I'm sure it's mainstream but can't find any reviews.
I love fishing from my Heritage Featherlite 14 sink.
Never been in a SOT, but want visiting relatives to have their pick.
My friend is out of town for weeks, but selling her WS at a great price.
For $500 and in great shape.Good ride???
There
are plenty of reviews on the Ride right here.It’s a nice yak but has recently been redisigned.IMO the new version is better but if the condition is good thats a decent price for a used one.Good luck!
Ride
I dont know about the new ones but the old ones had a lot of wave slap. Very stable but not much speed. My wife out ran me on a perception swing. Popular for fishing.
A little steep, but not bad
I think they sold for about $750 new, so $500 isn’t out of line. I tried one out on the Shenandoah River when it was running high and strong and I felt well in control of it. I was able to attain, to grab an eddy, and to ferry between eddies with minimal scare. It sits pretty high compared to my SinK’s, but so would any SOT. I liked it real well and would be very comfortable fishing from it.
As far as coastal paddling, you’ll have to check with others. I haven’t paddled a wide SOT yet that doesn’t have hull slap, though, so I wouldn’t let that deter me too much. But that’s just me. It seems to be pretty important to coastal fishermen, but I’m not a coastal fisherman so my advice on that shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Recently, the biggest kayak fishing
shop in Houston closed out the old Ride for under $500. These were new, never paddled boats. Used Rides sell for $450 to $750 depending on how they are rigged and whether the seller manages to catch an unaware newbie. The older style Ride is a great fishing craft, but it was designed for divers. Has a small tankwell that the ubiquitous milk crate used by sit on top fishermen will not fit. Its a good craft for going beyond the breaker or fishing anywhere except fast moving water. You will get wet paddling the old model Ride.
WS Ride
The Ride is a nice kayak. I bought one in June that was a leftover after I had to let go of my Cobra Tourer for financial reasons. I've also owned a Prowler 15 and a Cobra Expedition. Most everyone loves the Prowler but I sold it to buy back my Tourer. ( Too bad I had to let it go a second time )
Back to the Ride - my impressions, its faster than most people who never paddled one would think. I could average 3.5 mph without too much effort and push it to 4 and beyond with more. This is in lake conditions, even with some decent wind.
The stability of the Ride is really nice and I stood on it for sightcasting quite a bit in the late summer. I really liked it for that, even being an average kind of guy over 50, not an acrobat. Could even flyfish doing the same.
I took it on an upstream trip on the Schuylkill River and was surprised at how well it paddled. It is very maneuverable and turns easily to get into good spots for casting.
The tankwell is a little small compared to some other SOTs but I could still fit a full size milkcrate on the back with the rodholders on either side balanced on the rim of the tankwell, bungeed down.
As far as hull slap, in anything but waves over a foot you won't notice much but when it gets rough out with larger waves, it can be very noticeable if your doing any crashing down as I did one day on the Chesapeake Bay, which brings me to my other point. It loses its efficency and speed in bigger conditions like the Chesapeake and wouldn't be a good choice for that. For me, that was the only negative. As that is only a small part of my fishing, I was well satisfied with it most of the time.
I got a good look in person at the new Ride 135 last weekend, and it is a beauty. Sharpened bow, keel line down the center, huge tankwell, indent for tackle box (box included) in tankwell, and more flat standing space on the floor, more like a Tarpon on top. They really took their time and did a great job.
All good things must come to an end, so I've got my old Ride for sale here on the Pa Classifieds and elsewhere. I'm asking $450 for Ride with rodholders, STS fishing seat and Aquabound paddle. In my opinion a great deal, and if anyone is interested in buying my new price is $400 everything included. The new 135 model without rudder runs about $800.
I'm jonesing that much for the new one - not trying to promote my ad here, but give you general info on the Ride. If my Ride doesn't sell, I will be more than happy to keep it and buy a new one as well. I'm definitely sold on the Ride, old and new - they both still have that pontoon hull that lets you stand and fish, and they are very well made.
I would imagine that a used Ride in nice shape could go for anywhere from $400 on up to just over $600 with rudder and other goodies...
Hope this helped -
Chuck Peacock ( aka Fishnmusicn )
Good points and a good price on your
Ride. If it were here in Houston, it would last about a day on texaskayakfisherman.com. I've paddled the new ride, though in a demo tank. It seems nice. The tankwell is almost large enough to take a nap in. One guy who has one says he can fit an 86 qt Igloo cooler in the well.