Back to my roots and building a kayak on a budget

Check out my video here
Moving into our new home has meant change. Mostly good with new remodeling challenges, more space and the joy of living with big trees. The new home also meant returning to a tighter budget.

My family spent 10 years getting our previous house fixed up allowing me more time and money to spend on fishing. Since I spent most of the money from the sale of my aluminum fishing sled, I have to returned to a limited budget until we get through the big house projects.

The challenge reminded me how I started out with my Old Town Otter and seeing how I could make it into a fishing kayak. Because I traded one of my kayaks for some work on the new house, I was in the need of a fourth kayak so we could take friends out on the water. I decided this was the perfect reason to create a video series on building a budget fly fishing kayak. The series would also be a nod to other kayak anglers, like Zoffinger, sharing their tips on fishing kayaks.

My goal was to spend as little as possible to build a quality boat. With three Hobies, including two Pro Anglers, I wanted fellow anglers to realize they don't need to spend a lot of money to get into the sport of kayak fly fishing.

I started by trolling Craigslist for used kayaks. I missed several good deals, got frustrated and decided to look for a deal at one of the sporting good stores. I found several good basic kayaks by Pelican, Old Town, Perception and Future Beach but I couldn't get one at the $200 mark. I finally landed a used one on Craigslist - an older Heritage sit-in with a paddle, seat and skirt for $175. A funny thing was that the person selling it had just purchased a Hobie Mirage Sport.

I now had the subject of the first video and got started with the project. I shot the first video in a couple takes and now have it posted on my YouTube channel, Kayakflyangler.

The next video will focus on modifying the boat by putting on a rod holder, anchor trolley and paddle keeper and whatever else I can get for the $75 I have left in my budget. The final video will be fishing in the kayak and me hopefully landing a fish.

I am looking forward to this adventure and hope my tips will help others expand their fishing horizons. Look for more soon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Starting The Season With A New Fleet

Image
The blog has received little love over the past year, so it was time to write a post. It's not that I have been fishing less, it's that I haven't taken the time to post and work on the videos. The 2022 salmon season was not nearly as epic as the 2021 season especially with the limited fall salmon season. This was mainly due to a unique hatchery Tule Chinook salmon return where the Spring Creek Hatchery upstream of Bonneville Dam had about 100,000 Chinook return - twice the average. The Tule is an endangered species in the rivers below Bonneville Dam and due to some complicated issues,  caused a closure in the lower Columbia River during the height of the season. Hobie PA17t The 2023 salmon season is off to an unseasonably cold start with winter holding on and March coming in like a lion and going out like a lion. No lambs this year. Hopefully better days await in April and beyond. I did reorganize my fleet buying and selling some kayaks while still ending up with a tandem,
Read more

Looking towards 2021 while glancing in the mirror.

Image
A limit of springers caught in July! As the fall salmon season was coming to a close, I anxiously waited for another disaster in 2020 while hoping to catch one more fish on the kayak.   Starting with a pandemic, the year seemed like it was forged in strife with racial injustice protests, political conspiracies, hazardous air quality, massive hurricanes, melting glaciers, financial disasters, and finally an election where unproven accusations and lies caused the first breach of our nation's Capitol in more than 200 years. Yep, 2020 was certainly a year we got a clear view of our country's past, present, and future.  Through most of the chaos, I enjoyed many days on my home waters fishing for salmon with my buddy Mark. The kayaks proved a great way to social distance and the Willamette and Columbia Rivers offered opportunities for salmon, steelhead, bass, sturgeon, and shad close to home.  The first half of the salmon season was tough and it wasn't until May that I finally la
Read more

2021 Fishing Season Salmon No. 5 and 6

Image
Welcome back to the 2021 kayak fishing season recap.  It's now the waning of summer and Mark and I focused our efforts on the Columbia as the Fall King season gets underway. We are still close enough to home that I have time to fish a couple hours before work, keeping our carbon footprint low and putting extra hours on the water. Salmon No. 5 - After July, the action moved from the Willamette River to the Columbia River. I caught a nice jack king during an early trip and tagged No. 5 on a trip before work on August 23. We were still using spinners and Pro Trolls but we can only fish one rod in the Columbia. The video features a look at the jack first and finishes with the big fall king.  Salmon No. 6 - Number 6 was caught on another trip before work and it was the biggest of the season at that point. My trips before work start in the dark and last about 2 hours before I need to be at the shop by 9 a.m. I have a little wiggle room with the 9 a.m. start, but this year I made it to w
Read more