STAND UP KAYAK FISHING

U.S. Patent #6871608

Standup Kayak Fishing- Is It Possible, And Why Is It Important?

This article examines what makes standup fishing so important and why an increasing number of kayak fishermen are attracted by the newly offered possibility to stand up and fish in a W Kayak.

Fishing from small watercrafts - Overview

People all around the world have been fishing from small boats for millennia. Interestingly, many native fishermen like to stand up in their boats when they propel them and fish from them. After all, what could be more natural? If possible, standing is both a powerful and comfortable position for a person making a continuous physical effort. It is good for our blood circulation, less strenuous on our back and it enables us to make a good use of our legs, which happen to have the most powerful set of muscles in our body.
It is worth noting that wade fishermen, people who fish from shore and people who fish from bigger boats also like to fish standing, if not all the time at least for a great part of the time. Standing makes is easy to cast a line or throw a net, and certainly makes it easier to scout for fish and better stops to fish in.
When the native people of the arctic circle developed their kayaks the L position was natural to them and they were not particularly concerned with comfort but rather with stealth, as their kayaks were designed mainly as hunting boats enabling the hunter to get close to its prey without getting noticed. However, when these people went fishing or whaling they usually preferred to use Umiaks - a type of big, wide and stable multi-passenger seaworthy canoe that offered them the possibility to stand up.

What about standup fishing from sit-on-top (SOT) kayaks?

Standup kayak fishing sounds like an oxymoron since most people find it difficult enough to sit it inside or on top of a kayak, especially when it involves fishing.
Some fishing kayak manufactures advertise that their most stable models may enable a person to stand in or on top and cast but there is no real proof to support such claims. At best, those very wide SOT kayaks may enable a child or a very small and lightweight adult to stand on but certainly not with enough confidence to enable casting and landing fish. No traditional SIK or SOT kayak manufacturer ever claimed they offer a kayak that may enable a person to paddle standing…
The reality with regards to traditional SIK and more recent SOT kayaks is that these small and lightweight crafts offer good mobility at a low price and for a low cost of maintenance, but at a price of diminished comfort and the inability to do anything standing up.

Why is standing in your fishing kayak important?

Besides the fact that standing up improves your chances of catching fish there's a more important fact related to it: Your ability to stand up goes directly to your comfort and well being, and to your overall fishing experience. After all, catching fish is fun but not as much when it comes at a price of unnecessary fatigue, serious physical discomfort and even pain resulting from being limited to a single, uncomfortable sitting position, without being able to do anything to change positions and relieve pressure on your lower back.
When fishing comfort is key to both success and fun, and neither leg numbness nor back pain may contribute to either although you're most likely to experience at least one of them after sitting for a while in the traditional kayaking position. And don't let yourself develop hopes in 'improved kayak seats'…- Adding some cushioning and changing the shape of the seat can't change the basic physiological facts: You're stuck in a sitting position to which you're not used, and your legs are pushing you backwards and creating a pressure point in your lower back.
Even today, most fishing boats are big and stable enough to enable their passengers to stand up while fishing. So why shouldn't you stand up in your small, inexpensive and portable fishing kayak? The new, patented W Fishing Kayak offers you to do that, as well as many other things without giving up any of the regular fishing kayak advantages. In fact, when it comes to the known advantages of fishing kayaks over bigger fishing boats the W Kayak offers you some real, additional advantages such as better protection against wind, spray and waves, better mobility when it comes to ease of launching and take-out, better handling of the surf, better tracking, more dry storage space, and overall a much higher level of seaworthiness.

Kayak fishing may be a sport, but since you're doing it for fun you may as well have fun doing it. Kayak fishing is a good idea if indeed it's done properly, that is without reducing your fishing experience. The W Kayak can unleash the full potential of kayak fishing and upgrade it to what it's really meant to be: a challenging, full sport activity that you can practice without constantly thinking of the comfort that bigger fishing boats have to offer.

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