It’s not often that a major, mainstream fishing magazine reports the fact we offer something new, useful and exciting to the fishing world.
Mike Genoun, the editor of Florida Sport Fishing magazine published this short news story in the New Products section of the magazine’s March issue (paper):
Thanks Mike!
This is a picture of the W’s storage area.
I modified a pulley system designed to lift bicycles to the ceiling for storage. It hasn’t fallen on anyone yet!
Some fishing kayak manufacturers try to lure potential buyers by offering bigger hatches, and additional space to put gear on top of their SOT kayaks’ decks. Obviously, those solutions are neither effective nor user-friendly, but what else can you do to solve the storage problem if you’re a manufacturer of sit-in or SOT kayaks? -Not much.
The W500 offers several times more storage than any kayak on the market - be it a fishing kayak or a touring kayak, a sea-kayak or an ‘expedition’ kayak.
Not only that, but the storage offered by the W500 is internal, dry, and always accessible to the passenger - be it an angler, a paddler, or a camper. In fact, there is so much room in the W500 kayak hulls and cockpit, that it can comfortably accommodate a second adult passenger on board.
The total storage space available on board the W500 kayak is 14 cubic feet, or 0.4 cubic meter. It’s way above the kayak league, and comparable to the storage space offered by canoes and some small motorboats.
Take a tour of Jeff’s W500 fishing kayak:
Jeff did it again: Now he takes us on a video tour of his new W500 that’s fully rigged for saltwater fishing, yet features no milk crate!
And if you happen to wonder what fish are inside that blue bag at the bottom of the kayak’s hull, here’s, one of them - a nice, tasty looking sea trout:
Dictionaries define fishable as an adjective meaning ‘that may be fished in’. By extension, the noun fishability can be used to describe the usefulness of a fishing craft for catching fish, from the angler’s well being and performance standpoints.
Basically, you can catch fish just sitting on a log in the middle of a pond, or a river - so being able to cast a line and catch fish from some floating object doesn’t automatically mean it scores high in fishability. Similarly, the fact you’re catching fish from your kayak, and you know other anglers who fish from kayaks, doesn’t imply your kayak or similar ones score high in fishability. In fact, they might score very low.
Different anglers require different things from a fishing boat, and value different things when they rank the qualities of a fishing kayak. Such attributes and priorities can be subjective, but it’s possible to use them as well as professional design standards to create a universal fishability score system.
Since fishability is a multidimensional notion, a fishability score should refer to the different factors that contribute to the kayak’s fishability according to their relative importance.
However, since little data are available about anglers’ exact preferences, such score system should not be portrayed as scientifically accurate, and therefore should not use numbers or other standard grading method.
Fishing kayaks are wider than average kayaks are - anyone can see that. The reason for is that being wider makes sit-in and sot kayaks more stable, and stability is a basic, very important attribute that any fishing kayak should offer. The problem is that being wide doesn’t necessarily make a sit-in or SOT fishing kayak stable enough. In other words, those fishing kayaks’ fishability is diminished by the fact they are not stable enough for most anglers to feel fully confident while fishing from them. This is why you’ll see an increasing number of sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks outfitted with outriggers, and other sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks who are excessively wide - to a point where paddling them becomes too difficult, even with a rudder.
When stability is concerned, W fishing kayaks score much higher in fishability than any other fishing kayak does, whether sit-in or SOT. It’s possible to say that W kayaks are the only kayaks that are stable enough for fishing.
Comfort in the ergonomic sense is by far the most important attribute a fishing kayak has to offer, and the main factor which determines its fishability. This is because kayak fishing is practiced as a sport, and a leisure activity, that is for fun. As such, it is required to enable a pleasant, relaxed and non-painful fishing experience to the user, and that’s where sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks fail completely. The reason for this failure is that all sit-in and SOT kayaks feature the same sitting arrangement comprising a seat and footrests, that lock their users in a single, uncomfortable, non-ergonomic posture called the L-Position, without offering them a chance to get some relief by switching to other positions. This leads to a range of undesirable physical sensations ranging from fatigue and discomfort to leg numbness, leg pain, butt pain, and back pain (yak-back). In some cases the impact can be back injuries.
