Paddle vs. Pedal: Part 1, Why I love to paddle fish.

An important fact that I should point out is the perspective from which this article is written. I am primarily a fisher person who dabbles in kayaking, as opposed to someone whom is primarily a kayaker who dabbles in fishing. Get it?

Fishing from a kayak is fantastic no matter what the style you own. You are out on the water fishing and exploring spots you would never have access to otherwise. It is a peaceful, tranquil and relaxing experience with plenty of thrills should you hook into an energetic fish, and can often get you into fish you would have never had a crack at by any other means. Now aside from the general pluses, after nearly four years on the water I had to seriously break down the pros and cons when I was ready to take the next step into a new kayak. Their is constant banter within the kayak fishing community about the pros and cons of pedal vs paddle (also known as Hobie bashing lol, some make a career out of it, right Luna? :) ), this series of articles will give you my point of view.

You know I thought about this a lot, I had many many fun outings in my Hobie Quest (yes Hobie make some decent traditional sit-on-top kayaks that aren't pedal driven), and I don't want to get into everything that happened on those outings but at the end of the day and after lot's of thought, I was really only able to boil it down to a few aspects, primarily shallow water, to a much lesser degree manoeuvrability, and finally a clutter free deck …at least possibly a clutter free deck.

With a sleek and reasonably quick paddle craft I really didn't have to worry about where I paddled, or where I was drifting or where I was getting pulled in the heat of the moment. I say reasonably quick because even when we are talking paddle kayaks, fishing kayaks are wider and more stable, albeit slower than traditional kayaks, even the sleeker and faster ones.

I never had to worry about plowing through thick weeds or skimming boulders. More than a few times, a fish or a combination of having a fish on and dealing with getting it unhooked, maybe taking a picture, and then releasing the fish, I have found myself ran ashore, whether it be rocks or weeds, at least with a roto-moulded polyethylene kayak their really isn't anything at all to be worried about. In-fact from day one this was my entire case for paddling over pedaling, I simply didn't want to worry about stuff like that.

(photo courtesy of Vee)

I've explored extremely shallow back bays, too shallow to hold fish  .....so what's the point other than to see what's on the other side (why did the chicken cross the road?). Unless you are into photography or hunting or turtle collecting this isn't a huge plus, I've even pushed myself through bogs and got myself tossed around a little flying over shallow rocks.

Manoeuvrability boils down to a couple of things. The boat is a good eight pounds lighter than my pedal craft and better balanced, it's easier to load and unload. It also has a very smooth bottom which is great for making quick turns, well quick for a paddle craft anyways, this of course has it's drawbacks when we are talking about tracking. One neat side effect I discovered with this, when I hook into a fish that is behind me or to either side, if it's got some weight to it, the boat spins and points towards the fish relatively quickly all on it's own, that combined with the elasticity of the line and I find I'm on top of the fish in no time and most of the fighting happens close to the boat. This feature is great for tournament fishing particularly if you have a net, but not sure I like this for pleasure fishing.

One thing I should add, if you go with a manoeuvrable design over one that tracks well out of the box, you can always add a rudder to add tracking. The beauty with the rudder is you can always make slight corrections to the rudder angle to counter for trolled lures or wind, and keep an even paddle stroke.  I only use the rudder when going from spot to spot or trolling, the rest of the time I have an uber manoeuvrable platform. I'm not sure I could ever own another kayak without a rudder.

Finally I'll touch on the clutter free deck, which absolutely isn't always an accurate description. You need a place to brace your feet, ie. pedals (which can also be used for rudder controls) or you have one of those ribbed decks which limit your ability to stand comfortably and limit your rigging options. Chances are, if you got into this for fishing, you'll be adding some rod holders, a fish finder, and possibly other mounts for cameras, GPS phones etc. So guess what, good bye clutter free deck  ....however, I put a lot of thought into how I positioned all my stuff, so if I wanted to go out for a reasonably clutter free experience, I could leave all that stuff behind, and go out on a simple outing.  In reality I did this maybe once or twice, so it wasn't much of a factor when I started looking at new kayak options.

YakDreams

Check back for Part 2.