Dear Joni and others,
Yes, I still have and use my yellow submarine Daytripper. For a big dude like me it works well but when I put my girlfriend's grandson in it, he's a good sized kid at about 6' and 160 pounds, it acted a little bit like a sailboat but he managed with it all right.
As far as Advance Elements models go I'm looking more towards this one, http://www.advancedelements.com/straitedge2.html. I need the extra capacity to float my big ol' self. I am also considering something from Saturn boats, http://www.boatstogo.com/inflatable_fishing_kayaks.asp. I am looking at either the 13' Pro-Angler or the 430 K-boat. I know that when used strictly as a paddle craft inflatables are a real compromise performance wise when compared to a hard shell boat. I don't care about performance because I want the boat to use while fishing and I'm not going to covering vast areas in search of fish. I will be fishing local lakes that are around 100 acres and using the boat in streams that only approach Class II rapids when they are bordering on being too high to fish. I see the boat merely as a tool, and paddling for paddling's sake is not of interest to me. I like what I see with the Saturn boats and I like the idea of adding a folding seat that sits up on top of the tubes. I'm thinking that will make fishing much easier due to the higher seating position.
Every hard shell kayak I've ever been in, all two of them, felt like I was sitting down in a hole in the water. Yes they moved around nicely when paddled, but they weren't much use as fishing craft due to the terrible visibility.
I've got time to look around and hopefully try some things out.
Regards,
Tim Murphy
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