I will be the first one to admit that I am not too keen on change. I have been paddling fishing kayaks for about ten years, and have never had any issues. The folks at Estero River Outfitters had been after me for the last couple of years to be on their Hobie Fishing Team. I kept declining because I liked the kayaks that I was using. Finally, Jeff Stuller talked me into trying out a Hobie. WOW!

I was lucky enough to be able to purchase a new Ride 115 within the first couple weeks of it’s initial release. Since then I’ve put the boat through it’s paces on rivers large and small while guiding professionally and fishing for fun. Let’s just say I’ve got a LOT of seat time in this boat. It has quickly become by river chariot of choice on most of my kayak fishing excursions. This kayak offers great fishability and paddling performance as a result of a well thought out design.

Four months ago Blake Young showed us the concept drawing of a new kayak model for NuCanoe. From what I saw it seemed like all the shortcoming of the original NuCanoe had been addressed. Earlier this month we were informed the first kayaks had been completed and were headed to Kentucky. This weekend the YakAngler crew was able to put the yak through its paces like any true kayak fisherman would. I have two words for NuCanoe, Freakin Awesome!

Every now and then, a product comes on the market that challenges the conventional wisdom about what’s “cool” and what’s usable. The Santa Cruz “Raptor” is such a product. At first glance, it looks like the child of a Dutch shoe and a toboggan. Those of us who use SOT kayaks probably wouldn’t even give it a second glance. Jim Martin, the owner of Santa Cruz kayaks and creator of the Raptor recently sent one of his kayaks to me to demo, and after looking it over like it was a space alien, I did demo it. It was awesome!