The Best Fishing Kayak? One Angler's Perspective

hey there how's it going in today's video I'm going to talk about kayaks I've decided I need to get a kayak for next season and I've also decided it's going to be a pedal drive kayak so you know I want to talk about the pros and cons of pedal drive kayaks to begin with and then I'll sort of talk about the models that I'm looking for for the style of fishing that I do so pedal drive kayaks are very popular for Anglers for fishermen because they offer sort of a hands-free way to move your kayak around and even hold position in some ways you know like any kind of gear they sort of have their their pluses and minuses one of the main advantages of pedal drive kayaks is their ease of use you know you don't have to fight with the paddle and the rods and everything else if you're if the wind is trying to move you you can position yourself sort of into the wind and just work the pedals a little bit to hold the position that you want to hold they also have a most of them have a fairly easy forward in reverse and so you can go backwards if you're getting blown to something or you need to pull a fish out of cover so you can still be fighting the fish old school you can still be fighting the fish and backing up at the same time because your feet are controlling that they also tend to be a little bit more efficient than paddle-driven kayaks so they don't work they don't give you quite as much of the workout when you're out on the water which can be good or bad right to me it's a pro because I I want to focus my energy on catching the fish and not on you know wearing out my my arms and shoulders with the paddle when I went fishing with ish in October as we were coming off the water and we started talking a little bit one of the first things he said it's like well when you get a kayak make sure you get a pedal drive you know my experience in canoes over the years has has convinced me that I'd like to have a pedal drive but also that time in the kayak you know I got blown into the weeds a couple times I just about broke a rod one time because it just I you know you it takes a lot to manage you know two rods or more a net the paddle everything else so in general I I agree with this like I'm going to get a pedal drive kayak another benefit of pedal drive kayaks is versatility you know many of them have adjustable seats they have adjustable pedals a lot of them you can remove the pedals so that you can still use it like a traditional kayak if you're going to do in some some really really shallow Waters so there's just they give you a lot of different options they also tend to be extremely well set up for fishing it's not that fishermen are the only ones that use pedal drive kayaks but they seem to be very fishing focused for the most part now some of the cons you know one potential drawback is the extra maintenance the great thing about modern kayaks especially paddle ones is they they're really not much to go wrong with them unless you wear through the bottom they're they're just you know just throw them in the water you can leave them outside whatever they're going to be absolutely fine another one is the cost in some cases it's at least 50 percent more sometimes it looks like it's double to buy a new pedal drive versus a new paddle-driven kayak they also seem to hold their value better on the used market so pedal drive kayaks are typically they're fetching a a pretty solid premium and holding most of the value of what you could get them new for at least in 80 percent of the offerings that I'm seeing so there are a few exceptions but you know when you find a really good deal on a pedal drive kayak used you probably need to jump on it because it's not going to last that long and then probably the last negative is they're a lot heavier as well they sometimes you know 20 30 pounds more in fishing kayaks in general are not lightweight a lot of them are in the 60 70 pound range when you get into pedal drives you're starting to talk into the 80s and 100 pound range and some of them a good bit higher than that so pedal drive kayaks can create a lot of weight they're not as easy to to in fact a lot of probably shouldn't be car topped so they do create their own challenges as far as Transportation as well so those are the pros and cons of pedal drive kayaks you know ultimately I think your choice is going to depend on your preferences your needs and maybe your budget as well so with that I want to talk about some of the different models that I've considered and what I've looked into and where I've ultimately landed and where I think I'm going to buy like I have the model picked I think I know what I want but we'll just have to wait and see how it all plays out I I do want to find it at the price that I want to get it at so let's let's get into this here so the first one is the Old Town Sportsman PDL this at least for the the the for the fishing YouTubers that I that I watch this is one of the ones that I see most often you know guys like uh John over at Creek Fishing Adventures Nick from 618 fishing even the creek crawler over in Ohio those are all people that that use this Old Town PDL it's it's a nice kayak it really is I don't have any huge you know real significant negatives over it it would be one that I would definitely consider