Emotion Kayaks "Grand Slam" Hot

Sank on third outing in the first month of having it due to leaking square hatch in front of the seat. Now on the bottom of the lake.

This is my third yak in the last 15 years. I use it at least weekly for fishing on the local Daytona flats and the Halifax tidal river. It tracks and paddles well. Great yak for us 200 lb plus guys. It is simple and sturdy. I've found that for fishing the more bells and whistles, the more things to go wrong. I never use the rod holders. Save some more money by not buying the fishing model. I fish two rods. One with a top water and one with a jerk bait. When I'm not using one rod, I lay it down in the cockpit. If I use the rod holders for the second rod I tend to catch the second rod when casting. Especially troubling when bait is busting and you just tangled up both rods. I use a plastic covered 5lb dumbbell for the anchor. Works great in wind or moving tide when you found a sweet spot to stay in for a while.

I rented this kayak on a family vacation, the kayak is very easy to paddle and has great glide. I did notice that when I would stop paddling the kayak always wanted to turn to the right. I'm not sure if it was something with the hull or the way the weight was distributed in my kayak.

The kayak is not very comfortable and you will need to get an updated seat. The emotion stock seat that was in mine was almost nothing but a tiny bit of foam wrapped in canvas.

This kayak didn't have many features especially when you can get an Ocean Kayak Trident for only a couple hundred more dollars.

I have spent the last few months getting to know my Emotion Grand Slam and am more than happy with my experience. This is my first kayak but have paddle a few others and find this meets my requirements for a Bay/Lake boat. To begin with, the hull design is incredible. The bow, stern, and channels keep this boat tracking extremely well without rudder usage. The boat is also fast allowing me to keep up with guys in longer boats I thought would leave me in their wake. The tradeoff is that it not so good on rivers where a quick turn may be needed. The chines make for great secondary stability if you can learn where the limits are. I am a 230 lb man and can stand in it, but it does feel tippy until the chine catches you.

The cockpit is extremely spacious even for taller folks. The Scotty rod mount is too far forward, but that seems to be a common problem in fishing kayaks. The scuppers are a bit small, and it could use a couple more in cockpit both for floor stability and drainage. With myself and gear, there is no dry ride without scupper plugs. The tank well is a handy design with room for three 3700 series boxes and still room for the common milk crate or in my case, fish bag. The paddle holder and push poor holder are placed right and easy to use.

The one fault of this kayak is hatch design. As has been said, the front hatch is not accessible from the water unless you are very careful. It is also a two piece system with a neoprene cover keeping out water under a plastic cover held down by bungees. My neoprene cover has shrunk from age and does not fit, so the cover now held on by old stretched bungees allows water in whenever I take a wave over the bow. The cockpit hatch in my kayak is the large square hatch as mine is the angler model. This hatch makes for great accessibility and is a durable design not hampered by sand or salt residue. However it is also a source of water inside the hull at the end of the day. I don't let this worry me as it is not much water, maybe a cups worth from 8 hours on the bay. After all we are on a kayak, expect to get wet.

This kayak is heavy at 70 pounds but manageable even for this out of shape angler.

While I am discussing the kayak, let me brag about Emotion as a company. The handles were dry rotted on my used kayak when I got it. I requested to by some replacement from emotion as the universal ones were too short to fit. Turns out they redesigned handles since mine was made and they sent me 4 replacement handles, two stickers for my jeep and info on my kayak free of charge. If their customer service is that good on a guy who bought their boat used, they have to be good at taking care of new boat customers.

All in all an excellent boat at a good price. Emotion is the first place I will look for a river boat, especially with the new blow molded mojo coming out.

I have owned a Emotion Grand Slam Angler for two years now and it has been a wonderful kayak to me.

This kayak is rather fast and tracks rather good. It did track to the right a bit when the hull was new. I didnt know the proper way to take care of it and gas canned it. Even now I can keep up with the best of them and kayak all day long without needing to rub down with icyhot afterwards.

Stability is awesome on this thing. I have taken this thing out on some big waves and have never capsized it. I have even had a friend in a power boat make some good waves to show them how stable kayaks are. I have also stood up and fished while boats are running wide open about 100 yards away. While standing there is a point on its side where it kind of stops you, I call this the point of no return. For me if I pass this point then im going for a swim.

This kayak does leak. I have read review after review and it seems that if there is over 200lbs on the kayak then it leaks. I am not sure if its because of the scupper holes leaking or if the weight lets more water up threw the scupper holes and it leaks threw the hatch. On sunny days I like to open the hatches and let it dry out.

The hatches suck. If you are going to need to grab something out of the front hatch then its better to do it on dry land. The center hatch screws on and will become almost impossible to open if you dont keep it clean. I am thinking about adding a different type of hatch or just sealing it off.

It comes with the normal rod holders that every fishing kayak comes with. If I had it my way it would come with ram balls on a little track and some tracks on the sides. I could do without the rod holder in the middle of the cockpit. Probably the best feature is the plano tackle box holder molded into the kayak behind the seat. It is made for 3 plano tackle boxes. If you dont want to store your tackle there then it can hold a gallon of water and some other gear.

The built in paddle holders on the sides also make great rod holders if you are going threw some heavy overhead cover or if you dont have a fly fishing rod holder. They work a lot like the Jackson Cuda side rod holders. They where made for the paddle and will get your reels wet.

Over all I really enjoy this kayak. It really is a great entry level kayak for people wanting to do some serious fishing or hunting, load it down for a camping trip, or just loading it down with three people while yall have fun playing around on the water.