First Fishing Kayak help
 

Hello all, I am new to the forum and looking forward to getting to interact throughout these forums as time goes on. I have been freshwater bass fishing fishing all my life here in Orange County, Ca. I now go to college in Indiana and am looking to buy a fishing kayak for all the public ponds around campus. Small streams and ponds is what I will be fishing on. No rough lakes or raging rivers, and I am 6'2" and weigh 215 pounds. As I would love to own a Hobie, remember I am on a college student budget. I have looked at the Sun Dolphin Journey 10 as an option. Looks fairly good from what I have read. $300 is a great price and Walmart is easy to go to for pick up. I am a serious bass angler so I will be attaching my Lowrence Elite 4x w/ CHIRP. I have the head unit but need a transducer and I am hoping to install it on the inside of the bottom of the boat. Any help on transducers for this would be awesome. Whether you have a spare hanging around that I could buy off you or any links for new ones as well. I am hoping to spend about $500 on this project. That would include Kayak, paddle, fish finder installation, Milk crate/box for the back and roof rack for my smaller SUV. Thank you all!

Your budget will go further buying used. Try to paddle a couple before buying, if you can

you mentioned Hobie but on your budget...I mean roof racks are gonna cost you $200 used (racks, saddle and rollers).

SO you really need a $300 kayak.

Don't they have student loans for college entertainment and recreation?

thank you guys. Looks like I may bump up to the BPS ascend. Seems like a lot of kayak for the money. I drive a Ford Taurus so the roof rack I found is $60. Padded on top and Ill tie off the bow and stern to the tow hooks

In my opinion I would skip out on the sun dolphin. Search YouTube and you can see it's not very stable. I would look into a used kayak on Craigslist as you're more likely to get more for your dollar.

If you aren't considering racks with cross bars so that you can strap your $700 ish kayak on, you should.

Good luck with school. Share your fishing experiences!

Look used. You can get a much better product for not that much more $$.

I'm actually considering upgrading my 2016 Ride 135. Excellent platform for bay/inshore bass fishing and an acceptable platform for open water/surf launches. PM if you're interested...

EDIT: Never mind, I actually read your thread and you're out of the LA area. You are in the Midwest. There are TONS of great used kayaks out there. Check FB groups and the network run by the guys at Hook1 (Kayak Bass Fishing.) You will be able to find some awesome stuff out there.

Is Hook1 a forum out there for kayak bass guys? Id love to buy used if possible. All Ive seen on craigslist out there is pretty much junk

I would avoid a Sun Dolphin or an Ascend. If you’re patient, you can probably find something like an Ocean Kayak Prowler, a Malibu Stealth or x13, or a Tarpon for not much more money on Craigslist.

There was a forum run by Chad Hoover and the guys at Hook1 (Hook1 is a retail chain in the south/midwest that specializes in kayak fishing... https://www.kayakfishinggear.com/ )

I think its grown to be bigger than the forum now. Not even sure the forum exists now to be honest as Chad has turned KBF into a Tournament Circuit ( https://www.kayakbassfishing.com ).

If you're on FB, try searching for "Hook1 Classifieds" and see if you can dig anything up. I could have sworn there was a big network on FB that had a lot of the same type of quality stuff on it that KBF did.

Here are few point that might help you in choosing a fishing kayak.

1. Identify the type of water you are going to use that kayak.
2. Research about the material used for building that kayak.
3. No. of seats you need in a fishing kayak and kind of seat you preferred.
4. Type of kayak you need. There are various kind of fishing kayaks available in the market. For eg - Sit on top, inflatable, sit inside, inflatable sup etc.
5. Storage offered by the manufacturer.
6. Accessories included with the purchase and accessories which can be used with the kayak.
7. Warranty offered by the manufacturer.

I am selling my 14' Xfactor with a lot of extras, including roof rack and roller.

It is more than $300.00, but all you need is to add water.

Send me Pm if interested.