Southern Kayak Fishermen’s Complaints

I recently visited a popular online kayak fishing forum serving kayak fishermen in a Southern state. One of the discussions in it was about the negative side of kayak fishing as the participants see them.
Most of the participants fish from SOTs and some from sit-in kayaks, but none of them fishes from a W Kayak.

These are the problematic points that the participants seemed to agree upon:

1. You really can’t do it [kayak fishing] right without getting wet and muddy. Either water will slosh into your cockpit or your scuppers will fill up. You’ll need to get about knee deep to launch comfortably, so you’ll probably encounter mud, grass, sand, or all of them (ergonomic problem)

2. You’ll have to get used to loading and unloading your boat and equipment. You’ll take 15 minutes to unload and you’ll take 15 minutes to load everything back into/onto your vehicle/trailer (storage problem).

3. You can’t take your kid fishing with you.

4. Paddling into the wind is difficult (‘windage’ problems).

5. It’s very hard to relief oneself (ergonomic problem).

6. No place to keep your catch when you paddle back in. You need to tie your stringer to the side and drag it, which can be difficult and attract predators, or use the fish-in-the-lap approach (storage problems).

7. Fishing in high winds makes it difficult to cast.

8. You can’t really fish standing. If you’re accustomed to casting in a standing position (power boat, shore or pier) you feel awkward casting from a low, seated position (ergonomic and biomechanical problems).

9. Since there’s little room on deck everything is close to you and you may unintentionally “snag” nearby items with your hook (ergonomic problem).

10. Not being able to stand up and stretch after being seated for a long time – discomfort in your legs (ergonomic problem)

11. Lower back and posterior pains (ergonomic problem).

12. It can get very cold onboard (ergonomic problem)

Compare this to the W Fishing Kayak, that:

1. Offers dry launching and beaching even in difficult spots, and its cockpit protects you against spray.

2. Is a ‘Toss and Go’ boat – you can leave your gear and tackle inside when transporting it.

3. Offers enough room onboard for a second passenger

4. Enables you to paddle in strong wind

5. Offers to stand up anytime and for any purpose…

6. Offers sufficient dry and protected storage space onboard for every possible need.

7. Offers powerful casting positions such as riding and standing

8. Enables fishing standing in confidence even in the presence of wind and eddies.

9. Features a full size, spacious and deep cockpit.

10. Offers to switch between various positions and stand up for fishing anytime.

11. Enables your legs to support your torso and back in a natural posture.

12. Puts you higher on the water and protects you from wind and spray.


  1. LeFish

    Cold? I didn’t know it could get cold down there 😉

  2. admin

    Well, everything is relative…

  3. LeFish

    It looks like the older you get the more you tend to notice this kind of problems

  4. admin

    I agree. Younger fishermen usually can’t afford to own a big and sometime expensive motorboat, so they tend to overlook the inconvenience involved in fishing from kayaks because they may simply not have other options.

    Also, younger guys sometime tend to brave the elements in order to prove how tough they are, while older people tend to be more reserved and cautious since they have more experience with results of careless behavior.

    It was also my impression when I read that discussion: The older and more experienced kayak fishermen (and women) seemed more frank in their assessments of the problems, while the younger guys didn’t appear to be willing to admit such problems.
    I looks like some of the participants were affiliated with certain kayak brands and kayak vendors, as is often the case in many kayak fishing and paddling forums.

  5. Arnie Hogge

    None of them mentioned stability?

  6. admin

    Interesting point. They didn’t explicitly list lack of stability but it was perfectly clear that it was a big underlying problem affecting many other problems and inconveniences.
    For example, a young father said he couldn’t take his kid with him since he was afraid the kid would fall overboard. The problem of not being able to stand up came up in different contexts, and it’s purely a stability issue. Even launching and beaching problems can be traced back to the lack of adequate stability, as are casting problems to some extent.
    It may be that the word ‘stability’ is taboo among avid kayak fishermen, and it may also be a matter of perception: Sometime a problem isn’t seen as one if you think there’s nothing you can do about it – In such case it can be viewed as a ‘given’.
    And since many of them were apparently in the business of selling fishing kayaks, and they were comparing fishing from kayaks to fishing from motorboats, I suppose one couldn’t expect them to fully admit such a basic flaw compared to the competition.

  7. Arnie Hogge

    Reading the list again I noticed that none of the participants mentioned mobility either

  8. admin

    I think they were generally comparing kayaks to motorboats. Some of them mentioned they could travel to lesser distances but launch more easily compared to motorboats.
    They didn’t seem to be aware of the W kayak’s ‘super-mobility’. If they were they didn’t talk about it.

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