I can paddle my W500 standing up, fish, dine, sleep on it naturally.
I like the fact that I can change sitting/standing positions easily if I get tired.
I’ve taken it out quite a few times already over to Canyon Lake in the Texas Hill country.
Over at Canyon Lake, with the water levels lowering, most of the boat ramps are closed, so it’s convenient to have a lightweight setup that I can carry out to the water without a trailer.
In the winter, I plan to use it on the Guadalupe River for some trout fishing. I can’t wait ’till then.
Ultimately, my goal was to have a comfortable fishing rig that didn’t have the consequences of a normal fishing boat (a place to store the boat/trailer, engine/electrical maintenance, fuel) I just have a 2002 Infiniti G20 that only has a 4 cylinder engine, so trailers are out of the question. With this setup, I just mount the rig on my car and head off to the lake on the fly: after work, on the weekend, whenever. Also, in combination with a few rods readily rigged up, there’s no need to stop anywhere to delay the fun.
The first time, I flipped, but it was because I haven’t been on a kayak in a while, but the second time I was able to stand in it, carefully.
The only thing that I had trouble with is kayaking with someone else on the kayak (trying to position the heavier one in the right spot for maximum stability & trying to determine who and how they will lean into the turns so we wouldn’t flip).
Attached are some photos on and off the water. I’ve just been having too much relentless fun on the water to be taking much pictures. These are taken by my phone so they might not be as good quality as they could have been with a digital camera, but I plan on rigging it up a little better for striped bass fishing and for video on some good fishing fights by next summer
-Stepehn Cano, Texas
This review was first published on Wavewalk’s fishing kayaks blog >>
