When I was a kid (long ago...) my dod, a civil engineer, drew up plans for a "kayak." At least it was a skin boat. It didn't have dimensions very similar to the real deal, though, It was rather short at 14' and wide at 36." Thus, it was stable. Part of this may have been due to the weight. He over-engineered the hell out of it, used 1/2" to 3/4" plywood to cut the parts out of and covered it with heavy cotton canvas and then sealed it with polyester resin! The resin worked OK for a couple of years until it went brittle and then you could hardly touch it without breaking a hole in the thing. Nonetheless--it was the best watercraft I have ever fished from--while it lasted. It was stable, roomy, swift, and could hold at least 2 adults or up to 4 kids... sort of. I found his plans a couple of years ago and have s-s-l-l-o-o-o-w-w-l-l-y-y-y started to redo them. It's biggest disadvantage was too much freeboard and it really caught the wind--one of many reason that I don't like canoes, too. I purchased a little molded polyethylene sit-on-top last year to see if I still liked the concept. Took it out last spring and almost sank. Got across the lake and cast a couple of times, realized I was going down and went like mad for the access! Didn't get there any too soon, either. You got any idea what the water trapped in a half-full kayak weighs??? Anyway, seems that a few holes in it that I thought were above the water line probably would have been if I'd weitghed 90 lbs... rather than a multiple of that... Boy!!! Absolutely nothing sticks permanently to polyethylene!!! Finally solved that with spray-in foam, rubber cement and gorrilla tape. Don't laugh! it workeds!! Took it out in the salt chuck day before yesterday and man was it great!! ...except it has all the directional stability of an upside-down frisbee. Caught a couple of salmon too! Kings, even. The big ones! One was 10" and the other was at least a foot!! So----where was I in this ramble? OK. I would recommend a shallow draft, wide, "kayak" type boat over anything else. especially if it has a keel or rudder or something so you don't start to turn circles as soon as you quit paddling! I'm gonna be right back at it now! This winter I guess I'll just have to dig out those plans and get back to modifying them. I'm thinking light, wide and low. Oh yes--some kind of a keel or rudder as well. Whatever you do--stay sorta dry!!!!!!

J. Marcus
http://www.flyrodjewelry.com