Advice on kayak capacity please!

OK, so I am pondering adding a kayak to my fishing arsenal (you should have seen my wife's eyes roll when I told her that) but my main concern is finding one that I won't sink and that I fit in.

I am ~6'5" and 290#  so looking at boats with ratings of #300 makes me a bit edgy.  I don't want my claim to fame to be that I sunk a boat with my sheer mass.

Right now I am looking at a Trident 13' because A) it is cool looking B) it is rated at 425-475# of capacity.

Will that be enough to keep me from swimming instead of fishing?

I weigh 270 and have a trident 13 and it works well for me. I think of of the malibus have higher weight ratings and they are great too. Of course, one must consider hobies too. Good luck!

I'd stay at 400 plus to be safe but to really be safe you should demo a few to see how they ride.. Others you could look into are the trident 15, wilderness systems 135 ride, OC prowler, hobie outback or hobie pro angler.

Welcome aboard! Hobie Outback ft...

+1 on what Noah says. You don't realize how hast the weight adds up on the yak.

I can't say I'm up to speed on gear, I'm cheap and used plastic isn't very risky so I buy used, but my Malibu X-factor is very stable, of course I'm on the small side, but I believe its former owner is on the large side.  But yeah demo them, I like the hull design of the X-Factor and Mini X for stability.

The trident 13 and 15 are some of the best ocean paddle boats .... IMO

I was 245 and tend to load a lot of gear and never felt overloaded in my T 13

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Depends a lot on what type of water and what type of fishing. The one drawback to the Trident line is that they tend to plow through waves and swell. If you are really enamored with OK take a look at the Ultra series. Cobra and Malibu also makes some nice kayaks for bigger paddlers.

Like Noah said, demo a few to see how they ride.

6'5 and 290lbs is just part of the consideration.  If you need extra stability, look at the X-Factor and Cobra Fish-n-Dive.  If you want better paddling efficiency and aren't naturally tippy (some people just are...) the Trident 13 and 15/Ultra 4.3 and 4.7 are solid, efficient boats.

-Spot-

The one drawback to the Trident line is that they tend to plow through waves and swell.

I disagree completely with that statement. The Trident line has a bow that makes it float over waves rather than cutting through them.
Hobies on the other hand have a much more vertical bow without much rocker that cause the hull to plow through waves rather than float over them.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Awesome!  Thanks for the input.  Guess I have some research and paddling to do.

I have not found that I plow throw waves in my 13 and I'm a pretty big guy with lots of crap on my yak.  but I may just be thinking of different kinds of waves...

Demo , borrow, go to shows. In the end  get what you feel comfortable on. Meantime research the hell out of the maker websites.

I'm only 200#, but I love my X-Factors, and they're really not that hard to paddle.

At 290 I wouldn't consider anything under 400 and would be more comfortable with at least 450 to 500 pound capacity.  You gotta plan to catch big fish!   

Any of the Ocean Kayaks made for fishing over 13" will have the 400lb+ weight capacity you probably need.