1. From 1990, the number of news articles about kayak fishing kept increasing, and it peaked in 2007.
2. Since 2007, the number of published news articles about kayak fishing has kept decreasing. In fact, the number of news articles about kayak fishing in 2009 was lower than its level in 2004.
This chart was taken from a screen shot of the Google page above:
Interestingly, the number of websites and blogs related to kayak fishing has visibly gone up in the past decade, as part of the media explosion brought by the Internet. In addition, big and small kayak manufacturers have focused on the kayak fishing market in every way they could, and tried to bring the public’s attention to their products by all means.
So what’s the reason for this decrease in media coverage of kayak fishing in the past two years?
The first explanation that comes to mind is that it could be related to the economic recession, but does it make sense? The recreational fishing boat market has been severely hit, but what kayak manufacturers and other vendors and affiliated professionals have been saying is that now, more then ever, a kayak offers a the cheap way to go fishing, and consequently, they expected sales of fishing kayaks and to go through the roof, and interest in kayak fishing to explode. They even promoted the idea of stand-up kayak fishing from their obviously inadequate kayaks, thinking the public would go for it.
However, we think, as we’ve stated in the past, that many kayak anglers quit practicing kayak fishing after some time, as they find it to be less rewarding than they had initially hoped it would be. Usually, the kayak angler’s expectation is to be able to spend a few hours on the water, having fun catching fish, while the reality in many cases is that doing so results in a sore back, an aching butt, and numb legs - on top of being wet, especially if you fish from a SOT kayak.
In other words, a significant proportion of kayak anglers drops from the sport, and it could be that their numbers are now equal to, or exceed the number of new kayak anglers who enter the sport. Consequently, the public’s level of interest in kayak fishing has begun to decline, and the lower level of media exposure reflects this trend.
At Wavewalk, we’ve experienced a totally different reality, with sales increasing year after year at a faster pace, and 2009 being a boom year. Read more >>
This success has to do with the fact that our W kayaks offer a truly good user experience, less fatigue, no back pain or any other physical pain and discomfort, plus they’re stable enough to offer stand-up kayak fishing in confidence and safety.
That’s right - today YouTube reports showed that the total number of views for all Wavewalk Kayaks’ movies posted on that website topped 250,000. That’s a quarter of a million, and a big number for a small company
The most viewed is the movie entitled ‘WALKING ON WAVES’ (22,600 views):
The second most viewed is a movie named ‘Demo of Fishing Kayak Stability’ (17,600 views):
And the third most viewed is called ‘Stand Up Kayak Paddling- Fishing Kayak Surf Launching’ (16,200 views):
Jeff’s movie named ‘Rigged W300 Wavewalk Fishing Kayak’ comes fourth, with 15,500 views, and the movie he shot called ‘Super Fishing Kayak Stability Demo 2009 Wavewalk’ is fifth, with 14,400 views.
This is an opportunity to thank Jeff again for his huge contribution, as well as others who’ve contributed interesting, fun and otherwise valuable material to our website.
These numbers give YouTube’s motto ‘Broadcast Yourself’ a real meaning for us.
Most people think that paddling a kayak in flat water isn’t very interesting. They are right, when sit-in and SOT kayaks are considered, but flat wrong when W kayaks are:
This movie is one of my favorites. It shows the W300 performing like no other paddle craft before, and highlights some of the W important advantages for paddling, touring and kayak fishing.
The reason I chose to post it again on this blog is because I recently discovered how to add annotations to YouTube videos
I thought it may be interesting to revisit the subject of motorizing fishing kayaks with an outboard gas engine.
To the best of my knowledge, so far only one W kayak angler has used such an outboard motor: Jim McGilvray, from Norfolk, UK, who rigged his 2007 W300 fishing kayak with a 2.5, 4 stroke engine, and a pair of DIY outriggers.
This is the movie Jim sent us, over two years ago:
This rig allows for more than trolling, obviously. The speed and stability are remarkable.
I got out today and thought it would be good to add to the blog. Granted we don’t have the winter weather some folks are getting slammed with but I did brave 52 degree air temps this morning.
Fishing wise the day was awesome, trout after trout, red after red, and of course those darn little blue fish tearing up lures. The trout fell to Mirrodines and DOA shrimp both classic trout lures. I managed 11 of them with all but three in the legal range, a nice bunch of fish. The redfish all hit the same topwater lure a Super Spook Jr in white & chrome with bright red eyes. The blue fish hit anytime a sinking lure got in their way near the surface.
As long as I got it under them the trout could get it. This was typical Florida winter fishing, loads of action so long as you could find the spots holding fish. As it was my final tally was 11 of those trout, 8 redfish, and at least 20 of those crazy little blues. Of course the W500 performed like a champ. By the way when I got back to Genung’s Fish Camp a number of folks were checking out the W. Hopefully some of them will be interested in buying.
December 2nd Season ending trip for Rainbow Reservoir.
Well the ice has come to Ct, and I am very sad.
Dec 2nd was my last trip, I was hoping to get out one more time, but I’ve been busy, and when I got to my Favorite Smallie waters, they were iced over with 1 1/2″ of ice on Monday December 9th, Tuesday was no better.
Time to switch gears, get ready for ice fishing, and chase some trout on the upper Farmington river, which never freezes here in Ct.
All Smallmouths caught on a 1/8oz jig, rigged with a 2″ paddle tail white, with a red dot added to the belly with a red magic marker. (I always carry red and black markers)
I cast out to where the waters run to and around an old dam, letting it drop to the bottom and popping it with long pauses, and waited for that little tic, and only lifting my rod tip to set the hook, if you set it to hard, it resulted in missed fish.
Water temps were 42 degrees, slight winds at 8mph, Air temps were 40 degrees. Current was moving pretty good, they had the lower dam open for the upcoming rains.
Gary Rankel from Hernando, Florida, and his friends founded a new, local kayak fishing club called the Nature Coast Kayak Fishing Club.
Congratulations Gary - We wish you and your friends success, and hope you’ll have a lot of fun!
Gary has already contributed great reviews, stories and pictures to our website and to this blog, and today he sent us some more pictures of his W500 kayak fully rigged for fishing:
Gary’s unique and ingenious way of mounting a compass between the hulls of his W kayak:
And this is already a classic: A doormat attached underneath the hull tips, enabling Gary to drag his fishing kayak on asphalt and concrete pavement for long distances. When Gary reaches the water he simply folds the mat inside one of the hull tips.
