Kayak Fishing Edge

Pelican Potomac Fishing Kayak 2

In the last episode, we taught you how to increase the storage space, and accessibility of your Pelican Potomac Fishing Kayak.  This time around, we are going to show you how to increase the comfort.  As you know by now, they didn’t smooth the edges out on the inside hatch of this kayak.  It will rub your legs raw after an hour or two, not very pleasant.

As you can see, I took more of the PVC pipe insulation, and wrapped it around the inside edge of the hatch.  It was a perfect fit, from one edge of the seat, all the way around to the other edge.  This allows your legs something soft to lean against while you are paddling, fighting a fish, or just resting.  Again, as last time, it is secured with a lot of duct tape on the inside.  This keeps it from being visible.

On the top of the hatch, resting my arms on the plastic would hurt my elbows after a while.  I knew that this had to be fixed as well.  I took another piece of the PVC pipe insulation, and cut it in half down the length of it, giving me 2 pieces.  I laid these down on top of the rails, and secured with duct tape again.  These allow me to rest my arms on something soft, as well as set the paddle down quietly.  No more banging against the plastic on the kayak, scaring off every fish in the vicinity.

At the front of the hatch, I took another piece of the insulation, and cut it in half length wise again.  Cut these into pieces about 2″ long.  You need 4 for each side.  Stack 2 pieces together, and tape them in place, creating the front side of the paddle rest.  Now, repeat again, stacking 2 more, and taping them on.  The distance should be about the width of your paddle handle.  What you are trying to do, is create a little dip or recession, for your paddle to rest in, instead of having to find a place to store it.

That sums it up for this post.  You can make a cheap fishing kayak very comfortable, and stay within your budget.  I am going to prove to you that you don’t need a $1000 fishing kayak, all you need is some posts on Pelican Potomac Fishing kayak Rigging by Kayak Fishing Edge.

Technorati Tags: Kayak Fishing, Kayak Modifications, Kayak Rigging, pelican potomac, pelican potomac 110es, pelican potomac rigging

Pelican Potomac Fishing Kayak

Just like the rest of you, I am a budget kayak fishermen, who fell in love with the Pelican Potomac Fishing Kayak.  However, after the first trip, I quickly realized that I was going to have to take a hacksaw to it.  Not good at all.  This episode doesn’t have any videos, but future modifications will!  Until then though, check out what happened!

I started out, by not liking the hatch on the back of it.  I knew that I needed to access behind the seat, and also keep a fishing crate on board.  So I started drawing lines with the sharpie.  Once I had all of the lines connected, squared off, and where I wanted them, I started drilling.  I drilled some pilot holes in order to get my hacksaw started.  You can see in the picture below, some of the sharpie marks are still visible.

I tried to follow the lines of the kayak, to make sure everything fit right.  Once I was finished, I had a burred up mess of plastic.  I emptied the shavings from the kayak, and grabbed the air conditioning pipe insulation.  This stuff fit perfect.  Use some duct tape to secure it underneath, and use a lot.  You don’t want this coming off.

On to the front of the boat now.  I had to literally climb half way in through the hatch to get anything that made its way to the end.  This is impossible when you are on the water, obviously.  So, being me, I chopped up the front as well, using the same procedure as I used on the back half of the boat.  These 2 modifications increased my storage space and accessibility by 10 fold.  It looks like it was meant to be there too!

There you have it, volume 1 of Pelican Potomac Fishing Kayak Rigging.  Stay tuned for more posts, as we increase the comfort and fishability of this budget fishing kayak!

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