SurfCowboyXX wrote:
I have owned and fished from the following: 15' canoe, 12' kayak, 13' Freedom Hawk (stern opens into outrigger pontoons with lever-action), and a 15' drift boat (skiff).
If you are going to be almost entirely fishing by yourself, I'd be most likely to recommend the canoe. A decent Royalex canoe at 15' is going to weigh around 60lbs, which isn't too much to put over your head to load on your vehicle. It will have enough space for everything you could need, plus a dog or human companion. With a decent anchor trolley and a sharp enough deadrise, it will anchor well enough in all but the strongest currents (where you shouldn't be anchoring in the first place, really). You will be able to have multiple rods available to fish at the ready, and you will be dead silent and able to travel in the shallowest water. You will also be able (with practice) to paddle anywhere in a river, including upstream through Class II-III rapids. The downside to the canoe is wind. This can be mitigated with a drogue or drift sock, but if the wind is really high, canoes get blown about like styrofoam cups on the water. I still have my 15' canoe. I recommend one with a wide beam, so that you can stand up easily. I have fished and paddled mine while standing up for better than 20 years. Ask Afish. I paddled him down the West Branch one time standing up like a Venician gondola driver the whole time because my back was acting up. A stable canoe is the original SUP.
I enjoyed my time with the Freedom Hawk, but at 77lbs, it just weighed too much for a guy with a sketchy bunch of discs in his back to be throwing up on top of a Suburban after a day of fishing. That boat was stable as anything I've ever seen and was superb in almost every way except portability.
The only advantages I know of for certain about a regular sit-on-top kayak are speed when paddling (marginal if the canoeist is using a kayak paddle) and decreased wind resistance. Otherwise they do not measure up too well against a simple canoe. They weigh better than 45lbs most times, so the weight savings isn't dramatic, and it's hard to have all the gear you need with you. If you plan on doing a lot of saltwater fishing out front (in the ocean, not the bay), then maybe a regular kayak isn't a bad idea. The only reason I bought mine was for striper fishing out front, and I ultimately sold it and bought the Freedom Hawk because I realized that you need to be able to stand up from time to time, and you best not be doing that out front in a kayak without pontoons and a leaning post.
If you are going to fish with others, or have a trick lower back, or just don't want to kill yourself when you're out fishing by having to constantly be working a paddle while trying to fish, save your money and buy a used drift boat. If you fish water with consistent Class III or better rapids, get a drift boat with a sharp entry and high deadrise. If you're just going to fish the Delaware and Susky and are averse to having to paddle against the wind, get a skiff like mine (Headhunter II), as the lower profile helps quite a bit with wind. With a drift boat, you row, then you anchor, then you have a nice lunch, drink a beer, stand up and stretch, warm up your casting arm, and then proceed to start missing strikes and losing hooked fish like you do from any other craft or while wading. It's great, and I highly recommend it. It's much easier to just crank it up on the trailer with no exertion at the end of the day while enjoying another beer. I wish I'd bought mine years sooner, but I was still way into the salt at the time.
Good luck.
