My wife and I went to the festival yesterday and were able to try any boat that we want to check out. Some of the vendors (Native is one that comes to mind, but not the only one) were a little stand-offish, but if you approached them, they would help you. The guys at Wilderness Systems were the best. They had three fishing yaks all decked out with rods and had a lot of suggestions for yak fishing.
My focus was on looking for a fishing kayak. I do not know anything about kayaking, so the classes and accessories for touring did not really interest me. Rolling a kayak is something I hope to avoid (fishing gear would fall out), not something I want to learn.
I went to the show wanting to try the Native and the Wilderness yaks. I stopped in to Time Out earlier in the week and spoke with Dave (Dolphin D) about them. I was initially leaning toward the Native Ultimate 12, but Dave suggested that I should also check out the Wilderness Tarpon 120 as well. After trying several Native and Wilderness kayaks (and some Liquid Motion yaks as well), I have decided on the Wilderness Ride 135. All of the Wilderness yaks seem to paddle much faster than their Native Ultimate counterparts and were as stable or moreso. I also liked the Tarpon 120 and Tarpon 140 better than the compairable Native Ultimates. The Ride 135 was a bit wetter than the Ultimate, but Wilderness has now closed the holes behind the seat, so it should be drier. On the other hand, the Native seat system is superior to the Wilderness. It is elevated and breathable and felt a little more comfortable.
If Cobra was there, I didn’t see them. I would have liked to check out a Fish n Dive.
IMHO - standing in any yak is tenuous at best. It is not like standing in a jon boat. Even in the yaks that you can stand in, it is shaky. The rep for Wilderness gives a demo in the Ride 135 where he stands and fly fishes like he was on shore, but I think he has a lot of practice.
I agree with all your conclusions. Even Time Out was so busy in the afernoon they had trouble servicing all the interested folks (good for them). See my comment on Native 14.5 post.
Charleston Outfitters was great to deal with. I bought the wife a Big Yak from their rental fleet & a Prowler Big Game fully rigged for myself. Great prices on both!
I tried out the ride and really liked it. I had never been in that yak before and managed to do all of the same stuff Chad was doing. I have to admit that I was impressed by that yak.
Glad to hear you all like the boats. I think its going to be a hot boat for those looking for a boat they can stand and site fish in. I was on hand to represent Confluence line of boats to include Mad River, Perception, Dagger, and Wilderness Systems at the show along with the other Fishermen Steve and Chad. Thanks for the kind words, and here are some more photos of the Ride 135. There are a lots of great boats being made and I always suggest that you buy a boat that will statisfy most of your needs and enjoy it. Thanks to all the friendly faces that we met this past weekend. It was a great pleasure to meet everyone that attended.
Hey bciocco,
It ain’t easy to stand up on any of the the SOT’s if you ask me. Futhermore, I like catching and using live bait as part of my fishing experience and if you think casting a rod is challenging, try a cast net! I finally gave up depending on my nonexistant cat-like reflexes and built some outriggers for my Tarpon 140 using PVC, Ram Tube Rod holders and lobster floats. I can break dance on my boat when they are out. Here are the instuctions on how to make them. http://www.kayakfishingstuff.com/articles_view.asp?Kayak_Articles=31
I ordered the parts from the webpage and put it together. You just add PVC. I reinforced with a piece of aluminum like the instructions suggest. I’ll admit I was skeptical until I went ahead and did it. But they work like a charm. The ram balls allow you to move the bouys up out of the water when you don’t need them. I don’t have pictures but they look just lke the pics on the webpage.
