Anyone fish from this one and how do you like it as a fishing kayak??
I fish from an Old Town Loon, a similar
kayak. The Loon is great, just a bit heavy. The Dirigo has a similar bottom hull profile and should paddle about the same. I do like the flat rear deck on the Dirigo, as well as the sealed hatch better.
Tried a Dirigo 140
worked out great. The 120 was a bit too small for me.
Dirigo 120
I bought the Dirigo in March and have fished out of it ALOT this summer. Its been everything I could ask. Stability is good ( although I think primary stability is overrated). It tracks well and has sufficient storage. I keep a soft tackle box in the cockpit which is large for easy entrance and exit and have two rodholders mounted in front. It’s not the fastest thing on the water, but the seat is great and I can do 5-7 miles with no problem. I can access the rear hatch from the seat easily. All my fishing has been done in lakes, slow rivers and shallow creeks. Its definity worth a look.
1st time last sunday
i’ve had my dirigo 120 for over a year now. it’s been on the grand, red cedar, and looking glass rivers in lower michigan, and the indian and two-hearted in the UP. last sunday i fished from it, on the looking glass, for the 1st time. i have mounted a berkley rod holder on the front, right next to the waterproof compartment. i thought that was one of the great features of this boat. that area is reinforced to help take any extra stress that the rod holder might put on it (if you get swept into a strainer or some other careless thing). since the boat is very stable and the cockpit is large enough to move around easily, i found fishing to be a very easy thing to do. i want to rig some sort of an anchor system to hold me in place while working holes. i’ve been toying with using an old sash weight, but i’m not sure of the attachment point or retrieval system yet. anyone with opinions, please chime in. by the way, the fishing was succesful. although the water was choked with leaves, i did manage to hook and land 2 smallies and had a third (14-15") throw the hook on me. on november 5th i’ll be on the ausable and will try some trout fishing. i would definatly recommend this as a fishing boat.
Anchoring in current is not usually
a good idea. Anchor trolley’s work well if you are anchoring in slow rivers, they allow you to position the anchor in a variety of positions. Separate trolleys for the bow section and for the stern section allow use of two anchors, a great way to maintain a stationary position when its windy.
Sash weights make great anchors, its what I used, cheap and has that nice rope hole. Rubber coated dumbbells in the 3 to 5 lb range work also and are cheap. If there’s current and you want to slow the drift, you can use a section of chain tied to an anchor rope. It tends to slide over rocks and not hang up. If you are going to anchor where there is current, or use the chain method, make sure you have a sharp knife to cut the rope…you will have to at some point.