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OK,Here goes, I have been a lurker on this forum for a while and enjoy the posts very much, my question I feel, is worthy enough to ask of such a broad vessel of knowledge. I have a 16’fiberglass freighter style canoe and also a Classic brand backpacker 8’pontoon boat(used twice so far) and have had success with warm water fishing from both. I have also experienced some problems with each craft, especially on rivers. What would be the win if I scrapped both units and upgraded to a SOT kayak? Will I be able to paddle upstream with relative ease? Can I get on and off in the water without dumping the whole deal? Can I stand up in said kayak? I live in S.W. PA and mostly fish large rivers and some stillwater. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. JA
hi wonderrod
any time you get a new toy it’s a win situation. as for the paddling up stream, it is relatively easy to paddle up stream with a kayak. i have SIK and do this all the time. like the beaver river, clarion, french cr. and allegheny i can do with ease. even in riffle section it can be doe with effort, but a rapid section like the yough above ohiopyle, oh boy you better be in shape.
as for standing, depends on your balance. SOT’s are more stable than that SIK and can be done. getting in an out is easier in the SOT but I have no problems with my SIK. check out wind and water near butler, they have a very nice selection and sponser demos in the spring. if you want to try one out, give me a shout, i currently have 4 with 2 being for sale.
I use a sit in kayak for fishing the White river here in Arkansas. When they are running anything more than 2 generators below the dams the river has a lot of water and current. I can paddle against the current for several miles at a time by reading the river, staying in the back eddies, on the insides of bends and close to shore if all else fails. I find I don’t have to stand to cast, but I have made a set of retractable pontoons that I can deploy if I need to stand. Sit on tops are good fishing boats. especially if you get out and in alot to wade fish like I do.
I’ve been doing alot of research over the last several days and have decided on either an Ocean Kayak Prowler 13 or a Wilderness brand of similar proportions. Both are SOT and it’s said that the shorter length is more manuverable in smaller rivers and in general easier to negotiate obstacles. Sportsman’s Wharehouse has a few to look at and I plan on running over there to check them out. Thanks for the advice, it was helpfull.
JA
Just FYI…for kayaks, shorter means slower. If you’re planning to battle current, a longer (and thus faster) kayak may be a better choice.
More important though is to try before you buy. Lots of places rent 'yaks for the hour/day/weekend/etc. Try a few models and spend at least 30 minutes in the seat out on the water. You won’t find the places it starts to get uncomfortable unless you spend some real seat-time in each model you’re considering.
Good luck.
http://www.canoegear.com/html/ check out the pontoons for a kayak. I don’t stand in mine, but installing a set of these for the same reason stabilty when standing and moving around the yak.
They say 35" from the rear of the back seat and I am getting a new hatch put in in the rear to accomadate the bases for the bar. Its a neat system and you can put the same unit on your canoe.
Hobie Quest Fisherman is the yak I have and Hobie does a great job of backing up the product. I recieved a new yak for a small defect in the one I had. The reps work well together so getting it replaced 1200 miles away was possible.
Have a good one
Philip
- Some good tips here for sure, I do plan on test riding some 'yaks come spring, there are several that I am interested in and Wind & Water has a demo day and I also plan on attending a beginners paddling class.
Pelican came out with a nice SOT fishing kayak this year for around $450. That’s a good price. Iwas thinking of selling my SIK and getting that one. My problem with a kayak is when I flyfish after a while my back hurts. I have a hard time sight fishing also. I’d like to get one that I can stand on.
I can stand and even hang my butt over the side if need be. They will also adapt to a canoe and you can do a dance in the canoe. www.springcreek.com
I finally caught fish in Fla. grouper, grunts, snook and Barracuda. The toons made a big difference crossing channels and in winds and waves for this rookie in a jak. I have an anchor trolley setup,gps/fishfinder and rod holder.
Loading it on a ford suv is a snap with extnded bar and yak cradle. I wished I got the cradle last year.
Good luck
Philip
For fishing a sit on top is superior to a SIK for stability and layout. A SIK may be drier, however, you would usually be wearing waders in cooler weather anyway, so that should not be an issue. It is much easier to get into and out of a SOT.
As far as paddling upsteam, you should be able to paddle upstream with a kayak as well or better than in a canoe. Standing up is another issue. Its one of those situations in which you either can or you can’t, depending on you size and balance. I can’t do it on still water in a Prowler 15, while I know a lot of people who can stand in a less stable kayak in rough water. Pontoons can help you stand and fish, but they create a lot of drag and will slow you down to a crawl.
