Ted is a fly fisherman who practices sight fishing: He paddles his kayak standing, and scouts for big fish (e.g. redfish, tarpon). He wants to stand as high as possible, since this extends his range of vision. Once Ted spots a fish, he instantly casts a fly at it.
Many fly kayak anglers and reel anglers sight fish while standing comfortably in their W kayaks. However, Ted wants to stand higher, so he can look further.
Unlike Kevin, who fly fishes the flats standing on top of his W kayak saddle without using outriggers, Ted added both a pair of outriggers and a frame to his W500. This setup puts him about 15″ higher than he would have been if he stood on the bottom of his W kayak hulls, and he’s perfectly stable.
The drawback of paddling from such a high level is that you lose some leverage on the paddle, so you can’t go very fast. However, if the water is shallow enough, you can push pole, like Kevin does.

Safety:

Standing as high on top of such a small vessel as a kayak means that sooner or later, the fly fisherman is going to lose their footing, or lose balance, or both – It’s a statistical fact, and every experienced angler knows that “Stuff Happens” is the rule out there, on the water.
So the real question is not “What if” but “What happens when” (-get the subtle difference?…) -
When you stand up on top of a conventional fishing kayak (SOT, sit-in, or ‘hybrid’), you need to somehow manage to fall on your knees, or on your butt, and regain your balance instantly. Good luck with that! Although it never hurts to try, you’re more likely to find yourself in the water.
But things are different when you’re standing high on top of a W fishing kayak, as Ted does: He can drop on his kayak’s saddle, with a leg in each hull, and stabilize himself while he’s in the Riding posture, which is similar to riding a jet-ski, a snowmobile, an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) – or a pony. In other words, it’s the most stable, and most powerful position you can hope to be in when you’re trying to regain balance and control in your kayak. When Ted wants to switch from standing to sitting, it’s just a matter of hopping down -

Jeff grew up in Indiana, and he’d been fishing there out of canoes and small boats for many years, and since then he’s never missed his family’s annual fishing trip to Canada.

So why are fishing kayaks generally less popular among northern anglers compared to their higher popularity with southern anglers? It has to do with the climate up here, which is less clement than the southern climates.
This means both the water and weather are colder, and naturally, people don’t like the idea of getting wet and being exposed to the wind, which had been bundled with the kayak fishing concept since its inception, until the W kayak showed up on the scene, and changed things -
Canoes and dinghies offer their passengers better protection from the elements than sit-in, SOT and hybrid kayaks do, but the W kayak offers as much protection as canoes and dinghies offer, although it’s as lightweight as any fishing kayak (well, it’s lighter, in most cases), and it offers more advantages in terms of mobility, stability, ergonomics, storage, transportation, etc.

So far, anglers in colder regions had many important reasons why they should stick to their canoes, dinghies and motorboats, and not switch to fishing from kayaks, and the wetness and cold came on top of this list of arguments. This is not just a matter of convenience and health, but a matter of safety too: Hypothermia is a serious threat up here, and no one in their right mind would want to risk being in such a condition.

With the W500, these arguments are no longer valid, especially since it’s so also easy to mount an electric motor, or an outboard gas motor on it, and since the performance and convenience offered by such motorized fishing kayak are both considerable and evident.

Indeed, Jeff’s instincts proved to be right this time, as in other cases, and there has been basically no difference in the rate of adoption of the W kayak among northern kayak anglers, compared to that of southern kayak anglers.

We recently launched a new blog called Northern Kayak Fishing, which focuses on fishing from kayaks in colder regions. So far, Rox, Sungjin, John F, Gary T, and Jeff registered as contributing authors to this new blog, and we hope more will follow (and contribute too…)

Yoav



We’ve already wrote an article about a variety of dangers that kayak paddlers and anglers are exposed to in different water conditions, and here is some more about this important kayak safety issue:

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have confirmed that a deadly amoeba, which is commonly found in lakes and rivers is the cause of the recent death of a Florida swimmer -
Health officials in Brevard County, FL, said they believe water infected with the parasite Naegleria fowleri went up the swimmer’s nose while she was swimming in the St. Johns River, east of Orlando.
Once the amoeba enters the brain, it usually causes a fatal infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). Initial signs of PAM include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, loss of smell or taste and stiff neck.
The disease spreads rapidly, and usually results in death within a few days.
This disease is not contagious.
A similar case has also been reported in Virginia.
Florida state officials issued a health advisory saying the amoeba proliferates in stagnant freshwater lakes, ponds, streams and rivers, when temperatures climb into the 80s. They said people should take safety precautions when swimming, and avoid swallowing pool, lake or river water.
Officials say 32 such infections were reported in the US between 2001 and 2010.

Does anyone need more reasons to look at traditional kayaking’s cherished Eskimo Roll technique as inadequate and hazardous?
Does anyone need more reasons to look at fishing standing on top of a SOT kayak as taking unnecessary risks?
Does anyone need more reasons to understand why SUP boards are not well suited for stand up paddling on flat water?

This was also an opportunity to show the 9ft long, extra rigid and durable W paddle used for push poling in very shallow water.