Another discomfort factor is the wet ride: Being forced to paddle and fish while getting continuously splashed and sprayed isn’t acceptable for many anglers, who won’t fish from sit-in and SOT kayaks for this reason.
These ergonomic problems are obvious, and most people perceive them as a turnoff albeit the efforts of kayak manufacturers and vendors to play them down and dismiss them. As a result of these problems, not too many anglers are drawn to kayak fishing, and out of those who start practicing this sport many end up quitting - sooner or later.
In other words, sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks’ fishability score is very low, if only for these reasons. In contrast, W fishing kayaks feature a comfortable saddle offering multiple, interchangeable positions, including standing and full stretching. This is why W kayaks are the only ergonomic fishing kayaks, and therefore the only truly fishable kayaks in the long run.
Sit-in kayaks have tiny, restrictive, and therefore less than adequate cockpits, and SOT kayaks feature no cockpit at all, since in essence they are just paddle boards outfitted with backrests and footrests. This greatly reduces these kayaks’ fishability, since it makes it hard for anglers to fish out of them comfortably when handling gear, tackle and fish are concerned.
Remember: In order to score high in fishability, a boat or kayak should feel great to fish from, and ‘possible to fish from’‘ simply isn’t enough. The only fishing kayaks that feature a real, full size cockpit and deck are W kayaks, and this is why they are truly fishable.
Fishing requires gear and tackle, as well as space for storing fish. Sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks feature hatches, which are too small, not absolutely watertight, and hardly accessible to the angler once he or she is seated in the kayak.
This is clearly unacceptable in fishability terms, and the golden standard is set by W fishing kayaks that offer plenty of internal, dry, and always accessible storage space.
Mobility is about being able to start a fishing trip anywhere, go wherever you feel like, and beach whenever and wherever you want.
When compared to most bigger boats, fishing kayaks offer advantages in accessing certain spots, mainly in shallow water, and obviously in no-motor zones. Still, sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks don’t offer the same degree of mobility that W fishing kayaks offer, because W kayaks enable launching and beaching in places where launching and beaching other kayaks is too hard. In addition, while going over obstacles present an absolute barrier to other kayaks, W kayaks offer ways to overcome such restrictions in mobility.
It terms of fishability, W kayaks score considerably higher than sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks.
As for pedal-driven fishing kayaks, those score even lower than regular, paddle activated sit-in and SOT kayaks.
Being able to fish while standing up is an important aspect in evaluating a boat’s fishability, simply because standing up is natural, and especially desirable if you have you spend long hours fishing seated.
While certain kayak manufacturers claim some of the sit-in and SOT kayaks models they offer are suitable for stand up kayak fishing, nothing could be further from the truth: Some small stature, athletic people may be able to stand on one of those kayaks, and even cast lines, but this is far from being enough to have any of those kayaks qualify for stand up kayak fishing, because of serious safety issues:
When you stand in or on a small boat you will inevitably lose balance - sooner or later, and there are many things that can cause you to lose balance, including a moment of inattention, and catching a fish… So this is not a matter of if, but rather of when. And when anglers attempting to fish standing in a sit-in kayak or on a SOT kayak lose their balance, they fall overboard, and can lose some of their fishing gear and tackle. The result of such probable accident can vary from ‘unpleasant experience’ to drowning.
Fishing standing from a sit-in or SOT kayak is hazardous, and so is paddling standing in them, and therefore these boats score zero in stand-up fishing and paddling.
In contrast, W fishing kayaks are not only much stabler than sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks, but they also feature a 14 inch high saddle. This means that a paddler or angler standing in a W kayak and loses balance is likely to fall down on the saddle, in the most stable riding position, and avoid an accident in most cases, as well as losing fishing gear.
