Kayak Fishing and Paddling - The New Standard in Fishing Kayaks. Fishing Kayak Reviews, and Kayak Fishing Trip Reports, Movies, Pictures and Articles By and For Kayak Anglers.
Jerry Kushner is a winemaker from Kentucky, who purchased a W300 fishing kayak early this year, before the W500 became available.
Here is Jerry’s review of his W kayak:
“I planned to fish some of the fast flowing rivers with my Wavewalk kayak.
After I got it I tried it in my pond, and at first it felt tippy but once I got my balance I found it easy to paddle and maneuver.
Finally, I got to use it in the Gulf of Mexico. I installed a pair of fold up outriggers that I purchased from Paddlers Hideaway (I found them on e-bay).
The first time I took the kayak out the waves in the surf were one to two feet high and even when broadsided by a wave the system was solidly stable.
I felt real secure, and for an almost eighty year old this rig is ideal for fishing offshore.
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.
This is our latest wave walking video (2 minutes long):
The ocean didn’t deliver big waves that day at Jenness Beach, NH, so we had to surf play using a more subtle technique. Anyway, there’s hardly ever a dull moment when you’re wave walking in the surf. You can always find new challenges that don’t necessarily involve surfing but rather measuring your skills against the waves in various angles, turning sharply, and more. Even staying in place while being battered by small breakers can be fun, if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t you lose balance and may end up swimming, but that’s no big deal, really.
Brandon Cutter and friends, from Cape Cod, Massachusetts play with Brandon’s 2008 W fishing kayak in the surf in Nantucket. They paddle in parallel to the beach - hopping on breaking waves. They launch, surf and beach. (1 minute)
One of them easily recovers his overturned boat, and then keeps paddling.
The 2008 W Kayak models come equipped with one or two pairs of detachable, side flotation modules. A flotation module is a 5 ft long plastic foam ‘noodle’ with a bungee cord going through its core. The bungee hooks at its ends enable attaching the module to Nylon eyelets on top of the W hulls’ tips.
The side flotation modules are essentially recovery accessories: In case you capsized your W kayak they can help preventing it from overturning, and if your kayak is overturned they help keeping it afloat, and by that make it easier for you to turn it back.
In some cases, when your W kayak is laying on its side, the presence of a single flotation module or better - a pair of such modules under the top side of the lower hull can lead to the boat righting itself, and this is how it works:
The top part of the lower hull is prevented from sinking by the presence of the side flotation module ‘A’.
The flotation module helps keeping water from from getting in by pushing the cockpit rim above the surface.
If water gets into the lower hull through the cockpit opening it will flow to area ‘B’ and make this part of the boat heavier. By making it increasingly heavy it would make it tilt and regain its normal position - that is with the cockpit opening facing upward.
If your W Kayak doesn’t right itself in such a situation it’s easy to right it by unbalancing it.
It’s clear to see why in any case outfitting your W kayak with two pairs of such flotation modules is more effective than outfitting it with one pair.
In sum, if you’re taking your W kayak on a paddling, camping or fishing trip, it makes sense to take preventive measures that can minimize the severeness of a capsize accident by outfitting it with side flotation modules.
Whether you’re taking with you on board fishing tackle, camping gear or other stuff - it’s always a good idea to secure this equipment by attaching it to the boat. You will find there are plenty of spots inside the cockpit that you can use to attach bungees, carabiners, hooks and rope to secure your gear.
You’re planning to take your W kayak on a fishing or paddling trip in the ocean, and you may be asking yourself what’s going to happen if you have to launch it in big surf, and in such case how to protect yourself from getting wet.
Indeed, if you’re launching in big surf some spray might get the inside of your W kayak wet, and even splash you. This is why all 2008 W Kayak models come outfitted with a preparation for a cockpit cover:
You can use any waterproof fabric or plastic sheet to cover the front part of your W kayak cockpit and thus prevent spray from getting in. Once you’re past the breakers you can easily remove the cover, fold or roll it, and store it in the cockpit or on top of the hulls
This picture shows the cover protecting almost the entire cockpit, leaving some place for you to sit in the back, which is where you want to be when launching in big surf:
This picture shows the cockpit cover protecting just the front part of the cockpit. This is a preferable when you’re positioned in the middle of the cockpit:
Normally, even without a cockpit cover spray shouldn’t be a problem at all since if some spray gets in the water will be drained from the saddle to the bottom of the hulls, and you won’t have to sit on a wet surface.