probably the the negative of a lot of The Kayaks and this is something I'm trying to navigate through is the ones that have the propeller and most of them move through with a a sort of like a bicycle pedal motion they seem to sometimes clog up with weeds I don't know how big of a problem that'll be but I know some of the waters that I that I plan to fish they they have a good bit of weeds especially around the edges in the the summer and fall you know is that a deal breaker I don't know for sure but that is probably the one negative the Old Town seems to be very adorable they I have seen some wear and tear on the on the rudder control handle uh so it's probably a decent upgrade that that you want to make if you go with that one the other thing is it's just the way the the the drive mechanism works I don't want to say it's not forgiving but it's fixed in place and so if you hit something submerged like a log or a rock it it could do a little bit more damage than than some of the other options and so that's one of the things that holds me back the other thing is the old town is is I wouldn't call it a premium auction option but it's not cheap you know it's it's definitely not the the lowest price option out there I I think it's a really good kayak and I think it's one that probably suits a lot of people I just don't think it's going to be the optimal one for me I've never done much fishing out of kayaks I've never owned a fishing kayak so I may go through all this and a year later say oh no I need this instead and that's fine but this is my initial analysis the next one is the Jackson Kusa FD the Kusa has been around quite a while it's probably one of the more stable kayaks for like River fishing and I mean it can handle basic white water as well several years ago when I looked at getting a fishing kayak the first time around and I didn't do it I bought a canoe instead and that really didn't suit me the way I wanted we still have one canoe but I bought a Kevlar canoe a few years ago and it just it had a lot of the the same issues of of a paddle-driven kayak which is it was hard to hold in position and quite frankly the Kevlar was really noisy and so what I did like about when I was out with ish is the plastic really is not nearly as loud it's not quite as good as wood or other canoes a wooden canvas so it's not quite as comfortable and and quiet as that but it's close where the the Kevlar was just like banging around so they're just to me they're they're not really great fishing machines just because of the amount of noise that they make so this is the Jackson Kusa FD the thing that I really like about the Jackson foot Drive is they call it the FD it's still bicycle pedal style it's a little bit different and it looks a little bit more like something off of an exercise machine but their drive if you hit something it'll actually sort of pop up in so it's it's almost like spring-loaded so it gives you a little bit more insurance but that being said I it's still got most of the other well it's still got the other main issue of the the prop driven you know the propeller and will that get tied up in in Weeds or so it seems to be very easy to clear both the Old Town and the the Jackson you know either one would be just fine and the other thing is the Jackson is expensive I and I hardly ever see any of their foot Drive pedals for sale used now that could mean that people really like it and so that's why it's not available you know it's just I I've decided that that's not going to be the one that I go now the third kayak that I've spent a little bit of time looking at was the native Slayer Propel 10. I you know I I just there wasn't anything that really made me love the idea of the Slayer I know some people really like it it seems sort of interchangeable with some of the other kayaks the Old Town the the native Slayer actually the native foot drives they all sort of they seem very similar and so I just there wasn't anything different that Propel offers and so and and it's you know it's it's moderately priced I have seen a handful of those used so going back to the Jackson I don't know if that just means I have better dealers in the area and so there's more of them available or if people buy them they don't like them quite as much I I don't know either way the next one before I had my heart set on a pedal drive of some sort this was the kayak that I wanted and that was the Bonafide ss-127 it seems to have a great blend of speed stability the knock is they're heavy but they seem to be amazing fishing machines and they seem to be very stable and if you've ever seen any of my videos of me like stumbling through the stream and stuff like that you know I don't necessarily have the greatest balance at my age and so I I do like the idea of the Bonafide but again their pedal drive is very much the same as as the natives in the old town you know if you know about fishing kayaks you probably know where I'm headed at this point I got one more that I want to talk about real quick and that's the Pescador pilot sorry I must be on an Australian site I see these quite often at almost half the price of most of the other ones uh the Pescador pilot as I understand it is very similar to the old wilderness Tarpon may actually be built on the old molds and of course the mold's been updated