Tracking is a factor that’s not related directly to fishing, as it can be measured only when the angler is paddling. However, we think it should be included in the fishability score system since it is a critical factor in paddling, and by that also affects both the kayak’s range of operation as well as it safety: A kayak that tracks poorly might become too hard to paddle in strong wind, and get out of control as the paddler suffers from exhaustion.
Sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks track very poorly, to a point where most of them require their owners to outfit them with rudder systems. Such systems are by no means ideal solutions, as they demand constant attention, and impede the kayak. A rudders might become altogether unusable in shallow water, and leave anglers struggling to control their kayaks in strong wind without any assistance. that is to say that sit-in and SOT fishing kayaks are prone to windage problems, and score very low in this fishability factor.
In comparison, W kayaks track exceptionally well, both in calm weather as in strong wind, regardless of the direction from which the wind is blowing. W kayaks require no rudder at all, since anglers who paddle them dispose of a range of effective means to control their directional stability (I.E. tracking) through changing location along the saddle, and by leaning into the wind.
This ability makes W fishing kayaks score high in the Tracking factor on the fishability score system.
It seems most kayak fishermen have gotten used to rigging their fishing kayaks with a milk crate attached behind the cockpit.
If you happen you own a SOT fishing kayak, rigging it with a milk crate would make sense, since SOT kayaks are basically hyped paddle boards that offer too little storage space and no real cockpit. Sit-in fishing kayaks offer a little more in this aspect, but not enough to drop the idea of adding a milk crate.
However, if you own a W fishing kayak, you may want to reconsider the pros and cons of adding a milk crate -
The only obvious pro that we can think of is that rigging your yak is fun, and attaching a milk crate to the top of a W kayak is an easy project that delivers immediate visual results…
And here are the arguments against rigging your W fishing kayak with a milk crate:
1. When launching, a milk crate would block your natural way into the cockpit from the back side of the boat. This means you might have to get in from the side, and possibly step in water. Keeping your feet dry is one of those little pleasures you can afford with a W kayak, so why give it up if you don’t have to?
2. A milk crate catches wind, which can become a problem if there’s lots of it blowing around and you happen to be tired, and have a long way to paddle - A milk crate on top of a kayak demands more efforts from the paddler. Windage is essentially a tracking problem, and since W kayaks track better than SOT and sit-in kayaks they are less prone to windage issues, but nevertheless - it’s something to keep in mind.
3. Why store anything behind you, on top of the W kayak hulls, when there’s so much space available inside the W kayak cockpit and in its hull tips - within arm’s reach? It’s like attaching your luggage to your car’s rear bumper instead of just putting it in the trunk, or in the passengers compartment. The W500 offers 14 cubic ft or internal storage space, which is more than any kayak ever would, and probably more than you could ever use … -so why not use it?
4. SOT and sit-in kayaks have a very low deck - close to the water. Kayak fishermen who fish in salt water prefer to keep their reels as high as possible, away from the salt water, and they attach tube rod holders to their yak’s milk crate. This adds almost a foot of distance, and saves them some problems. However, the W kayak hull tips are normally higher, and you can protect your fishing rods by storing them inside the cockpit when launching, so there isn’t that much of a necessity for you to use a milk crate. Besides, you can rig the W kayak stern with deck mounted rod holders that pivot to any direction you want, and will position your fishing rods higher above water surface.
5. The milk crate adds weight to your fishing kayak. It’s not really important for paddling, but it could be for carrying it. It’s not that much, unless you’re tired and have to carry the kayak a long distance. The same is true when you have to cartop your kayak.
The bottom line is that there’s no such thing as a short kayak fishing trip:
Unlike recreational paddlers who don’t fish, kayak fishermen don’t just hop into their kayaks and go fishing for half an hour. Kayak fishing trips are in most cases much longer, and although no one seems to have accurate statistics, it seems like the average kayak fishing trip is longer than two hours.
Why does it matter?
