Author: microskiff cat

Why do you need a stable kayak?

Simply, your kayak’s stability is key to your Safety, Comfort, and Successful Fishing. Without it, you could end up swimming, or worse – drowned, and if you happen to lose balance, you could also lose some precious gear that would slide down from the deck and into the water, never to be seen again. Any stability issue that you have to deal with while fishing automatically draws mental and physical resources from you, and mobilizes them for the task of keeping you balanced, and your kayak level. This continuous effort affects muscle tension in your legs, your back and your shoulders, and it reduces your casting performance, as well as your ability to turn and to focus. But most importantly, the feeling of instability leads to discomfort, and this hurts your well being. In other words, fishing out of unstable or insufficiently stable kayak is not fun. 

Under such conditions, your ability to land big and powerful fish is significantly reduced, and you can’t expect to be very successful in your fishing trip.

Now you know the reason why despite the fact that kayak fishing looks so easy, simple and fun, and most kayaks are cheaper and easier to transport than boats, the number of kayak anglers has stayed stable in recent years, after years of growth. Many people have tried fishing out of kayaks, but the combined effect of instability, wetness, discomfort and back pain, and not enough catching has led many of them to quick this sport, or outdoor activity.

What’s the most popular fishing kayak?

The primary concern of any angler who fishes out of kayak is stability, of course. The inherent poor stability that kayaks offer make it the first and foremost concern, which is why fishing kayaks are typically much wider and often bigger than kayaks used for Recreation, Touring, and obviously speed competition. The fear of capsizing their kayaks and the potentially disastrous results of such event drives kayak fishermen toward sit-on-top (SOT) kayaks, and therefore, they are more popular than sit-in kayaks.

Are SOT kayaks more stable?

No, they are not. In fact between two ordinary (mono-hull) kayaks of identical size, namely the same width, length, and overall buoyancy, a sit-in kayak will always feel ore stable than a SOT kayak. Why is that? Simply because the sit-in kayak offers its user to sit lower than the SOT kayak, and the lower you are the stable you are. Therefore, SOT kayaks are the least stable kayaks out there. If this is hard for the reader to understand, they should try standing on the steps of a ladder, and once they start climbing up, they will feel the decrease in the ladder’s stability. Now you know why the typical SOT fishing kayak is so wide and so huge – It’s because if it wasn’t that big, fishing from its deck would be limited to children and very small and lightweight people. And you you also know why pictures that show anglers fishing standing on the deck of SOT kayaks are typically not very big, and if they appear to be big, or at least just tall, the image appears to have been doctored…

In this context, it’s interesting to observe that people who fish from boats are frequently seen standing, while people who fish from kayaks rarely stand up in them. The reason for this is stability, or lack thereof in kayaks.

What’s the problem with big SOT fishing kayaks?

The problem that users of big SOT fishing kayaks users face is twofold – First, these behemoths are are to transport and carry, and the biggest can hardly be moved even on land. Second, these huge kayaks don’t paddle well – They are slow, hard to move, they track poorly, and they are mostly for short trips on flat water. People who are not in good shape find it hard to handle these large size SOT kayaks, both on land and on water. The same people also find these kayaks to be most uncomfortable.

What is the most stable kayak?

The Wavewalk S4 twin-hull is the world’s most stable kayak, and it beats kayaks that are much bigger and wider.  Three large size guys can easily fish out of an S4 standing up, in full confidence and comfort. The S4 powered by a 10 HP outboard gas motor can go at full throttle in rough water, in the ocean, and its driver can stand up while driving it. Three adult passengers can stand up in a Wavewalk S4 and paddle without any balancing or stabilizing issues.

What makes this kayak more stable?

The sides of the Wavewalk S4 are more buoyant than the sides of ordinary (SOT and sit-in) kayaks, which are generally oval. The S4 features two large size, straight hulls, separated by a wide saddle seat. The people who sit on its saddle have their feet rest at the lowest point of the hulls, and the same is true when they stand up. The riding posture is similar to the posture of people who ride large jet-skis, ATVs, snowmobiles, and dirt bikes. The posture offers a higher degree of balancing capability that simply sitting with our knees in front of you, such as when you sit on a canoe or Jon-boat bench, and it is also more stable than the very unstable and most uncomfortable L position, where your legs are stretched in front of you.

Do you have any questions for us?

What is the best boat for a waterfront property?

Waterfront properties differ from each other, and so do boats, so the answer depends on a multitude of factors including –

Location of the property

Does the property border the ocean, a big lake, a small lake, a pond or a river?
Is the water adjacent to the property deep or shallow?
If the property borders the ocean, how strong are the tides there?
Is it a beachfront property, or does it border a canal, or a cove?
Are waves and currents too strong there?

Physical attributes of the property and access to the water

Does the property feature a beach or a dock, or both?
Is it necessary to carry the boat from the house or the boat shed to the water and back?
Is the water at the beach very shallow, and does it feature rocks, and/or vegetation?

Docking

Is the dock high or low above the water?
Is it a permanent or a floating structure?

