Good fishing kayak under $1300?

[bulldog1935]

4 hours ago, CountryboyinDC said:

Oh the thigh straps.  Can you roll it?  I considered adding them to my Coosa HD (pretty sure I'll never roll that) so that I could have enough control to do some peel outs and eddy turns well enough to take it in a few spots I consider cataraft fishing territory.  I came to the conclusion that the seat was the greatest impediment to control, and thigh straps wouldn't help that (sure is comfortable though).  Thigh straps don't really help you go straight, though.  I hear and read exchanges about what they do, and everyone's not in agreement.  I've never had them on a boat, K-1 or OC-n, so I can't say personally.  I've been a user of bulkhead saddles back to the Perception and my last OC-1 is finding a new home, so I'll probably never have a pedestal which is where you see thigh straps in canoes.

The hull has no chines, and you lean against the curve of the hull to steer.  Sitting still, you need thigh straps to keep your balance.  We joke about every time you get in it, you have to get your sea butt.  Secondary stability is high, at least partly because it's so fast - faster than my buddy's Hobie Revo 16 with Turbofins.  

@flyfisher is also correct about stroke and even ballast tuning.  My big Coreyvecken paddle oversteers the Kestrel badly, and it behaves best in waves with my Camano touring paddle and bow ballast.  And with touring strokes, it's still faster than anything around.  

The hull shape next to my T160 - The Kestrel 140SOT is 2" narrower beam, but it's much narrower at your feet, both the source of speed in the Kestrel, and the source of greater stability in the T160.  

and just to be clear, I'm not recommending the Kestrel on this thread for anything except a pocket rocket.  Most people will never know the feel of infinite glide in an old-school Danish kayak.  

[CountryboyinDC]

27 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

@flyfisher is also correct about stroke and even ballast tuning.  My big Coreyvecken paddle oversteers the Kestrel badly, and it behaves best in waves with my Camano touring paddle and bow ballast.  And with touring strokes, it's still faster than anything around.

I understand using using edges (even if there are no chines) for direction control; I use them to keep me paddling straight as well, especially in some canoes.  I'm not enough of a touring paddler to know whether kayaks of that type have 'spin momentum' to overcome as you do with whitewater boats (many tricks like changing edges with a sweep on the side of the spin direction help), but if they do it feels negligible to me.  When I think of blade area and shape, it's more because of more power needed for boofing or something like that - most whitewater paddlers change boats but use the same paddle.  I can understand that the goals for covering great distances without the benefit of current mean that it's approached differently.  Changing the paddle sounds like a solution, and the ballast of one is important in every discipline I believe.  I still don't understand how a rudder could not help, much less be a detriment.  

[bulldog1935]

@CountryboyinDC

I wouldn't even have the Werner Coreyvecken except for motivating my T160.  

Pushing the opposing rudder pedal becomes an automatic part of speed tracking with high-angle stroke in that boat with the big paddle.  

Riding the Kestrel with this big paddle, the largest blade area made, every time you put it in the water, you feel like you're going to flip, and the Kestrel is actually faster with the smooth tracking of the narrower touring paddle.  

 

For comparison, here's the traditional Danish paddle.  

[CountryboyinDC]

8 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

For comparison, here's the traditional Danish paddle.  

I see a lot of the folks that I meet on the C&O canal with boats I couldn't fit one leg in paddling with one of those.  

[Jake51823]

So I see what everyone is saying. The kayaks that I see that comes with a rudder in my price range is the vibe seaghost and the Brooklyn kayak I’m already looking at. Any other recommendations? I want something that’s not so heavy but also is decent at tracking but it looks like a rudder could be used to help that out. 

[Jake51823]

Another one I saw is the Vanhunk tarpon 2. Another not really known brand so idk how I feel about these 

[schplurg]

If you're l;ooking for a paddle yak Old Town makes a Sportsman 106 for $999. I just bought the pedal version and it's great. Not sure how fast it is paddling, they probably make make better ones for that, but it's a top quality brand of kayak and they have great prices.