Our website features this article about long kayak fishing trips , which explains how important it is to have an appropriate kayak for them, that is a kayak that won’t get you tired prematurely, and won’t make your legs numb and your back ache, and thus ruin your trip.
It also talks about storing your gear and tackle in your kayak, and other issues that matter in long fishing trips.
But coming to think of it, since nearly all your fishing trips are likely to be long ones (say longer than one hour), it means there’s basically no reason for you to compromise and get one of those hyped, run-of-the-mill SOT or sit-in fishing kayaks that offer you neither adequate comfort nor enough dry and accessible storage space.
-”I shot that small piece on shore right before I launched. –Jeff”
-”I was out yesterday much closer to home over at Pellicer. I was by myself and had quite bit of time to reflect on the W kayak and just how well it does work for fishing.
It was raining yesterday and of course you have to be able to keep some items dry. Having those 2 Rubbermaid trash cans one on each side in front of me is ideal. They slide very easily out of the way and in fact deep enough in you can still tuck up into the bow with your knees in the hulls to fight larger fish.
Between the two cans I have all the tackle I need plus drinks, snacks, and assorted tools.
When I transport the boat I put both cans into one hull still out of the rain by the way. The other hull gets the paddle, stakeout pole, net, etc.
I’ll have to do another short video of moving those cans around. I think the only place I really moved one was in that rigging one months back.
Dragging the W kayak is so much easier than any other paddle craft. Yesterday I had lots of dragging over sand bars to get where I wanted. Most kayaks or canoes are horrible to drag. Way too much hull contact and then they tip around throwing your gear all over. Also retry into deeper sections is easy. Just hop in at the edge and tip you way into the water then off you go. Kind of like the ice paddling movie.
–Jeff”
And since this blog is about fun, here’s the movie that Jeff mentioned:
I recently purchased the Wavewalk boat for paddling. The Wavewalk is actually a very small catamaran, designed to allow one to paddle while standing up with one foot in each hull, as well as while sitting, with either a canoe or kayak paddle. It’s designer calls it a “W” boat; I describe it as a “catayakanoe.”
For comparison purposes, you should know I am 6′3″, 220 pounds. I mess about in boats year round thanks to the mostly mild South Mississippi winter. I have circulation problems, and also a history of occasional low back pain. In consequence, while I love small paddle boats, until now every one I’ve owned and/or tried (quite a few) has presented me with serious drawbacks to their use and enjoyment. Sea kayaks cause my legs to fall asleep, thus rendering graceful exits not only impossible but occasionally highly embarrassing. Recreational kayaks’ large cockpits, while facilitating entry, exit, and leg movement, are at risk of swamping in the Mississippi Sound where I normally paddle, as are canoes. Sit on top kayaks are wet, and due to their high center of gravity typically have shallow seats which are even less comfortable than those of a sea kayak. All the aforementioned boats also create issues for my lower back after a few hours of paddling.
The W boat has effectively addressed all these problems. Within 5 minutes of taking delivery I was able to launch it at the local ramp and enter dry shod in my office clothing. A half hour of paddling later I exited the same way without even a damp, far less wet, rear end to show for it.My second trip I tried paddling standing up. After ten minutes of careful experimentation I was paddling around in 1 foot waves and 10 mph winds with no problem.
Since then I have had the boat out several times in 20 mph winds and 2.5 foot waves, albeit seated, without taking any water either head on to the waves, or traversing them laterally. Entering the local harbor with its flat protected water I have been able to paddle standing with no issues.
Paddling standing feels remarkably natural, and while the ability to do it is not why I bought the boat, it has been a revelation. There is a qualitative difference to paddling standing, perhaps due to evolution having designed us to take in and process the world from a vertical position. Beyond any qualitative difference the higher standing perspective is also useful to pick out channels, spot fish, retrieve snagged lures from low hanging branches, or simply to see over the marsh grass. Equally important the standing position furnishes a welcome break for one’s muscles and circulation.
