Hello all. It has been a while since I posted. Glad to see familiar names still here. I'm thinking of buying kayaks for both myself and my son. We plan on fishing larger bodies of water, bays and Btb. I am thinking one peddle and one paddle but I'm wondering if this will be a problem when we fish together. Specially when we cover big lakes or bays. Thoughts would be appreciated.

if I was fishing a large body or bay I would definitely want a peddle or trolling motor. I pattled not telling how much on this little lake yesterday and I was smooth wore out. I couldn't imagine a big lake or bay and then add wind on top of that.

My father taught me to paddle. Its good to have the fundimentles down first. Imo

Thanks to both of you for the response. I guess what I am trying to figure out is how well a peddle and paddle kayak will fish together. It would be nice to have the best of both worlds with two kayaks but I don't know if one will always be struggling to keep up with the other. We are both left handed so we can set up the kayaks to switch off now and then. I am planning for us to demo the two together but I am hoping to get some feedback from those that have fished with them.

Christian, I agree. Whatever we decide he will have to practice his paddling skills. He has the fundamentals down but we can both use the additional practice.

My wife has a peddle Kayak and peddles circles around me in my paddle kayak. With the peddle kayak it is much easier to fish hands free. Some peddle kayaks you can peddle in reverse making it even easier to fish hands free. Just me, but I would never buy another paddle kayak for open water.

I would never buy a peddle kayak to fish open water...at least one that doesnt paddle well. I have seen and read of many situations where peddles have failed.

I just bought a Native Slayer Propel 10 from Rick up at Angler's off Rufe Snow. Its maiden voyage was this past Saturday on Wheeler Branch. I went out there because I am familiar with the lake, the clear water is great for kayaking. I didn't want to run into anything, literally, while peddling around and not being familiar with clearances and so forth.

I am left handed, too, about 6'3" and 250 and I would say that I would represent the comfortable top end of the weight range for this particular 10 ft. boat carrying an additional 20 lbs. or so of gear. The Slayer 13 is only 1 or 200 dollars more, so adjust accordingly. If I were going out in the bays and so forth, I'd likely get the 13.

My paddle grip mounts hadn't arrived yet so I opted to just take along the hand paddle, so I can't give a paddling report . . . but my guess is the Slayers at 10' and 13' and 34" and 33" width, respectively, at the gunwales, will paddle about average for Sit on Tops. And, for peddling, a really easy cadence gives one about 3 MPH at least for the loading mine had.

That hand paddle? I found it moved the kayak around pretty well for tiny adjustments. This is what makes me think my double-ended paddle should move the kayak well. And, I also found the small paddle to be a neat thing to just hold down in the water when crossing deep water to move to a whole new area of the lake . . . using it as a second rudder. One could set a course with a bias to veer, if anything, slightly to the left, then drop the right handed held paddle off into the water to direct it to the desired heading. What is cool about this is with wind and current and just the difficulty of setting a rudder to an exactly neutral heading, this hand ruddering really keeps a boat directionally adjusted with minimum effort.

The biggest deal? It was peddling out to the little island, staying on the up current side (toward the dam) and drop shotting where fish are known to set up and hang out. I would make short casts and let the drop shot hit bottom, then use a very light reverse peddle action, not constant but just when required, to hold my position. And, if I brought my line all the way in, I'd often just reverse the kayak for 15 seconds or so to back way up into the current and slightly re-position to work a different area.

Oh! And, I hadn't mounted my anchor trolley yet so I went out "anchorless" and I never felt, even once, that I needed to drop an anchor for effective fishing.

Reverse capability is a big deal for fishing in deeper waters where a stake out pole won't work.

More comments later. I'll be back out this weekend for more "training" in this kayak.

Brad

Oh! And, I should have added that the Slayer Propel 10' is 57 lbs. empty, that is, with its seat and peddle assembly removed. I think this was achieved by beefing up the plastic in all areas where load would be carried, forces pulling or pushing on an area. In other areas, the plastic is thinner. A nice concept and refinement for what I guess would be categorized as "off water" handling.

Prediction: More peddling kayaks to hit the market soon. Rick mentioned another big manufacturer with one in the works, but I don't think there is any "protection" via patents to prevent what is nothing more, essentially, than the equivalent of a recumbent bike peddling system. Hobie, one of the great kayaks in my mind, I suppose has protection for its novel drive system, else, we'd have seen others copying it.

Brad

Brad

All depends on the person in the seat. Some people move faster than others and that will translate into your kayaking. I don't think the difference in peddling and paddling will make it a problem with keeping up with one another as much as the person behind the paddle/peddles.

My wife peddles and I paddle. She is as slow as Christmas. When I'm in hers I peddle the same speed I paddle in my kayak.



In a paddle kayak you will NEVER need to peddle. In a peddle kayak you WILL need to paddle at some point.

I think Todd, others too, make valid points here.

I get a big kick out of so many efforts to motorize kayaks when they are, in general, so danged efficient at peddling/paddling around. What is often the real need would likely be the size of a small blender's motor: some small device not to move across water so much, but to hold a position.

So, in a paddle only kayak, you may never need a paddle, agreed, but you may wish you had one to hold positions with hands free and several other applications.

The small peddle kayaks are likely sort of the equivalent of the finesse in the finesse versus power fishing camps on fishing techniques and presentations. The best kayak for one is likely not the best for the other.

And, there is never anything wrong with some redundancies built in for "get home" power. Peddle kayaks paddle well.

Here's a fishing tip where peddles trump paddles. If the big advantage to hands-free fishing is lure time in the water in terms of more casts, say you are drop shotting or throwing a Carolina Rig, or otherwise using some technique where you typically move it along the bottom after pauses. In a normal fishing way, you make a cast, let it sit, no bite so you move it by sweeping the rod tip, the bait/lure thusly moves several feet forward, and you reel up the slack. This is usually done several times before you just reel in the line and start over with a fresh cast. But, with a reverse capability via peddles, you can cast, let it set, lift the rod tip when you are ready to move the lure, then "reverse peddle" the slack out. This way, you never have to reel the line in for extended periods. That equates to more time with the bait/lure in the water . . . which is a good thing.

Brad

I have both peddle (Native Slayer 10') and paddle. The peddle kayak for fishing wins for me hands down and find I can peddle for hours and hours at a nice pace. Fishing Lake Lewisville this weekend with some fellow TFFers, I found myself constantly using my peddles in forward and reverse to hold my position instead of using an anchor.

One of our group of 3 had a paddle kayak and he kept up with us just fine but we weren't racing or anything. So, to address your original post, it's more about preference when fishing rather than keeping up. I can say though that I can peddle a heck of a lot longer than paddle and I hate fishing out of my paddle kayak but I'm also not fishing in one spot for extended periods of time so prefer the peddles to help me stay on the move and fish. When I want to stay in an area, I just use the peddles to help me keep from drifting.