The three best fishing kayaks, IMHO, are the Prowler 13, Tarpon 140 and Heritage Redfisher 14. If you want more speed and better tracking, the choices would be the Prowler 15 and the Tarpon 160, but given your situation, I don’t think the gain would be worth it.
Just got my first ever sit-on-top kayak. I can’t wait to float some of our Ontario rivers for smallmouth. A buddy and I went out on one of our rivers in our sit-in kayaks last season. He was spinning and I was flyfishing. Guess who got skunked! (Hint…It wasn’t me!) This was a great experience but this kind of fishing will be much better with the ability to hop on and off at will to wade fish good looking spots.
Anyone else use a sit-on-top to chase smallies?
God Bless,
Don
The folks over at Kayakfishingstuff.com are not predominantly flyfishers, but they know their kayaks. It’s a great place to learn:
I’ve got a Wilderness Systems ‘Ride’ SOT, and it’s a real stable boat. You can stand up in it and fish, but I don’t very often. 
They also have serveal models in their ‘Tarpon’ line made for fishing, but I haven’t paddled any of them.
I fish mostly stillwaters from a 12ft Wilderness Systems SIK. I like the SIK because my legs don’t get sun burnt and I think I lose less gear in the water. Lots of storage behind the seat and up front. My uncle uses a 14ft SOT perception. He loves it. He plugged all the holes with cork and waterproof glue. Therefore, no cold water on your legs in the spring and fall. Good luck, Buckeyefly.
My buddy and I float tubed and flyfished for several days once in waders. When the weather got really nice we decided to just wear shorts. We paid dearly for that mistake. You can bet I will be wearing light track pants or something similar when I paddle my new Tarpon 120 SOT or kick around in my tube in the bright sunshine.
Any of you fellows flyfish from a sit-on-top kayak?
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Well, I got me a Yak! I bought a used Cobra Fish 'n dive from a young Marine over the weekend and man is it sweet! Fully rigged, minus a fish finder but for the price I could not pass it up, I had a new O.K. Prowler Big Game on lay-away at a local big box store and cancled it when I caught this post on another forum. Cleaned it up this past weekend and re-rigged and everything looks ready to go. I’ll post some pics as soon as I learn how. Thanks to all on this forum for your input and I mean it sincerly. All I need now is some spring weather to melt all the ice. Those big northerns had better watch out!
JA
I think you made a good decision. I have canoed and kayaked for many years. My float-tubing buddy bought a pontoon. (Okay for fishing but definitely inefficient for a self propelled craft compared to canoes or kayaks)So my choice for floating rivers was a new Tarpon 120 which I got for an amazing price. I’m looking forward to hopping on and off while wade fishing for smallmouth in the rivers. Also the kayak will enable me to paddle back up stream. (May have to tow my buddy. He’ll never row his pontoon against the current!)
Living in P.A. you have some good smallmouth rivers. You will appreciate the advantages of the vessel you have chosen over any of the others you had considered.
Speck asks: “Any of you fellows flyfish from a sit-on-top kayak?”
Yes. Often. It’s no different than flycasting from a canoe, except the SOT has less wind resistance and far less storage space.
I’ve gotta ask why anyone would WANT to stand in a kayak? Just because someone somewhere can do it without joining the local swim team doesn’t make it sensible or practical. To me, that falls into the same category as a circus bear riding a unicycle. I’d have been impressed if the bear could do that AND execute a perfect roll cast.
Standing up is an advantage when trying to sight fish for mudding carp, spawning pike etc. If I can’t stand and cast, so be it, but I will give it try when the water warms. I plan on taking a basics course next month at a local indoor pool and I am definetly going to spend some time learning to self rescue and test the limits of what is deemed to be a very stable S.O.T. kayak. Better to know what to expect and be prepared than to find out the hard way. Most times I expect I’ll be out of the boat and casting to those above mentioned fish, and then paddle on to other parts of the lake, river, whatever.
JA
i recently sold my prowler 13 - reason being was that I moved away from tidal waters and into the mtns were rocky rivers are the norm. The scuppers on the prowler had a bit of protrustion on the bottom that was fond of catching on rocks in shallow water, especially shallower rapids and thsi would certainly eat a hole in the scupper in short order. B/c of this, many people that I know that fish kayaks on rivers have went with the Tarpon. 100 and 120s are popular because they offer good tracking and manueverability on flowing waters.