WAVEWALK KAYAKS

New Fishing Trip Report From Darrell >>

When Darrell had first contacted us, he explained that he was a big guy suffering from lower back pain, and had some balance issues. He’d sold his large size aluminum canoe years ago because he no longer felt comfortable in it, and he’s been researching kayaks and canoes.
Darrell realized he wouldn’t be able to endure sitting in SOT or SIK kayaks, and since he can ride an ATV with a decent amount of comfort he chose to order a W500 Gr, which he got recently.

Darrell Has already designed a unique plexiglas dash that takes the W kayak one step closer to offering the amenities found in a modern, good size motorized fishing boat.
Says Darrell:
-”I think the boat and I need a little more time in the water to be fair with a full review.
I am enjoying my W500 and I am more comfortable each trip. I am going to try standing as soon as the water warms up some. I have caught a few fish out of it, I have mounted a plexiglas dash in it that holds two tackle boxes and my front mounted rod holders. I also added a clip in kayak seat back that works great. I put together a cart using two large trash can wheels.
I tried it in some current last week which did not work as well as I had hoped but I think I will learn to handle it much better with time. Next week I am going to take it to a place with a little less current and more room to maneuver. All in all it is working out great with no problems from the equipment.”

And this is Darrell presenting the results:

New Fishing Trip Report From Darrell >>

Gary Rankel from Hernando, Florida, and his friends founded a new, local kayak fishing club called the Nature Coast Kayak Fishing Club.
Congratulations Gary – We wish you and your friends success, and hope you’ll have a lot of fun!

Gary has already contributed great reviews, stories and pictures to our website and to this blog, and today he sent us some more pictures of his W500 kayak fully rigged for fishing:

Gary’s unique and ingenious way of mounting a compass between the hulls of his W kayak:

And this is already a classic: A doormat attached underneath the hull tips, enabling Gary to drag his fishing kayak on asphalt and concrete pavement for long distances. When Gary reaches the water he simply folds the mat inside one of the hull tips.

Gary’s tackle box:

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:

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: