Angler editions

Another question...for those of us that primarily fly fish, are the angler editions of these yaks actually a benefit? The flushmount rod holders seem to be of little value without a rod with a fighting butt.

Jay

Short answer? no
Thus far, pretty much all the "angler editions" seem to have been designed by the marketing department and not by kayak fisherman (conventional or fly). Some are better than others, (O.K., Hobie, and Malibu) but ALL of them could use some tweaking.
The truth is you can customize the boat far better for your purposes than the angler editions for (at worst) the additional cost of the special edition boat.
For example, I find the rear flush mounted rod holders all but useless. Okay, they are alright for storage and I have them like everybody else (lemming). But I think my forward angled flush mounts are a 100 times more useful. You can see the rod, you can reach it, and its angled out of your paddle stroke. You'd still need a fighting butt or, even better, try the Scotty fly rod mount with the extension.  A couple of cleats, a deck line, and voila, you have an anchor/drift chute trolley. The angler editions choice of ff (if its offered at all) may not be the best for the buck and mounting the fishfinder is really painless as there are so many good tutorials out there, it'd be almost hard to get it wrong. Although, in defense of the manufacturers, O.K. looks like its finally come up with molding in a "bowl" to mount the ff (and it even has a cover!)and scuppers that can accommodate a transducer in the Trident.
A center hatch as a factory option, too me at least, is worth its weight in gold (for internal tackle storage). But that's not too difficult to add either. All that said, if your "uncomfortable" making changes (ie poking holes in your boat), then the "angler" boats would probably work. I may be a little jaded as I grew up with the sport and the only way to get an "angler edition" was to make it. But now, there are so many excellent tutorials on the web for mounting almost anything, it seems a shame to miss out on the fun of voiding your warranty.   

After finally looking at a few boats, I came to much the same conclusion. I checked out Next Adventure today at lunch and they have the exact boat I am looking for but no rental or demo option. I hope to get out to Alder Creek after work or early next week (I have Sun/Mon off). Now to convince the wife it is a good time to buy our boats

Thanks for the advice,
Jay

Next Adventure not demoing! Really?
They had a sign up a week or so ago crowing about "demo's available". Guess they changed their minds.

Which boat? If your in this neck of the woods, you might consider going to St. Helens to Scapoose Bay Kayaks. They have demo's but I'd call first though (just in case they changed their minds too)

They have a 14' Tarpon with a rudder installed, non-angler edition on closeout for $925. Although it's what I've been looking for, I haven't been able to try one out yet and finances may dictate looking for a used boat first.

Jay

The wife and I were able to demo a 15' Prowler and 12' Tarpon yesterday at Alder Creek. There were features on each that both liked and disliked. Either boat line would make a worthy fishing platform.

A few specifics that mattered to us: 1) the Tarpon had a higher center of gravity and a bit less primary stablity. This made the first few paddle strokes a bit more wobbly, but this was quickly not an issue. The higher center of gravity partially comes from an elevated seat platform that also provided a noticably drier ride (even at 220 lbs), 2) the Prowlers molded foot placements always seemed in between for both of us. After only 90 minutes of paddling, this caused a bit more soreness than I would have expected. However, bouncing in the surf, the Tarpons foot pegs would be a liability.

Just remember, YMMV...

Jay

FYI

REI has P15 'seconds' (I can't see any problems with mine) that costed $740 (including tax).  Another benefit, is that the delivery is free to any REI store.  (I posted this elsewhere, but I thought I would mention it again.)

Adding a rudder to the P15 changes the foot positioning a bit, for better or worse is a matter of perspective.

Happy shopping.

-Jesse

steelheader,
 Don,t let the footwell distance bother your decision. All you need to do is adjust the seat back to another spot (up or back) and get into another toe zone. This is the scenario I found. I am now going through the "fitting stages" with our new Agean tandem. 

Boxofrain,
thanks for that thought. Since the rental wasn't provided with any backrest, I didn't even think about the adjustablility in that way.

