Your first look at the Frontier there is no doubt it’s a NuCanoe, the company has stayed true to its roots with the overall look and feel of the kayak. It has the same length as the 12’ NuCanoe, and is a tad bit slimmer with a 41” beam. It’s easy to paddle and can hold a ton of weight. That’s where the similarities end.

The new kayak has a large flat deck that NuCanoe is calling the Cast and Blast deck, if you’ve paddled a NuCanoe before you know how big of an improvement the new flat deck. To quote Adam “No more Capt. Morgan stances while fishing”.

They have added a front gear locker which quickly was dubbed the “pantry” by Blake during our trip down the Elkhorn. The gear lockers is sealed very well; during our stability testing the Frontier was totally swamped but the gear locker stayed dry. There was a small amount in the hull but nothing a long day in the surf or white water wouldn’t do to any kayak.

You are now able to store your rods, spare paddle or any other gear you want out of the way in the internal rod chamber. I was able to put my rods into the Frontier easily; only issues I could see are it might be awkward to access your rods while on the water and things sliding out of reach of the front hatch.

Supper holes! Yes NuCanoe has added scupper holes to the Frontier, which I’m told were a late addition to the design. With just me in the kayak “200lbs” I didn’t have any water coming through the scuppers. With 2 of us in there was some water in the stern of the kayak but nothing alarming. With 3 of us there was probably an inch of water in the stern. This might be alarming if we hadn’t just swamped the entire kayak earlier with 3 adults in it and safely SUP’d “Stand Up Paddle” back to shore. Leaving the kayak level all the water quickly drained out within a minute or so.

NuCanoe has gone with a track system called the Freedom Track, which secures the universal seat base and other accessories. The track system fit my YakAttack MightyBolt allowing me to use my PanFish and other YakAttack accessories. Blake said they were working with YakAttack to possibly offer the threaded RAM Ball as an added accessory.

The hull has been tweaked adding Kiss Offs, we had the original NuCanoe out as well and the tracking has improved in the Frontier. I was able to SUP easily without zig zagging down the river. The stern of new hull also didn’t catch the current like the original.

Saving the best for last unbelievable Stability or as Adam put it “This thing is stupid stable”. I was by far the most impressed with how stable the Frontier is. Check out the videos below for 180’s, tandem 180’s, bow paddling, SUP’ing in a little white water.

I was easily able to turn around step over my seat, walk to the stern and grab any gear from my crate. At one point Adam and I even decided to switch places and walked past each other on the kayak! Bottom line the Frontier is the most stable “non outrigger” kayak I have ever had the pleasure fishing from.

In summery this has probably been one of the easiest reviews I’ve done on a kayak. It was hard to find anything I disliked about the Frontier. It’s a little on the heavy side at 76lbs and a little wide at 41”. That’s it, two faults out of a laundry list of likes; I’ll take percentage any day of the week! Would I recommend the NuCanoe Frontier 12 to kayak fishermen? Absolutely, get out to a NuCanoe retailer next year and try the Frontier for yourself; I’m almost positive you’ll also agree that it’s Freakin Awesome.

Performance: I gave the boat a 9.5, the kayak tracked well, paddled easily, and maneuvered very well… So why didn’t it get a 10? This was a pre production model; I can’t wait until I take out the production model!

Fishability: The overall layout and deck space of this kayak should easily have given it a 10. But I saw some room for improvement, mounting the transducer might be a little tricky in the Frontier. The only access to the hull is through the bow hatch which might make hull mounting a transducer an issue and with the large flat deck I don’t think cutting an access hatch would be a good option either. So I gave it a 9.75 for fishability.

Stability: This is the most stable “non outrigger” kayak I have even been in, I easily gave the Frontier a 10.

Portability: At 76lbs the NuCanoe Frontier isn’t light and its 41” width might be a little wide for some smaller vehicles with a factory rack so I gave the kayak a 7.

About the Author: Mark "YakSushi" Watanabe is the Co. Founder of YakAngler.com and the Founder of YakSushi Media. He considers himself a mediocre fisherman and an unexceptional writer. He's the devoted father of two little "Sushi's" and everyday tech ninja.