The ability to stand also allows one to simply step in and out of the boat without wading in many situations. In the interest of objectivity I must note, however, that one will have to wade if confronted with a shallow shelving beach. Steep banks, boat ramps, finger piers and the like allow one to remain absolutely dry while embarking and disembarking.
The high seat and split hulls so far have kept waves from entering the cockpit. I have now been out without shipping a drop in waves I know would have swamped my 9′ Critter SIK, and which would have been problematic in my 14′ [brand name] SIK.
The same high seat which raises one about 14 inches higher than one’s seat in a SIK necessarily increases one’s torso’s windage. Fortunately, the Wavewalk’s seat is actually a long center bench, almost five feet in length. By sliding fore and aft one can effectively eliminate the boat’s tendency to weathercock due to windage on almost every course. Thus, the Wavewalk is actually less affected by wind than a lower profile SIK, at least one - like the Wavewalk, that has neither skeg nor rudder.
The ability to slide fore and aft also allows one to access the storage in the four (4) hull tips while under way. This was for all practical purposes impossible in any of my other kayaks and canoes. It also allows one to lift the boat’s bow to take on waves, or to facilitate landing and exiting with dry shoes by raising the bow to slide ashore a little distance before grounding
I do not have a GPS, but the boat feels fast for its size. I have been unable to compare it to other paddle craft because - being late November - there are none. This alone is a testament to the Wavewalk’s user friendliness.
I waited a long time to purchase the boat due to its differentness, the lack of dealers where I could try it out, and a few unfavorable reviews (very much the exception) out there on the web. Having used it a few times now I think the few unfavorable reviews resulted from the reviewers’ lack of familiarity with the boat. Paddling the Wavewalk feels very different from a normal yak, in some ways more like riding a horse or bicycle. In this connection the manufacturer calls one’s normal paddling posture the “riding” position, a very apt description. Additionally, one leans into turns, not out as in a traditional hull, and the more experienced one is as a paddler, the more off-putting this feels when one initially experiences it. As one grows accustomed to the boat and its stability characteristics it all starts to feel natural and predictable.
If the boat has a drawback it is its weight. 56 pounds is a lot for a 10′6″ boat. Still, its short length makes it easier to pick up than larger boats of equal weight. Additionally, its twin hulls allow one to center oneself between them when moving it on a dolly, just like pushing or pulling a wheel barrow ( In this connection my dolly was easily modified to accomodate the Wavewalk in 30 seconds by attaching a PVC cross piece with a bungee cord). I think the extra weight is primarily due to the heavily reinforced bench seat, and is probably a good thing inasmuch as it reflects the boat’s heavy duty quality construction.
I now have no reason not to paddle, and have been out each weekend since getting the boat. I am being careful since due to the cold water I have not been able to practice reentry techniques, but the website shows that re-entry is more easily accomplished than in a standard SIK. I look forward to some less extreme weather to try out the boat in “normal” ocean conditions.
No boat is perfect, and the Wavewalk, as a forerunner of what will hopefully be a fleet of progressively refined and specialized designs, may be capable of improvement. I wonder for example whether an inch or two more width in the hulls would not increase stability and decrease draft, and whether a few inches of rocker would decrease resistance. The answer is I don’t know, and that any design change is a compromise with costs as well as benefits. What I do know is that the Wavewalk has made a great improvement to the quality of my boating life, and - as described above - has a number of unique, useful, and enjoyable attributes. Try it, but be careful, you may just find you have to have one.
If you are on the Mississippi Gulf coast and would like to try mine out, shoot me an email at jeremydeisler@gmail . I’ll be happy to take you paddling.
The Wavewalk kayak offers some 10 cubic feet of dry storage space inside its cockpit and hull tips. However, you can also use the space on top of the hull tips to store and attach additional gear.
Wayne Taylor, from Florida, outfitted his unique W-kayak with two surfaces - one on each side of the cockpit. He bolted them to the hulls, and added Nylon eyelets as attachment points.
