Wavewalk Kayaks

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.

Related article: Read more about web search trends for kayak fishing >>

I can paddle my W500 standing up, fish, dine, sleep on it naturally.
I like the fact that I can change sitting/standing positions easily if I get tired.

I’ve taken it out quite a few times already over to Canyon Lake in the Texas Hill country.
Over at Canyon Lake, with the water levels lowering, most of the boat ramps are closed, so it’s convenient to have a lightweight setup that I can carry out to the water without a trailer.

In the winter, I plan to use it on the Guadalupe River for some trout fishing. I can’t wait ’till then.

Ultimately, my goal was to have a comfortable fishing rig that didn’t have the consequences of a normal fishing boat (a place to store the boat/trailer, engine/electrical maintenance, fuel)  I just have a 2002 Infiniti G20 that only has a 4 cylinder engine, so trailers are out of the question.  With this setup, I just mount the rig on my car and head off to the lake on the fly: after work, on the weekend, whenever.  Also, in combination with a few rods readily rigged up, there’s no need to stop anywhere to delay the fun.

The first time, I flipped, but it was because I haven’t been on a kayak in a while, but the second time I was able to stand in it, carefully.

The only thing that I had trouble with is kayaking with someone else on the kayak (trying to position the heavier one in the right spot for maximum stability & trying to determine who and how they will lean into the turns so we wouldn’t flip).

-Stepehn Cano, Texas



Well here is an update with me launching and standing and paddling. I did this for a fellow in Georgia, on another site, he is very interested in the W300 and W500.
The Traffic noise was at its peek today, sorry its hard to hear me, well maybe not. 
You’ll see in the video just how smooth it paddles while I’m standing.
And when I land, I just paddle full steam ahead, and shift my weight to the rear as I hit the shore line where I launched, and remember, it was steep.  But the landing is not on the Video, I ran out of room!
The hulls just glide up the bank, I move forward, stand up, and walk out. Again, never getting my feet wet.

Launching the W500:

Voila!

Standing and paddling in the W500:

Happy Paddling All,

Rox

More kayak fishing stories from Roxanne

Rox’ Battle With A 20.5″ Large Mouth Bass

Ben Ciliberto, a kayak carp fisherman from Pennsylvania, rigged his 3 W300 kayaks especially for stand up carp fishing. This is a picture of two of them:

Ben writes:

“Back’s improving albeit slowly.

The two kayaks, sided by side in the garage have gotten many comments and inquiries, but unfortunately not much use! The new one has still not touched water (but is rigged),– I have had mine out twice so far—high water, work, vacations have really crimped my schedule! I’m ready to roll when time permits!

Sure has been great that even with a ruptured L4 disc, and bulging L3—I can paddle and use the W without pain or aggravation!!

Ben”

Read more about Ben’s fly fishing kayaks

John Brown, from Alabama, got his W300 fishing kayak in March.

Since then he’s rigged it to perfection:
-”It’s a great boat, and I love it. I got what I call the wavewalk-tan on my knees from paddling it so often… I do a lot of stand up paddling and poling. It works for me.” Says John.

Front view of John’s fully rigged W300 fishing kayak.
-”I just purchased a Hummingbird fish finder, but haven’t put it on yet.”

John paddling his kayak standing - scouting for fish.

John’s variation on the front storage solution.
The tube rod holders are RAM-301 (top) and RAM-119 (bottom) .

John’s anchor trolley system - a useful device for certain types of shallow water kayak fishing.

Close up on John’s W300 cockpit. Note the anchor attached to the anchor trolley, and how well the space is organized.

John’s version of paddle holders made from foam noodles. It’s as silent as it gets.

The classic milk crate used for attaching extra rod holders, and for more storage.

Robert Young sent us his review of the W fishing kayak he got last December.

Robert is an avid kayak fisherman, who goes on kayak fishing expeditions in the mangroves of Western Florida. He has a lot to tell about his fishing techniques, which include fresh live bait and paddling standing while scouting for game fish.

Robert’s first time in the W fishing kayak story is particularly educating.

