I had a chance to tryout Native Watercraft new 14.5 Ultimate pedal kayak when Legay Paddlesports owner Andy Zimmerman and Jimbo Meador were in town.
Wow!
The craft pedals nicely and turns on a time. Control is effortless.
Now, the neat thing for me is that you can pedal in reverse. That should come in handy when I’m fishing around docks in salt water and hook a large fish. That’s happened to me in the past and I’ve lost a few battles.
If you get a chance to pedal one of these boats, make the most of the opportunity.
I’ve seen the video of these boats…and unless they made some dramatic improvement in the way the prop is situated in the hull…It’d be REALLY tough not to slam it off unseen,underwater objects such as submerged timber and rocks…not a very good river boat imho…But might be fine in deeper lakes without channels and such like we have around here…and docks to take out and put it at…as was the case in the video.
Another problem I see is fly fishing with it. I can see the fly line tangled up in those pedals all day long.
Would be extremely nice for some applications but not for mine.
I have a Native Ultimate 12
Not at all. The whole prop/pedal assembly lifts out of the water and tilts into the bow of you boat. Jimbo Meador is a veteran fly fisher who already thought that one out.
You wouldn’t use the pedals/prop while you’re fly fishing in most cases. You certainly could leave the assembly down when spin fishing.
Been there, done that. Andy Zimmerman, owner of the complany (he owned Wilderness Systems prior to Legacy, already throught of the. He told me that underwater obstacles pretty much are no problem. Most of the time, the pedal/prop assembly just lifts out of the way. Plus, there’s not a whole lot of prop that’s even expose since most of it is in the tunnel of the Ultimate. Did you forget the Ultimate is tunnel-hulled?
I sit and fly fish all day long in my Ultimate. Didn’t know it tilted out of the way and that certainly is a major plus but that seems like a minor pain to have to do all day long. Of course I’d be willing to give one a test ride …for a few months
