I first met James Derbecker of Crescent Kayaks at the Louisville Boat and RV show in Louisville, KY. He had a nice display set up, and me being a bit of a gear head for all things kayak fishing related, I had to stop in and check things out. We had a decent discussion about his boats and company, and then I returned to my own booth. I couldn't help but notice over the next few days that he and his co-worker were carrying boats out for customers all weekend long. He was selling these things like crazy!

About a week or so later I got in contact with James to do a product profile of his kayaks on our site (see article), which we do for many companies. He offered to send me a kayak to play around in and test out for myself. I thought that the most honorable thing to do in this situation was to use this boat to fish from in the Lake Harding Tournament down in GA. Below is a summary of the kayak and its features, provided by Crescent Kayaks, and my review.

Crescent Kayak Product Description

Dimensions:

Fisher Xtreme II: 12 ft long and 34 inches wide. Weight capacity 500lbs

Features:

-Three seat capability

-Three seat design allows for single person paddling from middle position

-Deck plate dry storage with ditty bag

-Large storage at stern with bungees cords

-Self draining cockpit and seat

-4 Scupper drainage holes

-3 Cup holders

-Paddle notches

-Deck rigging

-Full length keel for speed and excellent tracking in the water

All kayaks come with their pros and Cons and what works great for one angler may be a nightmare for another. With that said here are some of the pros and con’s that I found with this boat. Let’s start first with the pros.

Pros:

The greatest feature of this kayak is its low price:

For many people getting into this sport they are not sure what to think about it, and they are certainly a little bit weary of dropping close to $1,000 for many of the large name brand kayaks out there on the market. I know that I picked my first kayak from a Dicks Sporting Goods because I just wanted something cheap to get me on the water. This boat gives you both a good kayak for a low price but also the necessary equipment to get you fishing in no time. This kayak is priced around $600 and comes fully loaded with seat, paddle, rod holder, Scotty mounts and an optional visi-pole.

Very durable, made of a heavy duty plastic (you could slide this thing down a gravel driveway, though not really recommended):

Seriously this thing is tough. It has fallen off the roof of my jeep once while I was unloading it and there is not a scratch or ding on the thing. I’ve drug it to and from launch sites and barely scuffed the keel.

This is a tandem kayak, so if you’re wife is dropping hints that she may want to tag along this may be the boat for you. It has a third seat for paddling solo.

I’ve heard many guys that are thinking about buying a kayak and the wifey tells them that she may want to go out on the water with him sometimes as well. Then they start looking at tandem kayaks, many make the purchase then are stuck with this thing and their wife never joins them. I think that that the Splash II is a cool design because it is a tandem kayak but also has a third seat in the middle so that you can paddle solo. Perfect!

Capable of holding weights up to 500lbs.

Very Spacious

A keel the length of the boat.

The Keel of this boat runs from the stern to the bow of this boat. It tracks great and turns much better than my other kayak.

Extremely Stable, as you can see I had no problems standing or sitting sideways in this kayak.

Now for the Cons, or at least a few cons for me.

Heavy

As I mentioned earlier, this boat is extremely rugged. With that ruggedness comes extra weight, this will be true with almost and roto-molded plastic kayak. The thicker you make the plastic the heavier the boat gets.

The solo seat is too far forward making the boat have less glide when paddling.

This is really the only thing on the boat that I wish that I could change. Due to the solo paddling seat being in the middle of the tandem seats it does make you sit a little closer to the bow of the boat than one would like to be. This is not an issue when fishing in a lake or pond or even drifting for that matter but I would not recommend using this boat on rivers or bodies of water with heavy current where the situation would arise that you would be paddling back up heavy current.

Molded foot wells give you limited space for standing

Not everyone stands and fishes from their kayak. In fact the majority of anglers probably sit and fish most of the time. I like to stand up in my kayaks, and in this particular boat the molded foot wells give you a limited space to do that. If you’re like most kayak anglers and sit and fish you’re just fine in this boat.

Rod Holder placement is a bit awkward for paddling solo

This is simply due to trying to place holders for both the tandem paddlers and the solo angler. I’m a bit biased on this topic anyways as I think that rod holders are a bit over rated. I can see the use if you are trolling but I never use them when I’m just fishing. I almost always find them or the rod getting in the way or simply just getting on my nerves. I tend to be a bare bones angler when it comes to kayak rigging.

Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I really enjoyed meeting James from Crescent kayaks and I thoroughly enjoyed fishing from this kayak.