Kayak and Canoe Thread

Foler said:

Anyone have experience with eddyline yaks?

Talked to a localish yak shop and they recommended avoiding pedal yaks on the river I'm gonna yak due to debris and shit. They recommended an eddyline carribean. Looking at the carribean 12 or 12fs.

Caribbean 12FS Angler

The lightweight Carribean 12FS from Eddyline is the perfect blend of comfort, form and performance in a fishing kayak. With removable frame seat, with large front and smaller rear hatches for storage

eddyline.com

Of course other options would be a wilderness systems or bonafide.

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The Eddyline boats are nice. They're fast and way next to nothing if you're car topping. Look pretty good if your main purpose is just paddle around / recreation. if you're going to do any heavy fishing it's probably not the boat you want. I think they make some sort of angler kayak though.

I'd probably stick to a Bonafide for a non pedal drive boat, or something similar if you're going to fish a bunch.

Here's a decent review of the caribbean, though. Looks like the 12 has a better seat than the 10.

Fogel said:

Anyone use a good tandem budget kayak? Looking to get into this. Also seen inflatable kayaks, what're peoples opinions on the inflatables?

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My brother has a Jackson Big Tuna. It's there tandem sit on top offering. He snagged his off Craigslist for maybe around 700.

He's been happy with it to take the wife and son out on it. Also been paddling the Colorado river for overnight trips, and when solo, there's lots of space for coolers and camping equipment.

It's 14 ft long so it can be fast but it's still a barge. My NuCanoe Frontier 12 can easily be made tandem and I know a lot of people do that.

Jackson also has the Kilroy DT. It's the tandem version of a hybrid sit inside / sit on top. I have the standard version and it's a very quick boat with lots of stability. Only issue is if you take on water you need to have a bilge pump. It's a very comfortable kayak and I would imagine that the tandem rig would be a nice boat. I'm guessing it's a little bit more expensive than mine, but I got a year old model a few years ago at a deep discount for around $1,000 from an outfitters in fort Worth that was liquidating inventory.

I think native watercraft has a tandem boat as well. You can always go with one of the cheaper big box brands. I know Malibu and maybe pelican has tandem boats but the seats are not as comfortable and they're definitely more just recreational. If you really want to do any fishing or long distance stuff you're better off looking at one of the dedicated brands.