The front panel serves among other things to support a fish finder display box:
The rear panel hosts Wayne’s watertight tackle box:
I recently visited a popular online kayak fishing forum serving kayak fishermen in a Southern state. One of the discussions in it was about the negative side of kayak fishing as the participants see them.
Most of the participants fish from SOTs and some from sit-in kayaks, but none of them fishes from a W Kayak.
These are the problematic points that the participants seemed to agree upon:
1. You really can’t do it [kayak fishing] right without getting wet and muddy. Either water will slosh into your cockpit or your scuppers will fill up. You’ll need to get about knee deep to launch comfortably, so you’ll probably encounter mud, grass, sand, or all of them (ergonomic problem)
2. You’ll have to get used to loading and unloading your boat and equipment. You’ll take 15 minutes to unload and you’ll take 15 minutes to load everything back into/onto your vehicle/trailer (storage problem).
3. You can’t take your kid fishing with you.
4. Paddling into the wind is difficult (’windage’ problems).
5. It’s very hard to relief oneself (ergonomic problem).
6. No place to keep your catch when you paddle back in. You need to tie your stringer to the side and drag it, which can be difficult and attract predators, or use the fish-in-the-lap approach (storage problems).
7. Fishing in high winds makes it difficult to cast.
8. You can’t really fish standing. If you’re accustomed to casting in a standing position (power boat, shore or pier) you feel awkward casting from a low, seated position (ergonomic and biomechanical problems).
9. Since there’s little room on deck everything is close to you and you may unintentionally “snag” nearby items with your hook (ergonomic problem).
10. Not being able to stand up and stretch after being seated for a long time - discomfort in your legs (ergonomic problem)
11. Lower back and posterior pains (ergonomic problem).
12. It can get very cold onboard (ergonomic problem)
Compare this to the W Fishing Kayak, that:
1. Offers dry launching and beaching even in difficult spots, and its cockpit protects you against spray.
2. Is a ‘Toss and Go’ boat - you can leave your gear and tackle inside when transporting it.
3. Offers enough room onboard for a second passenger
4. Enables you to paddle in strong wind
5. Offers to stand up anytime and for any purpose…
6. Offers sufficient dry and protected storage space onboard for every possible need.
7. Offers powerful casting positions such as riding and standing
8. Enables fishing standing in confidence even in the presence of wind and eddies.
9. Features a full size, spacious and deep cockpit.
10. Offers to switch between various positions and stand up for fishing anytime.
11. Enables your legs to support your torso and back in a natural posture.
12. Puts you higher on the water and protects you from wind and spray.
It isn’t necessarily a simple problem.
First of all, your fishing gear and tackle need to be secure at all times, which means that come what may they won’t get lost. Rods, tackle box, fish tank, bait tank and cooler come if various sizes, and you need to reach and use them whenever you want.
Hatches may be relatively safe for storage but they are not very practical when it comes to accessing what you stored in them.
Sit on top (SOT) kayaks don’t have a real cockpit to speak of. They feature a shallow depression in the deck, and any object on it (including yourself) may fall overboard or get washed away in case you’re paddling through the surf.
You can secure your fishing equipment with bungees and ropes, but that may not always make them handy, and dipping your reels in saltwater could harm them.
Sit-in kayaks (SIK) feature either a close or open cockpit, but it’s usually rather small, and being low above the water it exposes your gear to spray.
Canoes offer limitless storage space - practically the whole boat, but this comes at a high price of being harder to paddle than kayaks, especially under wind and in the surf.
In contrast, the cockpit of the W fishing kayak is bigger and deeper than any kayak cockpit, yet the boat itself is small and easy to paddle in adverse conditions. In fact, you have ten cubic feet of internal, dry and accessible storage space in the cockpit itself and inside the boat’s four hull tips that you can always access from inside the cockpit.
There are numerous places you can attach gear to, and you can easily add more. On top of this you can use the top of the hulls outside the cockpit for attaching extra bulky equipment.
I chose this picture to show how much storage this kayak has to offer simply because nearly every cubic inch in it is available for storage:
