Access is a problem in the area where I live – both in fresh and salt water.
It turns out that some of the places I really want to fish are pretty far from the nearest launch point. Speed is therefore a lot more important than I first thought. So, even though I love the Tarpon 120 I’ve got, I’ve already started to think about a faster 'yak.
I’ve paddled as far as 1 1/2 miles in order to fish. But I’d really like to stretch that out, both in fresh and salt water.
How far do the rest of you have to paddle? Do you wish you had a faster 'yak or are you happy with what you’ve got?
Good question! I addressed it when writting a paddle trails book for our
county and creating a website for them. My reply is here: http://www.berkeleyblueways.com/launch.htm
Scroll down to the 2nd paragraph, “Planning a Paddling Trip.”
Obviously there are those of us that can cover more distance with
little problem. But do be careful this time of year particularly. Extended
thunder storms might leave you stranded well away from where you
would like to be and an unexpected night with kritters and skeeters
should be avoided.G Warm regards, Jim
I don’t have very far to go once I’m on the water so speed isn’t an issue. Our lakes are fairly large, but they’re not like getting out in the ocean, there are fish along the shore everywhere.
I suppose one could get out in the main body of the lake and get a pretty good head of steam up if they wanted to. Other than that, the long narrow sea kayaks are interesting, but virtually useless here.
My yak is 11 feet long and seems to get along pretty good, but its 30" width creates more drag than some would like. I’ve been thinking up ways I could add a sail and rudder to mine so I could cover more distance. I’m not sure I ever will, but it would be fun to try it.
I’m not sure how long it took me to cover those 1 1/2 miles. However, I trolled all the way there, so it may have been an hour or more. On the way back, a significant cross wind picked up, and it was some tough paddling.
Hey MoT, my sister lives in Springfield. I usually go for a visit in the fall and do a little fishing. About 3 years ago, we vacationed at Big Cedar on Table Rock. And next summer we’re going to vacation in Missouri. It’s not going to be the place time to fish, but that’s when everybody wants to go.
It’s a ways off, but I want to bring my kayak. Would you have any suggestions about kayak fishing? I’ve been looking on the interent for info, but was getting the impression that Missouri kayaking was geared to river floats.
River floats are great, but I’m not gonna do that well if there’s white water.
I like to carry a GPS on the kayak. Therefore, the speed is displayed in MPH. So I can see how fast the kayaks are going. The rotomolded sit-on-top kayaks generally can reach 3 - 3.8 MPH with normal paddling effort. My carbon-hulled Wavewitch goes 5.2 MPH with the same physical effort.
So if distance/time is very critical to your hobby, then I’d suggest investing is a hard hulled fiberglass, kevlar or carbon fiber design. Makes a big difference.
You have to consider wind and current of assessing routes too. The furtherst I have ever paddled in one fishing sortie was 14 miles in a 6-hour span. Could not have made it in the tupperware boat.
Several years ago I purchased a WS Pungo 140. One of the appeals of this sit-in yak over the SIT’s I considered was speed. The 140 is a very fast boat for the paddling effort expended and tracks as straight as an arrow. I fish the lower Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries and often paddle long distances in search of productive water so speed and tracking are very important to me. Also, fishing from the 140 is a breeze and the boat is dry when the bay turns cold during rockfish season! You might consider keeping your Tarpon 12 for close-in waters and picking up a boat like the Pungo 140 for those extended ventures. Good luck.
This is the major reason I went with the Hobie outback, As the peddling system is far less tiring than if I were to have to paddle the longer distances and holding a 5 knot speed is a breeze…even with some light wind…and tracking is very sweet with the rudder system even if you are paddling…
I don’t have access problems, but I love to paddle and have done some distance paddling while fishing. I have paddled 8 mile round trip in saltwater and 2 miles to get to a fishing spot on a large lake. Most of my distance is usually logged after the fishing has slowed and I want to do some exploring.
I have a T160 so I am happy with the boat I have but, as long as the boat is comfortable and easy to paddle, I would do all those trips in short slower boats too. Now that I think about it, I worry more about comfort than speed when making marathon fishing trips.
BTW: For long trips, a rudder and a good, light paddle helps too.
What flycoach said, but I hae the Pungo 12 footers. I just bought a duralight to replace the classic. Its 10 lbs lighter and I hope it will be a little faster. A kevlar boat would be nice, but I’m a few gazillion dollars short of funds to make it happen. The Pungo has a great cockpit and tracks like a dream.
My last trip out the other day, according to my map, I covered aprox 16 miles in a little more than 6 hours. This was a leisurly pace, stopping to explore, etc…, so it’ wasn’t all paddling time. I make about 3 or 4 knots with normal easy paddling (my estimate, by using a watch and map). I can do this all day long with no trouble at all. I could probably make 6 or 7 knots for a short period at a brisk paddle.
I have a 9’ Wilderness Systems Victory Blast SIK, and use a two-piece, adjustable Minn-Kota Kayak Paddle with straight blades (not scooped much). A scooped paddle would probably increase my speed.
I think that’s fast enough. Much faster, and I would have to spend less time enjoying the environment, and more time looking for obstacles and Navagational Hazards.
Dread to think how far I paddle in a day long session. Back in the late spring I did paddle offshore about 3.5 miles to some sunken mulberry harbours which they failed to raise for D Day in WWII.
Pretty good fishing too, until three dive boats powered up and dumped a dozen or so divers right on the mark. Did consider some high seas piracy for a moment; board the buggers and let rip the dawgs of war. Common sense prevailed and I paddled off a few more miles to another feature I had some intelligence on.
Being a long time traditional small cockpit kayaker I was kind of skeptical about the abilities of the “Pungo”. My kayak is a 14 foot River Runner. Despite the name it has seen mostly flatwater use for fishing and camping excursions. It is constructed with a stiffening system down the middle which roto-moulds into the seat. This is necessary to support the lightweight “Tupperware” type plastic construction. Therefore I ended up with 4 narrow triangles instead of the usual two. Once I learned how to pack it this became advantageous as I could fit my gear in tightly enough to portage without unloading and messing with packs and such. I would just break my two piece paddle down and use it as a yoke. Kids on canoe trips would be really impressed when they saw this and had many questions for their Scout leaders.
With that kind of background I assumed the large open cockpit Pungo would be a “turtle”. It’s not I was very impressed. The 'yak I tried was probably a 14 footer and it tracked very very well and paddled like a dream. It has many of the advantages of a canoe with the speed and efficiency of a kayak. The seat was amazing! I need to get me one of those yaks some day. Wish I could find a good used one up here in Southern Ontario, Canada. Most yakkers up here are into Sea Kayaks. I’m not far from (Georgian Bay on Lake Huron.) You don’t see many S.O.T.s or Wilderness Systems types of 'yaks.
I paddle a Pungo 140 and think its quite fast, plus theres room for my fishing stuff and the pooch
my wife just got a Tarpon 140 and it seems nearly as fast. alot of the guys out here that fish the Pacific in central Cal use the longer Ocean Kayak models for stability when landing big halibut and lingcod. some guys use WS tarpon 160’s and are WAY faster than the OC guys. a friend has the hobie adventure with the pedals and loves it except for a persistant leak on an interior seam… unfortunatly hobie is reluctant to replace the boat as of yet…
yeasterday the wife and I did 8.25 miles on a sloooow river in 6 hours with 3 naps in the middle and a lunch break. when we were actually paddling, a slow mosey was getting us a bit over 2.5 mph…
Jim