If you’ve had some bad encounters with big breakers while not using a cockpit cover and there’s too much water in the bottom of the hulls for you to feel comfortable with you can easily drain it using a small bucket or a kayak bilge pump. Then you can dry the hulls completely with a sponge.
Unlike SOT kayaks, the structure of the W kayak enables you to clearly see the bottom of the hulls, and therefore water can’t be there without you perceiving it.
Similarly, when you’re going paddling in fast streams and you want to keep dry you may find the cockpit cover to be useful - without it getting you entrapped in your boat like a traditional kayak spray skirt might.
The W kayak cockpit cover is also useful in case the weather changes suddenly and you get caught in heavy rain, and it offers protection against cold wind.
Although it’s still winter, which means that here in New England we can’t do much paddling or fishing, it’s nice to remember that in a few months we’ll be able to hop back into our W kayaks and ride them into the waves…
The surf is a very exciting place for children but it can be a frightening one too. A child can perceive a small, three-foot wave as a threat, and a four-foot wave might take the proportions of a tsunami in his eyes.
This is quite understandable since compared to an adult a small child can exert a limited level of control over his kayak. Besides, children have a vivid imagination that can easily take things out of proportions.
This is why I would suggest limiting your child’s experience to 2-3 ft waves to begin with, and this is mainly because such waves can’t topple his/her W kayak even if it’s hit on the side.
Having said that, some kids really love it when their boat flips over, and they may even try to cause it to capsize on purpose.
As always, it’s highly recommended that you have substantial experience W surf kayaking before you start teaching your kids about it. In any case, staying close to them the first times is an absolute necessity. You should conduct these lessons in a shallow water beach with neither currents nor underwater rocks.
There are basically two main points to learn for a start:
One is to approach a coming wave at a straight angle (perpendicular) while riding the back part of the saddle, and the other is to lean into the wave in case it hits your boat on its side.
Later you can teach your kid to ride the middle part of the saddle when coming back to shore, and to control the boat with the paddle and by shifting his or her weight from side to side, but that’s more of a thing you need to practice together than a theory.
By ‘tandem’ we mean two adults, since paddling with a child onboard is less of a challenge, at least in the W kayak.
A lot has been said about kayaking in tandem, and it usually confirms the observation that kayaks are basically meant to be solo boats more than anything else…
However, paddling in tandem can be fun and rewarding - if it’s done properly.
First, you need to address the problem of balance, especially if your partner is not experienced in W kayaking (assuming you’re a proficient W kayaker yourself). The way to do it is mount (ride) the back of the saddle and then let your partner in (slowly) and position himself or herself as forward as possible - in the riding position as well.
You will probably need to compensate for your partner’s lack of experience by taking extra care of balancing the boat yourself - at least in the beginning.
The second problem is synchronizing your paddle strokes. It’s less of a problem if both of you are using canoe paddles, or if the front paddler is using a canoe paddle and you are using a double blade one.
If both paddlers are using double blade paddles the front paddler should just make slow strokes, switching regularly from left to right, regardless of tracking, turning etc. The back paddler’s paddle should follow the front paddle in parallel, touching the water a fraction of a second after the front one did, and getting out immediately after the front one.
The back paddler is also the de facto skipper, and he or she should take care of tracking, turning etc… This task can be quite demanding, especially in moving water, and this is why you’d better practice tandem W paddling on flat water first.
It is very helpful to be aware of the possibilities offered by the extra long W paddle in terms of controlling the length and direction of the stroke, J strokes etc.
This video shows a couple of W kayakers paddling in tandem in the surf - Needless to remind the viewer that both of them have some experience in W kayaking.
