Chris Springer For the sake of honesty and clarity, I am on the Wilderness Systems Fishing team. Im also a certified kayak instructor and I teach river kayak fishing classes. Those who have taken my class understand that the style of river kayak fishing I teach requires upstream paddling and other moving water maneuvers. Ive paddled many boats and during my river kayak fishing classes Ive seen many of the fishing kayaks in action in moving water. Personally, I sometimes will paddle two miles up river to fish during the winter attaining small rapids along the way. I fish the Susquehanna and the Juniata Rivers to give you a little perspective. To move up river efficiently youll want your kayak to have several key properties to get the job done. First, it has to track well. This will keep you from needing to do a lot of corrective paddle strokes on your move up river. Kayaks with a bit of a keel line will track well moving upstream and make the job easier. Kayaks with a more rounded hull will make the job harder to manage even with good paddling technique. Also, longer kayaks tend to track well.. for the purpose of a river though, I think your sweet spot should be somewhere in the 12 foot to 13.5 foot length. Second, youll want the kayak to be as narrow as possible for oblivious reasons. Wider kayaks will have more drag moving up river and will stop when you stop paddling instead of maintaining a bit of a glide of course hull design can overcome some of this but what I say about width typically holds true. You also want to take a hard look at the kayaks free board. This is the distance from the water line to the top of the deck. Wind is your worst enemy when paddling upstream not only because it can slow your progress if you re moving into it but also because a cross wind can cause a kayak with a lot of free board to wind cock. That basically means it will kill your tacking and make you work harder. Rudders can stop wind cocking but I would not recommend putting a rudder on a kayak your using in a river. The kayaks that I go to when moving up river in HEAVY current are the Ride 135 and the Tarpon 120. Both are SOTs. The tarpon 120 has very little free board, tracks great, is 30 wide and has good glide. It comes in at about 63 pounds with seat and rigging. It is very manageable for bush wacking into spots.My Ride 135 is my go to when attaining on the big river. It will give you stand up stability as well but at a cost. It will come in at 79lbs with the seat and rigging. 69 without. Stand up stability requires hull volume wich adds to weight. The this boat has great tracking and stability at 13.5 long and 31 wide. The Rides ability to trim using the movable seat helps to lessen the effects of wind on the boat which is a huge issue on the river that many folks just dont ever talk about. These are both fantastic fishing platforms for moving water. I paddled these boats long before I was a widy angler because they work in moving water. I remember one river fishing class when one of my students was so frustrated from the wind blowing his boat around (not a wildy) on the river that I pulled up beside him in my Ride 135 and had him put his foot in my tank well to keep on spot for a cast. He ended up landing a 21 smallie on the first cast to a piece of ledge rock and we got it all on film! Ryan is spot on with his advise though, Get out there and try some kayaks. Put then through the paces... and see what YOU like. Please lt me know if you have any follow up questions... I like questions! LOL!
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 23:55:47 +0000
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