to allow the pedal drive but the reason I bring that up is if you've ever watched Indie Yak angler he's on a tarpon that kayak is amazing in moving water and so this would be one of the reasons that I would maybe consider it is that combined that type of haul design with the the pedal drive it should be a very high performing machine on the other side of it is it's not as feature packed as some of the other ones it's a little bit more stripped down you know I I don't know I I still can't say that a hundred percent I won't end up with a Pescador pilot if I get the right deal it has essentially the same pedal drive as all the other ones that I've talked about other than the Jackson The Jackson has a little bit different design but if you can get it for less than half the price you know sometimes it's for like well it is it worth it and especially as a new pedal drive kayak owner it could make a lot of sense for me to buy a little bit less expensive one and really then say okay well here's what I love about it here's what I don't love and so then therefore I can make a more informed decision before spending more I do think that the Pescador pilot might be one of the best values out there whether you're buying new or whether you're buying used but for whatever reason use they don't seem to hold their value and so I don't again I I don't know 100 if that means that they they get sort of janky they really don't work the way that they should they break down early or if it's just because it's already lower price point there's not a huge demand for them and so that makes the price a little bit lower I've routinely seen these for sale for a thousand dollars or less so at that price it's sort of you know I haven't pulled the trigger yet and there's two of them around me right now that are in that ballpark and then negotiate a little bit you might get it for even less there's a chance you may see me with one of those at some point but it's not the Target and so what is the kayak that I'm I'm planning on getting well after looking at everything that's out there I really think that the the Hobie Mirage Outback the 2020 and newer models they just seem to be really well suited to the way that I I want to fish and the places that I want to fish the number one thing being is is the pedal drive itself so they don't use a bicycle pedal system theirs is a little bit more of a of a just a back and forth it is much more efficient it seems to to work much better it doesn't put as much strain on you and it it doesn't require as much effort more more importantly because of the way that the fins are they don't use a prop they have these two little fins that stick down so it's basically this fin drive system here this shows a little bit better so they have these two little fins that drive the the way you push back and forth it basically causes the fins to go like this but what happens is if you get to the extremes and you just go like this they sort of flutter but they still move you forward so this can function in very shallow water and still be able to move you forward so the 2020 and newer models 2019 they made a lot of cosmetic changes but in 2020 they changed the drive itself so now it has what's called kick up fins and so with the kick up fins basically if you had a rock or you had a a stomp or even if you just catch the bottom essentially the the fins will kick back instead of braking instead of getting you know like the props some of the the drive units when you hit something I mean it's solid it just stops you and you could you could break a prop you could do some damage there the kick up fins seem to have a lot more flexibility you know if you're if you're not paying as much attention and especially you start fishing rivers and you know you there's some shallower water coming in you think you have enough depth or you're focused on fishing and you don't notice that that log coming up that you know because you're fishing this way and there's something right here or a stone the kick up fins can quite possibly save you those are two of the the biggest reasons it really comes down to the drive system itself but then when you get into the actual design of the kayak I I think they have the best design kayak for fishing as well at least in in my opinion a couple of the key things here on the screen is is this little well designed here this this well designed it has two rails of track to be able to mount to it's got these little little slots where you can you can hang put your tools in but it's also got integrated leashes built in so you can actually put the leash with a retractable bungee on it and if something happens you knock your your pliers or your scissors over even your your measuring board it can be leased to an integrated leash that's already in and so the management of that I remember when I had my canoe I had Rod leashes for all my stuff and a few other things and you always had those things laying all over the place this seems to be a much cleaner interface to be able to keep things secure the other really major thing on and they have a similar thing in the back the seat's also great um another thing about the the Hobie is there's Rudder controls on both sides a lot of them just have on the left so with this being on both sides it gives you a lot more flexibility I think