I Did A Thing

Made it happen today. Time to move off the bank and into the water.

Being that I'm new to kayaks I'd like to link up with a more experienced kayaker. If anyone is going out in or around San Antonio please let me know.

Very nice!

Sweet rig!

Enjoy!

... Now the rigging begins. LOL.

Put down the drill, and walk away from the kayak! Take it out a few times before you start mounting things!

Congrats on joining the Kayak Addicted. ALWAYS wear your PFD! IslandJim

I did just that today. Boat, seat, and paddle. Well I took took rod or two as well. Didn't even install the pedal drive system for this initial trip. And this is my first ever kayak experience. The pfd was strapped tight and not coming off.

Tomorrow I'll install the pedal drive. No drill requires for this model.

LOL. Good work.

IslandJim is 100% correct. I suggest an inexpensive fish finder so you are not frustrated by guessing at the depth (and potentially damaging your pedal drive). Other than this, give it a season to figure out what you really need (if anything)

For what it's worth, the Garmin Striker 4 is a really good fish finder. I fished with it for several seasons and it served me extremely well. It does everything that you need... depth, structure, water temp... it even has GPS with waypoints and basic charting.

If you watch, you can sometimes catch it on sale for $99.

https://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Striker-Transducer-Fishfinder-Traditional/dp/B017NI17HQ/ref=sr_1_4?crid=DJ023EU482WX&dchild=1&keywords=garmin+striker+4&qid=1622434225&sprefix=Garman+Striker+%2Caps%2C198&sr=8-4

Congrats!

Nice kayak, and something special with your vehicle and kayak. Apart for my wife's SUVs, I've always owned trucks but I like this new way fishing. As already mentioned, enjoy the kayak before you start to modify it.

Nucanoe's are solid, good choice.

Out of curiosity, I googled the pedal drive system on the Nucanoes... pretty slick!

After living abroad for the past 11 years and only being able to research kayaks, I finally settled on this one. Had the right set of features, good design, and what I consider to be the best pedal drive system. I'll be testing it for the first time this weekend.



Again, best design in my opinion. Most brands are in the middle of the boat and require a big hole. Some brands have different versions of the same boat to accommodate the drive. Not the Nucanoes. The entire kit is not intrusive. It's a bolt on. Take it off and you're back to a stock boat without holes in it. Plus with it being in the back the turning radius is much improved. We'll see how well it works this weekend.

OP I'm interested to hear your feedback on the pedal drive. The biggest concern I hear on these drive systems is with the efficiency of the drive system not being a direct drive pedal drive system.

As far as the drive system, I like that the steering does not use a Rudder which might not work very well at low speeds or when riding a fast current in the same direction on a river. Also the adjustable spring kick up feature of the outboard leg will be great for obstacle collisions in shallow water. But how to untangle weeds/ fishing line from the propeller without paddling to shore to get necessary access?

Love my Nucanoe. Didn’t know they have a pedal drive accessory now!

That is my one concern with this design. Fortunately I can walk to the back of the boat without it getting too unstable. I suppose I can just raise the prop shaft and lock it in the up position, spin my 360 seat around, and crawl/walk back to untangle. I'll test that tomorrow.



Yeah they been around for a couple years, at least in prototype models. Hard to find right now with shortages everywhere. But you're in luck. As of last week Marine Sails in Dallas had Pivot Drives for several models. And with you being a Veteran you'll get the discount and pay no taxes. Get some.

Since this design goes in forward and reverse I think it’ll help with weed problems.

Sending you a PM.

There is a Texas Kayak Fishing group that has a lot of members around SA.

They have always been helpful in getting new people on the water.