Boat size and type

Some boats are too big, and they draft too much to be docked close to shore. These boats may be moored close enough, but then they require a small service boat, namely a boat tender to allow transportation of passengers and goods from shore and back.
Other vessels, such as canoes, SOT kayaks and sit-in kayaks, don’t offer much as far as boating goes, and they are not comfortable.
Jon boats and skiffs work well on flat water, and they can go in relatively shallow water. However, they are not seaworthy, and they are not useful in water where abundant vegetation grows, unless they are outfitted with a surface drive (mud motor). These flat bottomed boats are usually too wide for their users to paddle them effectively over any meaningful distance.
Inflatable dinghies are typically more seaworthy than Jon boats and skiffs, but they are notoriously uncomfortable, and similarly, they don’t paddle well. Most anglers would be reluctant to fish out of an inflatable boat, because fishing hooks can easily perforate their walls.
Pontoon boats work well on flat water, but despite their extreme stability, they are not comfortable in choppy water.
Big motorboats are fun, and they are more seaworthy than small boats, but they draft too much to go in shallow water, they won’t go in water with vegetation, and there is no way to paddle them, even over very short distances.
In general, the bigger the boat the harder it is to carry it over land, and the more its owners depend on docks. Needless to say that maintaining a large size boat is not cheap, even if it’s possible to moor or dock it next to your property.

Could this boat fit your waterfront property needs?

The main advantages of the S4 as a boat for a waterfront property are:

1. It is lightweight and portable – barely 100 lbs without the motor. This means that you don’t necessarily need a dock to launch and beach it, and if needed, you can haul it on top of your dock. Moreover, being a car-top boat makes it available for you to take on trips to other places, even without a trailer.
2. It’s a kayak, and it paddles well as such, and as a canoe.
3. Very shallow draft, even with a motor. For many anglers and paddlers, this feature means everything.
4. It’s seaworthy – more than Jon boats and most micro skiffs.
5. It’s fast – 17 mph sustained with a powerful outboard motor.
6. It’s an all-terrain boat that you can outfit with a surface drive (mud motor)
7. It’s comfortable and back-pain free, thanks to its saddle seat that its passengers ride similarly to the way you ride the saddle of high performance personal watercraft (jet-ski), all-terrain vehicles (ATV), and snowmobiles.
8. It’s extremely stable – more than Jon boats and micro skiffs of similar size, which makes it great for fishing. It even features a front deck for casting.
9. Plenty of storage space and good carrying capacity – The S4 can carry a payload of 600 lbs, which means a powerful portable outboard motor and three passengers. The on board storage space it provides is equivalent to the storage space offered by good size skiffs and Jon boats.
10. It’s durable, thanks to the fact that it’s rotomolded from High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), and you can carry and launch it over rocks.

Do you have any questions about this article?

By Mike Silva

Massachusetts

I sold my 15 HP 4-cycle outboard and got a 9.9 HP modified instead. The old motor weighed 135 lbs, and it was too heavy. The new one weighs 108 lbs, and I outfitted it with a hydrofoil.

My friend tells me “You have a nice 24 ft boat, so why do you fish from that kayak?”… I like fishing with the S4 because it puts me on the fish – My big boat drifts too much with the wind because it has a big high deck, and it drifts too much with the current because it drafts 3 ft. No such problems with the S4, and since it drafts so little I can get much closer to shore without fear of hitting rocks.

The other day I was going with it through the Cape Cod canal, which can be a nasty place because of the currents there, especially when there’s a strong wind blowing. The water was rough, and you could see that even big boats had problems, but not the S4. We made it without any problem.

My dad and I caught many stripers out of my S4 this year, in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. I heard the tuna were biting now, so I think I’ll try going after them.

My next project will be adding a large size spray shield so we can go faster in big waves.

 

 

 

Another striper on board

 

More rigging and fishing with Mike »

By Chris Henderson

 

The S4 with the 6.5 hp Twister mud motor performed well towing the W700 back, but it still needs a bit more work to maximize its performance. You can see how a W700 and the S4 combo gives you a lot of versatility.

The wheel cart I made needs more work too.

 

By Chris Henderson

Hunt was a bit more sporty this week in that my shooting was off and I ended up winging some birds. The big problem with that is that it results in water swats. In the spot I am hunting you are limited to 25 shells. Although I do not believe many adhere to this rule, I do. So spending a bunch of shells on water swats and a particularly crafty wigeon which was probably eaten by the seals, I came down to my last four shells with 2 birds to go. Got one with two shots, and only had two shots left. After shooting them I thought I would be foiled in my quest to get a limit. So I searched my box and then found one more live shell in my pocket! I let the bird come all the way in with feet down before I smacked him. That 25 shell limit did make it much more sporting I will tell you that. Wigeon will often come in with no calling necessary, but today the wigeon whistle proved it’s worth turning a few birds and bringing them all the way in. Torrie is improving with each trip.

Of course the W700 hunting kayak was solid as ever!

Enjoy