that's a pretty nice thing as well the rudder is also a kick up Rudder I think a lot of them have something like that though the other one is this this Hobie Guardian transducer Shield so I do plan on putting a fish finder on this I suck at fishing lakes so if I'm going to put a kayak out on a lake eventually I want to be able to figure out how to understand how to catch fish on a lake this retractable transducer Shield basically it acts very similar to the fins or or to the the Jackson foot drive if you hit something it actually pops back up in to protect your transducer and it also has a cord where you can pull the cord and pull it all the way up in and so that way if you're as you're launching and stuff like that you don't have to worry about your transducer and it just makes it a lot cleaner install downside of the Hobie is probably the price I've been struggling to to find them used for under three thousand dollars I did see one that and it was a 2020. it looked like it was an Immaculate shape price dropped from like 2800 to 2050. I wasn't ready to buy it it was before Christmas and I was still thinking through and that's sort of like my target I want to try to get one of these for like 2400 or less and I want it to be a 2020 or newer model just so that it has all of the new stuff in there so that's where I'm at right now there is one other model that I see some older versions of it for sale it's arguably probably like the best fishing platform but it's almost like a small boat compared to a true kayak and that's the Hobie Mirage pro angler this is the 14 there's also a 12. the 14 seems to be the preferred but you know it's 14 feet too big for some of the places and is this kayak itself too big for a lot of the places I want to go I think the answer is probably yes you know if I got an amazing deal on it I might pull the trigger on one the problem is is the older ones they didn't have reverse and they definitely don't have the kick up fins so you have these these you know the the two issues of you almost have to pull the entire drive out swing it around to be able to go in reverse and that's just that's not practical especially when you're fighting a fish or you know if you want to make a decision fairly quickly the negative of the Mirage Outback is to go into reverse you have to basically pull a little cord and so it does take a split second longer than say all of the the pedal drives you know the bicycle pedal Styles the that have pretty much instantaneous reverse everything's a trade-off right there's I don't think there's a perfect kayak for me I think the Mirage Outback is probably the perfect one the pro angler is much more stable it weighs like 30 pounds more it I mean it's a heavy kayak it's probably pushing 140 150 pounds it's really not that portable at least in my opinion so it's a great kayak and if you want a kayak that goes on a trailer sort of rides like a boat pro angler would be the right thing I just don't think it's right for me with the amount of streams and rivers that that I I want to fish and the way I want to transport it so I mean you look the size of this thing it's it's that's a big kayak thing is freaking huge and that gives you an idea of the foot motion of the Mirage Drive I'll let you know when I get one I think anybody's out there and wants to to hook me up let me know um again I'm trying to get in that 2400 price range now or less and less would be great I do expect to do a lot of fishing uh out of a kayak next year still going to do a ton of my my stream waiting but during the summer when I don't fish quite as much just because the the streams and The Creeks that I like to fish seem to get too warm in the in the fish either I don't know if they leave or if they they just shut down I I often don't fish a ton in the summer I would spend more times on lakes and rivers in the kayak through the summer and that's probably a big part of what I'm going to do again there are stretches of the other water that I want to fish and I have some ideas of being able to fish maybe long stretches and try to put together sort of a little mini series of of a body of water but yeah that's it that's where I'm at on the kayak let me know what your favorite models are is there something I missed is there one that I should really be looking at you know did I miss something about the the Hobie Outback that you're probably like hey don't get it because of this it's going to be a fun experience fun part of 2023 is is not only getting a kayak but getting it outfitted and so there'll probably be some videos around that too appreciate you watching look forward to seeing your comments on this below with that I'll see you next time

Channel: Angling with Aaron

Views: 30,340

Keywords: best fishing kayak, kayak fishing, best pedal drive kayak, pedal drive kayak, pedal kayak, fishing kayak, hobie pedal kayak, best fishing kayaks, shallow water pedal kayak, choosing a fishing kayak, best fishing kayak 2023, kayak overview, best pedal kayak for the money, best pedal kayaks, fishing kayak buyers guide, best fishing kayak 2022, best fishing kayak for the money, best kayak for fishing, kayak bass fishing, best pedal kayak, best kayaks for fishing, fishing

Id: ZqHY-tlZ3nA

Length: 19min 1sec (1141 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 09 2023