WAVEWALK KAYAKS

-”Took the W500 out on the Farmington River in Connecticut today, and hit some flooded back waters.
Waters are very high and fast with all this rain, so my target was to get into some back waters that were not easy to get to when water levels are low.”

-”I had to cross some pretty fast water to get to the opening of a cove, W500 tracked great, and paddling cross the current was a breeze.”

-”As I got to the back of the small cove, I could see where I needed to enter.
Paddling under trees, and over some logs, then over a fallen tree to get into and out of this hidden gem.
I had the whole place to myself, and landed a few nice fish, nothing to really brag about, just new water exploring at it’s best.”

-”I was in water less then 6″ at times, paddling through with no problems at all.
The W500 handled like a champ, I included a video of me leaving the back water cove and going over the logs and tree to head back to my launch point.”

-”Thanks again for this wonderful fishing machine,

Rox”

So, you want to have some quality time kayak fishing with your children (or grandchildren)? Well, it better be fun for them, or else they won’t like to go fishing with you again, and they would find all kinds of excuses to stay home and play a video game…

The L kayaking position isn’t that hard on a child’s back as it is on an adult’s back, but children need to move more than us, adults, and being locked in a kayak in that position, whether it’s for paddling or fishing, can get to be frustrating for them. This is why it’s important they have a kayak that offers them a chance to switch between a variety of fishing and paddling positions. Besides, kids love to stand up in boats (don’t we all?…) and both paddling and fishing standing in the W kayak comes naturally to them – Try to stop them from standing up and you’ll find they don’t hear you that well…

This two year old movie shows children paddling their W fishing kayaks on flat water and at the beach – in the surf:

Click to play movie

There are other, safety related considerations to why you may prefer to have children fish from a W fishing kayak rather than from a sit-in or SOT fishing kayak. It has to do with the fact that as a child lands a fish in a sit-in or on top of a SOT kayak, the fish is fighting to get free right in the kid’s lap – hook and all included. This is a situation that’s not always easy for an adult kayak fisherman to deal with, but for a novice kayak angler who happens to be very young it’s both stressful and potentially hazardous.
This is not a problem in the W fishing kayak, where the fish lands at the bottom of one of the kayak’s deep hulls, where it can struggle as much as it wants – until it gets too tired to be a problem for anyone.

This is another instruction movie from Jeff McGovern, who revisits the same oyster beds in his W fishing kayak, this time at high tide:

Jeff caught a Needle fish by accident in while fishing teh Florida flats, and this is the movie he shot of it:

Thanks Jeff!

Jeff McGovern likes to fish in shallow saltwater, in the flats near the 206 bridge.

In this movie Jeff invites the viewer on board his wavewalk fishing kayak, where he casts from and lands two redfish. This is a ‘must see”:

How did he get that fish to talk like that?



Hi,
First of all that rowing piece is interesting. I think the W would be pretty easy to row. I got to thinking about a sculling oar at the rear, that might work as well. Also at one time there was a rear paddle/oar that attached like a trolling motor for silent going before the days of the electric units. I’ll have to see if they are still around on some fashion. I sent you another video this time landing a flounder.
Yesterday the fishing was fantastic. I managed 4 nice flounder all about the same size, 5 sea trout, and a half dozen ladyfish. It’s good to see the game fish again as it indicates the area is finally coming back from the red tide last year.

Attached is a closeup shot of a Gulp shrimp on a jig head in a trout’s mouth and one of the trout on the seat. You can really see those nasty little fangs.

Coming in the wind had kicked up some but the wave action was like a washing machine thanks to a whole line of boats coming into the bridge area at the same time. These were big ones all over 30 ft and they kicked up huge wakes in the process all of which made the water very choppy. The W handled it without pause and not one drop got inside except from the paddle shaft. The reason I commented on this was a fellow yaker saw me me heading in and was amazed I didn’t swamp the W or get it filled with water. He said at times I disappeared into the waves with only my head and shoulders showing. As far as I was concerned I was only worried about hitting a rod tip on the low hanging trees on the way in.

Jeff

Jeff McGovern’s reports from Florida:
-”I shot quite a bit today in just a short time.  The fishing was off the chain, in other words, outstanding.  I had only a few hours but was able to make the most of it. Catching fish with topwater lures is nothing but loads of fun – The W kayak allowed me to cast like a deck gun and really get some distance.”

And here is the movie that Jeff shot:

As the popularity of kayak fishing increases more kayak designers and manufacturers are drawn to offer their solutions to kayak fishermen. Interestingly, if one can judge from the solutions the main problem that needs addressing is the fishing kayaks’ poor stability.

Out of three recent, original monohull designs all three are explicitly designed to be stabler than regular fishing kayaks, and two out of the three represent experiments in combining canoe features into the kayak design – for the purpose of increasing overall stability.

The two canoe-like or canoe hybrids are different by the fact that one is a SOT and the other a SIK. Both are very wide, and are offered as solutions for flat water fishing. This could mean that either their manufacturers estimate the offshore kayak fishing market to be too small to be worth addressing, or their boats not to perform well enough in the surf. This brings up again the question of seaworthiness, and whether these designs are indeed stable, comfortable and and safe enough to be used for standup fishing.

The third new fishing kayak design is a monohull as well, but it departs from the conventional approach of trying to increase stability by making the hull wider. This design offers a mechanism enabling splitting the rear part of the kayak in two and pulling the ends sideways, thus creating a stabler platform for the fishermen to fish from. The obvious problem with this design is that once the fishing configuration is deployed the ‘kayak’ becomes nearly stationary since paddling it does not meet any standard of efficiency. This fishing kayak is not offered for offshore fishing either, which again implies that its manufacturers may have some concerns about its possible performance in the ocean.

In this context it is interesting to see that another manufacturer of fishing kayaks now offers outriggers to accompany their kayaks, which is yet another fact that shows stability to be a problem at the core of the kayak fishing concept.

Overall, the appearance of new designs and solutions that address the stability problem is a sign showing that some kayak designers and manufacturers are attentive to the real problems that kayak fisherman face. Whether any of the solutions offered are viable in the long run remains to be seen.