Says Robert about his W fishing kayak: -”I don’t believe there is anything else out there, in this price range, with the capability of this craft.”

He rigged his W fishing kayak with super-silent paddle holders, and other interesting devices.

The W fishing kayak’s superior stability is not just proven - it is spectacular, and anyone who watches our demo movies is amazed by what they see.

In a nutshell, our patented stabilization technology consists of a number of unique factors working together to assure maximal stability - far more than any other fishing kayak can offer, including the widest sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks, and even fishing kayaks featuring outriggers (stabilizers).

These key stability factors are:

1. Maximum use of the kayak’s buoyancy: All the W fishing kayak’s buoyancy is located as far as possible from the kayak’s center line, where it’s the most effective in stability terms. This W kayak’s ‘catamaran’ feature gives it a powerful stability advantage. In contrast, in a monohull sit-in or SOT fishing kayak most of the buoyancy’s stabilizing capability is wasted by the fact that it’s located mainly along the kayak’s center line.
2. Maximum effective leverage: In the W fishing kayak you stand up with your feet ‘planted’ on the bottom of the hulls, that is below waterline. For example, a 200 lb W kayak fisherman stands or rides his W kayak’s saddle with his feet as low as 5.5″ below waterline. In contrast, a SOT kayak fisherman who tries to stand up on the deck of his SOT kayak has his feet at least 2 to 3 inches above waterline, with little or nothing to support and hold them in place when the kayak is tilting. This poor initial stability coupled with poor stabilization capability makes it extremely hard to stand confidently on other kayaks.
3. Maximum resistance to rolling: The W kayak features twin hulls that act as double ‘hard chines’. A chine is the area where the hull’s side meets its bottom. If a boat’s chines are rounded the boat would ‘roll’ more easily than if its chines were angular. Kayak designers would give a kayak hard chines when they try to improve its resistance to rolling, or in other words when they try to increase that kayak’s ’secondary stability’. This design principle is utilized to the maximum in the W-kayak’s twin hulls that offer twice the resistance to rolling and maximal angularity.
4. Max response time: Stabilizing yourself in a small watercraft such as a kayak is easier if you have some extra time to respond to the destabilizing event. Much of the overall instability in mono-hull sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks is caused by their poor initial (primary) stability. Those kayaks’ low effective (side) buoyancy causes them to tilt faster than stabler boats such as the W-kayak. A sudden, ultra-fast and strong change can leave you too little response time. In contrast, the superior initial stability provided by each of W-kayak hulls’ position and buoyancy makes them tilt less in terms of time and distance (depth). Therefore, each time you get destabilized in a W-kayak you benefit from some extra split seconds, as well as from a better body position, so you can react more effectively and regain control more easily.
5. Maximum ‘grip’ and safety: The W fishing kayak’s patented, 14″ high saddle adds two important things when stability is concerned, especially in the Riding position, which is the most effective paddling and fishing position in kayaks. First, the saddle gives you perfect grip through your legs, without using any straps. Second, the saddle offers you good safety in case you lose balance while standing up, because you can instantly and effortlessly ‘drop’ on it, and ‘grab’ it with your thighs and knees in the riding position. Other fishing kayaks are unsafe because they offer you no such ‘plan B’ in case you lose balance while standing up.
6. Stand up paddling capability: The W fishing kayak is designed specifically for stand up paddling and fishing, while other sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks are simply too wide, which makes them ineffective for stand up paddling due to bio-mechanical problems and poor tracking.

More about stability in fishing kayaks.

And what’s a kayak fishing blog nowadays without a movie? This movie is played in 4X slow motion in order to enable the spectator to appreciate how the kayak doesn’t tip over while a large size guy is jumping up and down and from one leg to another in it:

If you want to read more on these subjects, we recommend this article about stability in kayak design

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.

Here is new clip of Jeff McGovern paddling standing in his Wavewalk fishing kayak, during a kayak fishing expedition with his friend Jeff Moran to Mosquito Lagoon, Florida.

Camera and comments: Jeff Moran