Ok veterans, need a little help here. I am very new to kayaking, in fact never even tried it before. Me and my girlfriend really enjoy fishing and are thinking about buying a couple of kayaks. I have been looking around online and have read a ton of information but would like your opinion as well. We are looking for something to use on local rivers such as colorado Bend and maybe stillhouse. We will not be out on the main lake just up in the river section and we want to just be able to paddle around and do some fishing nothing too in depth. I am going to HOT to look at a couple of different SOTK but i found a pelican castaway at academy for $399, looks like it comes with a few extras like rod holders and such for a couple of hundred less than the ones that they sell at HOT. Now i understand the "get what ya pay for" rule but has anyone used one of the pelican kayaks and if so do you think it will work for our needs?

Thanks in advance, and by the way i love this forum!!!!!

jw

If your main purpose is to paddle around local rivers and to get to certain fishing spots, then the pelican should work for you (if budget is your main concern). However there are excellent used yaks that will outperform the pelican in so many ways and different fishing genres. TKF classifieds is a great source to get a nice used yak for cheap. Most of them fully rigged. The only thing is they sell fast. I personally haven't paddled the yak in question, but know of some that do. The ones that do are satisfied with their pelicans but plan on upgrading in the future. I know for a fact that it will not hold up BTB (Beyond the Breakers...fishing past the surf). Seen some rescues of Pelican owners. If you can... paddle as many yaks before you buy. Different shoes fit different folks. Good luck.

jwells36

I have paddled the green pelican from academy. I do consider myself to have fairly good balance and I found it to be very slick feeling. I had to stay very quiet with my lower body and watched how I leaned into the paddle. I would do what rod dawg said and paddle several before you buy. HOT Kayaks does rent and I know for a fact that if you talk to them they will meet you at the lake to try them out. And yes I bought a mini-X from them.

KT

Ok guys after looking at HOT, we decided to rent this weekend. We are going to try out the redfish 10' and the 12', wow they are really nice kyaks and HOT was really helpfull. Hopefully after this weekend we can decide and pull the trigger on two new ones.

thanks for your help and i will let ya know on monday how it went.

I highly recommend Heart of Texas Kayaks. I bought from Colleen and she was great to deal with. She can talk you thru which yaks to test out for the type of fishing you area interested in, and she will spend time with you as needed. I got a T Shirt with mine! I am gonna try and talk her into putting me on pro staff.

You've gotta catch fish to be on pro staff unless you mean "pro paddle staff".

hey, i'm on many pro paddle staffs lol

HB is my nephew and I just have to give him a hard time.

the biggest problem with the pelican is the weight... it is far and away the heaviest yak in its size range..

It is short and it is heavy... so it is slow.. that forces you to fish much differently. no more trying one spot for 20 minutes and then darting off to another spot... you have to really work an area b4 moving on

I speak from experience when I say "your first yak purchase only prepares you for the second"...

if you want to save money go used... much like boats it is always a buyers market

Well said, I had the same experience.

I've got a Pelican (bought it used a few weeks ago) and agree with most of the above posts. It's heavy, tracking is mediocre at best, is an all around wet ride, and I'll probably trade up within a year.

That being said, if you are looking for an inexpensive way to get out on the lake and try your hand at kayaking, it's not a terrible choice.

I have the Pelican Castaway... I love it, but there are obviously better rigs for more $$$. You won't get better performance than a Castaway for under 400 bucks. You get what you pay for. I fish once or twice a week on my kayak (the Castaway) and have recently put it through a few trials like trying to sink it, getting on and off in various water depths, and sitting sidesaddle, standing, and etc. It performed pretty well and I am now alot more confident with what I can do and cannot do with it. HOT kayaks will carry the higher end 'yaks, and if you can afford it, buy one that they recommend. If you're on a tight budget and can only go 400 bucks, buy the castaway.

update after this weekend. I ended up with at 12' and 10' redfish as well as a mini-X for the weekend. I was sure that the 10' redfish was going to be perfect for what i wanted and after trying all of them out the mini-x won my vote. I plan to go back in a couple of weeks to pick up two of them from HOT. They were really great, I would highly recomend them to anyone in the market for a kayak.

thanks guys for all the help with picking one out!

jw