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It’s kind of funny but when a few of us get together for kayak fishing there are times it’s more chatting than fishing. We headed out last Friday just north of Marineland, Florida. That’s the famous oceanic research park and facility that in it’s day was a prime early theme park and water show with dolphins. It predated the Sea World attractions by decades. The “town” or property is right on A1A on the ocean side and still has much of it’s original charm. It’s a real throwback however compared to the massive high tech attractions that draw people today.

Anyway we headed north on the intercoastal maybe a mile or so before heading into the flats north of Pellicer. There were for of us, Jeff Maron, his buddy Dave, “Lurch” from our kayak group Jax Kayak, and myself.
Fishing was painfully slow but at least we all caught something to kill off the dreaded skunk that sometimes inhabits a fishing kayak. We always end up this way, clustering up and just casting & chatting. The fellowship is always great and everyone had a wonderful time.
Jeff Maron tried out the Wavewalk 500 and finally he now gets the joke. Every time we go out he needs to head for shore about each hour to unkink his back. He always wondered the real reason I was comfortable and did not get all kinked up, now he knows.
The other two fellows held off on the demo ride but I suspect the next time out they to will and to give the “back relief boat” a try. The main reason we headed in about noon was that the other fellows had had enough fun according to their backs and legs.
A final note. I was doing an Emmrod demo at Gander Mountain St Augustine on Saturday and a fellow yaker came to chat about the rods. Under his arm was a hunting stand seat pad, I asked about it. He commented it was to allow him a little more time fishing from his [12' long, brand SOT fishing kayak] before his back made him go in.
Jeff

-”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”

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.