Ben is a W Kayak fly fisherman from Pennsylvania who has a personal blog.
He recently added to his blog this report on his kayak fishing trip drifting and paddling down Nesahminy creek .
Highly recommended reading!
Ben’s W Kayak - Neshaminy creek
-”Went out for the fourth time yesterday- getting my W outfitted for sight fishing carp with a fly rod in the flats.
I stand almost the entire time now, great line of sight on the fish, and it’s also easier to fight the fish standing.
I have a stake out pole for anchoring in shallow water, and a 3 lb dumbell for dropping anchor.
Steering is easy by dipping the paddle on the side I want to drift toward. I installed a notched foam paddle seat on each side so i can quietly set down the paddle and make no noise or slippage.
Yesterday I caught a real nice Common Carp– about 26″ and 7-8 lb. He ran me around for 15 minutes, and was released healthy after pics!
I also hooked a monster bass (thought I was throwing to a carp) but I lost him when I got too much line slack.
The W is a delight- easy to load, my back is feeling good, and I’m catching fish!
–Ben”
The logo on Ben’s hat says “Delaware River Kayak Fishing”.
Today I watched a video showing a young, athletic looking, rather short guy demonstrating fly-fishing standing in a wide, canoe-style kayak.
Although the water was perfectly still he performed casting and other fishing maneuvers while standing rather awkwardly: His feet were too far apart to offer an optimal basis, and his movements seemed too slow, not energetic and not at all spontaneous. The way he paddled was awkward too - he looked as if he was making an effort to keep his balance and repeatedly about to lose it.
He was obviously not feeling fully confident fishing standing in that boat, and I kept thinking that he had to be extra careful because had he lost his balance he would have had to swim, and possibly even deal with an overturned boat and some fishing tackle lost.
There was no way for him to land back in his seat in case something happened that would make him lose his balance. The seat was too low and the boat too unstable to offer a solution to any “What If” scenario, and everybody knows (or should know) that stuff happens when you’re out there fishing, and you should be prepared to deal with the unexpected or else risk some unpleasant consequences.
In this sense the kayak featuring on that video was less stable, less comfortable and less safe than a wide fishing canoe that offers a higher seat as something to fall back on, literally.
However, this lackluster demo movie shows that stand up kayak fishing is no longer viewed as impossibility or as an unnecessary requirement, but it’s becoming a problem that kayak fishermen expect manufacturers to solve, which is good news for Wavewalk since we already solved it completely: