Hey losers, can anyone recommend a kayak to me?
I want to be able to go out with my girlfriend or my daughter (5yo), and I want to be able to fish from it. Because of my daughter and her age, I figured a tandem kayak would be the way to go. At first I was thinking I'd just get a cheap walmart tandem kayak and upgrade next year if I felt like we were going to stick with it.....but I'm kinda feeling like I'd rather spend $900+ on a comfortable one with all the bells and whistles instead of $400 on an uncomfortable chunk of plastic. I'm trying to be preemptively considerate to my back & neck, so the fancier kayaks with better chairs/rests have been catching my eye.
Any recommendations?
You got a few options. I was going to suggest a Jackson Kilroy Tandem, but it looks like they don't make it any longer. It's a sit inside hybrid, but they're fast boats. I've got the singular one for the wife, but I fish out of it all the time.
The other option you could do is a NuCanoe Frontier 12. I have that boat as well, and I put it through its paces. A handful of Summers ago, my brother-in-law and I, who is 6'3, loaded up and paddled down the Frio River all the way from the damn at Garner State Park to Concan, maybe about 10 or 12 mile trip, was pretty treacherous water in spots. It was pretty retarded, but we had way more fishing gear than we needed, and between the two of us the boat was able to handle rapids extremely well. I was honestly shocked that we made it out alive. Never once said that I feel we were going to capsize.
It's an extremely wide but stable platform, and it's got enough rail space to install two seats no problem and both people being able to fish comfortably out of it. If you're going to take your daughter out I don't know how old she is, but you can definitely trust it from not tipping over. Other benefit is it's got a transom, and you can always plop a little motor of some sort on the back if you wanted. That company might have newer offerings, and I haven't looked at their lineup and a number of years, but I've been extremely happy with mine. It's kind of a hybrid between a sit on top kayak and a canoe.
Paddling wise it's pretty slow but if you had two people that shouldn't be an issue, especially if you're out on a relatively calm day.
I know a few of the other companies out there do make tandem kayaks, maybe Native Watercraft would also be worth checking out. Tandem is just not something I haven't really paid a lot of attention to other than knowing the Jackson had that tandem Kilroy. Honestly if you could find one of those used, that would be a nice boat.
Hobbies I also think has a tandem double pedal boat, but you're going to pay out the ass for it, and I don't know how fishing friendly it would be. The NuCanoe is a solid fishing platform, and even if you took it up by yourself it's easy to stand up in and you don't feel like you're going to tip over. I fly fish out of mine all the time, and it's got a nice open deck space to where my line doesn't get tangled on anything.
Anyways hope that helps some. If you got questions or take a look at a particular model from somebody, feel free to ask. Might not have an answer but happy to help if I can.
