Outfitting a Kayak for Fishing

Those of you that regularly follow my ramblings here know that my choice of kayak tends to be long and skinny, and my fishing gear and rigging is about as sparse as it gets. So when Mr. Baja walked into the shop and told me his idea of the perfect fishing kayak, I had to step out of my own skin to get a proper angle on the best set up for him, not me. Over the next week or so I would close my eyes and picture myself as a non-kayaker with time on my hands in Baja, and a desire to catch fish. Maybe diving off into the warm water and snorkeling, soaking up sunshine while sipping a margarita or Modelo, and fishing are what my priorities would be.

With this in mind, I laid a plan to outfit Mr. Baja's choice of the Ocean Kayak Torque. The Torque has a trolling motor "plug & play" prop as it's niche. Normally I scoff at this sort of thing. I generally don't approve of pedals and motors, as to me, they're not really kayaks. But if I put myself in Mr. Baja's shoes, with his priorities in mind, the Torque is actually a pretty bad-ass little machine.

Here are a few pics of the outfitting I did:

This is the finished product: The Scotty Stabilizer Kit behind the seat gives a bit more confidence for standing and fly-casting. A Surf-to-Summit tackle bag with four rod holder tubes goes behind the seat.

I installed an Eagle Cuda 350 Fish Finder on to the battery-hatch with a RAM Ball Mount. On the front deck in front of the battery-hatch is a RAM Five Piece Accessory Bar, with a fly-rod holder, bait-caster/spinning-rod holder, waterproof electronics box for the Droid phone, and the most important thing; the swivel-cup mount with koozie for keeping your beverage of choice cool and upright in rough seas.

For the transducer, the cleanest and easiest set up was the "shoot through" method. For this I cut a block out of closed cell foam, and carved out a hole just a tad smaller than the transducer. To secure the foam block to the hull, I etched the hull with Dragon Skin, and applied mondobond to secure the block in place. Around the shape of the transducer, I carved a shallow channel and applied silicone sealant, and set the block in place. The silicone sealant allows water to be trapped inside the void for the transducer, which is vital for proper sonar function. To make it work, you simply add a few tea spoons of water to the void, and squeeze the transducer into place in the void in the foam block.

The transducer cable is routed through the vertical wall of the battery box, and up through the hatch lid to the fish finder. Both holes for cable access are plugged with a bit of closed cell foam. Both access holes are above the water line.

The battery I selected for the Torque is a Sea Volt sealed marine  group 24 12V 79Ah battery. This monster gives the motor 3.4 hours of run time at full tilt, and also provides power for the fish finder.

Simply attach the red and black cables for the motor and the fish finder, close the lid and power up!

 

Below is the view from the cockpit. I bolted the five-piece accessory bar through through the deck and into a quarter-inch thick piece of polycarbonate board to ensure structural integrity in the event of big fish tugging on it.

On the side I installed the Native Anchor Trolley. This unit allows you to position the anchor towards the bow or stern, so you can hold your position & direction in wind or current while fishing. With the addition of a caribeiner and float attached to the anchor line, it also allows you to quickly ditch the anchor should you hook up with a hog, or fail to see the debris or boat moving right at you.

It turned out pretty sweet. I think it is ideal for Mr. Baja, and I can't help picturing myself floating around in the hot sun and warm water with a cold one in my hand, fishing for mahi-mahi & yellow fin tuna.

The water test was impressive. When the Torque was running at full tilt into 1kt of current, it averaged 3kts. I paddled along side it in a sea kayak and was easily able to outpace it, I wouldn't eve say I was trying, but I didn't have a margarita in one hand and a rod in the other when I was outpacing the Torque either!

There is a larger prop available, and with the large battery in this particular boat, I'd say it's capable of 6 or 7kts, which is about as fast as the average person can paddle a sea kayak. There's a small percentage of kayakers who could paddle 7kts for 3.4 hours strait, so I can see the point of the motor, but I will stick to my paddle. To me, that's what makes the whole thing fun.

Until next time,


Jason