I read another thread from a few years ago regarding canoes vs kayaks for fishing. There were good points, and I feel that I’m pretty familiar with the advantages/disadvantages of each. One thing that seems striking is that people tend to use SOT for the ocean, regardless of whether they use canoes or kayaks elsewhere. Why is this? The only reason I can think of has to do with stability. I’m guessing, maybe wrongly, that a SOT kayak is harder to capsize than a SIK or a canoe. The other is that in a capsize, it seems that holding onto and pushing a SOT kayak to shore would be easier than doing the same with the alternatives. I can’t imagine how doing this with a canoe with float bags would be that much harder, though. Any thoughts? thanks.
Easier to get to everything
I’m far from an expert, but I got to go kayak fishing last week in Sarasota Bay. The SOT is a good choice because of ease of getting to tackle, anchoring, and stability.
I wasn’t in the deep water, but I could let my feet dangle when I got warm and getting off and on a SOT is easier than a SINK. I don’t know that saltwater makes a big difference, but the kayak fishers I saw there were all using SOTs.
A couple reasons
1. SOTs are just easier for fishing, usually.
2. If one fishes the ocean in a SinK, and will be far from shore, then learning a bullet proof roll is important. One does not need to learn a roll in an SOT.
3. If one does have to bail from his/her kayak on an ocean adventure, it is MUCH easier to learn how to recover in an SOT. And, once one has learned to recover, it is much faster to recover in an SOT. The whole first step of emptying out the SinK is avoided, which means you’re in the water less time, even with well learned and well practiced recovery times.
So, it’s basically just a lot faster to learn the survival skills you need and deploy them in an SOT.
- Big D
recovery
I can see how recovery in an SOT kayak would be easier than with a SI kayak. Think the SOT would have the clear advantage when compared to a solo canoe?
Maybe this should be my primary consideration.
Considerations
It is an important consideration, but access to gear is another huge consideration. In a SINK the only gear that is readily accessible is what you can fit in the cockpit and strap to the top within your reach. You’ll have to put ashore to reach anything you placed in the hatches.
The SOT is a far better fishing platform. You have easy access to all or most of your gear, you have more freedom of movement and can even stand in some models.
Recovery
For some reason, the first person to answer to this question skipped to the wrong comparison. when comparing a SOT to a solo canoe, yes, recovering a solo canoe is no easy task compared to a SOT. I don’t think most people would be able to recover a solo canoe without quite a bit of practice, but doing that with a SOT is just a matter of scrambling back on. Loss of gear might be another issue though.
He mentioned both SinK and canoe
I would not even consider taking a canoe off shore, so I used SinK as the comparison.
I’m not sure why you said it was the wrong comparison when it deals directly with his OP, especially when what you had to say about a canoe is essentially the same deal as with a SinK. It has to be righted, emptied, entered - all of which is much more difficult to learn and takes more time even when proficient than with an SOT kayak.
- Big D
I agree with that
It looks like you think I was referring to your post, but since you were not "the first person to answer this question", that's obviously not the case.
If you were to read the first reply, you'd see that "the wrong comparison" that I referred to was not the fact that he compared SOTs to SINKs, but that he focused mainly on access to gear, ease of anchoring, and overall comfort (dangling feet in water) instead of on the issue of capsize and recovery. The inclusion of canoes in my reply was in response to the specific question about canoes in the OPs followup question, not because your original reply was deficient in any way.
Response looked like it was an offshoot
The format of these responses is difficult to read, especially since the bottom bar extends to the left margin all the way. It looked like your response was a reply to my post rather than to the OP.
- Big D
Canoe
I can recover a canoe in seconds as long as it is empty or almost empty. A kick and a shove and you have the canoe upright, with little water inside. Add a cooler and fishing gear, all bets are off.
A SINK is easy to recover, but getting the water out can be a chore if you don’t have a pump or bailer.
A SOT there is no need to worry about all of that. Flip it over and climb back on.
canoes sink
Sots bail the water that comes into them and if you did capsize it takes a few seconds to get back on top.
Trying to swim an open canoe
in ocean waves is not going to work out very well. In fact in mild surf I watched a woman from Arizona break both legs trying to get a canoe out of the water. Not pretty.