Jay

Like FFTW said! There's not much to angler edition kayaks except the OK Trident. It really seems to have a lot of very useful editions that really make it an angler. And yes FFTW, you're right again, pimpin the kayak is one of the best parts of this sport. I think a few extras that the manufacturer puts on is great but they never seem to fit you exactly. And making that yak custom is what it's all about!

BTW, I'll be picking up Pole2's new Trident in a few days so I'll report on just how much of an angler she really is out of the box.

Z

Hi all,
I am a newbie lurker at this site.  Thanks for the yak information.  I don't have my yak as yet.  It seems that they want money for them too, sigh. I was talking to the Alder Creek Kayak folks about joining the basic paddling class.  What are your thoughts on these type of classes.  I noticed that all of the advanced yak classes include rolling a yak and I am going to concentrate on the sit-on-top type that don't roll.
I lurk here and am learning a great deal about yaks and the folks that use them.  Great bunch.  Thanks for letting me waste time with you.  Reading about the fishing is almost as good as doing it, well not almost but it is something to do @ 3:00 AM while suffering from insomnia.  Maybe when I get my yak I will just learn what it is to fish in the wee early morning.
Thanks all.

I was talking to the Alder Creek Kayak folks about joining the basic paddling class.  What are your thoughts on these type of classes. 

I wouldn't worry too much about paddling skills. Most of us don't paddle any serious mileage to go fish and those classes are really directed to those long distance tourers in SIK's (sit in kayaks). Plus we're spending most of our time fishing so the paddle floats next to the yak a lot of the time . Start w/ fishing on a small lake fishing for crappie or trout and work your way up. Come back to the site a lot and ask a ton of questions... that's what we're here for! And there's a great bunch of knowledgeable people here to fish with so post when you want to go and I'm sure you'll find someone to fish with.

Z

I wouldn't worry too much about paddling skills.

I gotta disagree with you on this one Zee. Developing some paddling skills can do wonders for your fishing experience.
  Don't get me wrong, you can go out and have a great time paddling with no instruction other than the one's written on the back of the paddle wrapper. But taking a lesson or two can bring the learning curve way down and reduce the pain in your shoulders from poor paddling form. Also, any class worth its salt will teach you how to re-enter in deep water. Thats a skill a lot of self-taught kayak anglers neglect until its too late. Again, there is no magic to any of this, but it makes it sooo much easier to learn it in a controlled enviroment and have some good critique.  Just make sure your in a "sea kayaking" class and not a "whitewater" class. There's nothing wrong with a whitewater class per se, but they generally spend an lot of time on rolling skills and less on paddling.
In short,,,,,

Sign up today for your free lessons at Big Wali's School of Kayak Fishing for only ten payments of $99.95
limited time offer good from 7/18/06 through 7/19/06 offer not valid in the contiguous United States or Alaska or Hawaii nor anywhere else

(I'm kidding)

Seriously though, some lessons would be very useful and Alder Creek is a good place for them.



 

Yeah that's another school of thought FFTW. I'm not knocking it, by all means, there's plenty of good things that you can learn by going to classes. I'm just more of a learn by studying and doing kind of person. I read and talked/chatted w/ people on NCKA and then we did an outing where we all ditched our yaks in a lake and practiced self-rescue and went over many aspects of safety for yakfishermen. In no way am I saying not do it. I'm more saying that you can get great instruction here and learn more specifically what we need for fishing. I'm not exactly sure where everyone is located but maybe we could do a safety day as well? Go over a ton of things including injuries on the water radio skills and other things which specific to yak fishing. And we even have the best paddler in our fearless leader Pole2. Sure he can give a ton of tips.

oh... free classes?... take 'em!

Z

One thing to think about...no matter how much you fish from your yak, you must paddle to get out there. As a general rule, the more efficient a paddler you are, the easier it will be when you're paddling.

Jay