Canoe advice

Oh....
https://www.paddlerscove.com/brands/Wilderness-system-Kayaks.html?page=4

 

Another thing about The Ride...
The bottom is concave so it kinda acts like a pontoon boat and it makes them very stable.

 

@Tundra Texan ,

Thank you for all the info. I appreciate it. That does look very nice for sure!

 

Fishing in the Gulf in a Kayak is known as the Texas Sleigh Ride.
You hook a ten foot shark and it's on!!!!
That MFer will drag you for miles!!
When they start heading for deep water you wont be able to turn the big ones.
You just cut the line.

 

We put what are called anchor trollies on both sides of the Yak.
You can slide the mount point of the anchor from front to back depending on the current.
You definitely want it in front if the current is strong.

 

That was something I would love to try as well. Saw several online doing it, and thought how cool. But I wouldn't know when to let go either so I would probably die being dragged under. I bet it is fun though!

The other thing I want to do is go for a Marlin. Shark is the first on my list. Was in FL last year and caught a little hammer head. But I want to get a good size shark of any kind now.

 

Not sure if I heard of those before. But I know more about Canoeing than Kayaking for sure.

 

Not many people have unless they go offshore fishing.
Cant remember the name of the YouTube channel but it's all about going offshore and fishing in a yak.
Learned alot from those guys.
It's not something you wanna do if you dont have a clue.
Doing a lot of Saltwater fishing in my actual boat I already had a good grasp of what to expect.

 

Most of my offshore has been on center console sport fisher. Usually with a couple of outboards, some pole racks, and lots of bait. Never tried in the kayak. It looks awesome though!

I am assuming, based on the conversation, that you have been doing a lot of this kind of fishing?

 

Both Kayak as well as power boats.
Had a Skeeter Bass Boat,then the Center Console.
Boatless at the moment other than the Kayaks.

 

The Wife and I along with my Brother and His Girlfriend used to do a canoe trip down the Colorado River here in Texas.
Went from Smithville to Lagrange,yes the Lagrange from the ZZ Top song.
Took two days,we'd camp on an island about halfway.
You wouldnt see another soul the whole trip it was way out in the boonies!!!
Really Cool trip!!! There were a few minor rapids on the trip but smooth for the most part with a light current.
Great Bass Fishing and Catfish.
The hardest part was keeping the beer cold.
You used two ice chests per boat. One for the first day and the other taped shut with towels covering it to keep the ice from melting for the next.
Surprising enough when you opened the second ice chest there was very little melted ice.
As long as you didnt open a close it constantly the ice lasted a long time even with mid 90's temps.

 

That sounds like a blast! When I can get the time, I may start prepping for a trip like that with a canoe.

Never owned a boat myself. Always just went with friends, or borrowed one.

Some of the coolers now are pretty good. We have one that latches down (non Yeti), and it does a really good job keeping things cold.

 

These were just the high end Igloos.
They always came in white. It was crazy how long the ice lasted using them!!!

 

Igloo makes some good stuff.

I don't know about you, but I have found that sometimes the smaller, or just common stuff works as good as the fancy name stuff. This is not across the board, of course, but I have found that some of my best items I use are the ones that everyone else passes over because it didn't have the fancy name stamped on it.

Just my observation.

 

Was just going to say this. Most of those old towns are twinnies. Sit at the bow, face the stern, and you're GTG, @TRDGoodness

 

Thanks. I will try that when I get a chance to go out. Not sure when that will be, just yet, but hoping for some time this summer.

 

You can get both from Igloo.
Cheap or expensive....it really makes a difference.
I think I mentioned this..we each had two large ice chests.
One for beer food and what not.
And one packed with ice,taped shut and covered in towels.
Were talking 90 degree plus weather.
When we eventually opened the back up Ice chest the next day there was virtually Zero melted ice.
I was Shocked!!!
Thought for sure it would be half gone.

 

That is really good.

 

I do have a couple of Yetis and they work VERY well.
Used em for offshore fishing mainly.
But at a much higher price point than the Igloos.

 

I've heard that about them. I just can't justify the price point in my mind.

 

If you use ice chests frequently it's well worth the price.
Especially offshore fishing.
There's no corner store 30 miles out.
The Wifes Boss has an ice machine on his boat dock.
It has about a foot diameter hose on it that hung from the ceiling.
It would fill up an ice chest within seconds!!
LifeStyles of the Rich but not so famous...

 

Rtic is yeti at a discount. They now have a lightweight lineup as well. Key to ice retention is to precool the items before they are placed in the cooler. Put drinks in the fridge overnight. They even recommend pre-cooling the cooler with a starter bag of ice before you actually add your items and ice. Then, keep the lid opening to a minimum, and keep the cooler out of direct sunlight.

 

True. I used to do a lot of offshore fishing and know that. I am trying to remember what we used to do with cold stuff. I don't think we had much of it when we got to about noon. Most of the food and water was used up pretty quick, LOL. Fish were kept in the live well. That's bad I can't remember what we used to do.

 

I heard about Rtic, but have never used them. I have a Lifetime that has the clamp lids, and that seems to work, but I borrow that when I need to. Otherwise I use a red Igloo cooler. Nothing fancy, LOL.

Those are some solid advice as well. If I have the space, I usually freeze water in bottles and use that for ice packs. Plus, when the ice melts, I used drinkable water, I can drink it to finish it off (as long as I don't need it for something else).

 

It would have to be a REALLY Big live well!!!!
Everything we keep goes on Ice.

 

It was. He built his own boats as a hobby and the whole back end of the boat, just inside from the outboard motor, was a live well. We had some 30-80lb fish in there and room to spare. Anything bigger, where we put in had a place that you could store the catch. If we didn't bring some bigger coolers in which we would flay the fish and put it in the ice there, we would bring them back to that place to hold for us.

It only happened once as we usually had a pretty good system to do this.

 

If you have another canoe with you you can run the paddle across both canoes and hoist yourself back in.
But yeah...if you're alone climbing in from the end is about the only way to get back in.
Doing most of our canoeing on the river you'd just push the canoe into the shallows to get back in.

 

Thats another benefit of the sit on top kayaks.
They're easy to get back in.
You just hoist yourself up and lay across the yak and then just spin around until you're sitting in it.

 

The biggest issue with a yak is space.
If I had to guess i'd say the most gear I've hauled would be around 100lbs.
And thats on rare occasions,like when going offshore.
Most of the time it's a cooler with a 12 pack and some water.