If you are asking whether it is better to pedal or paddle a fishing kayak, then you’re probably coming from one of three places:
1. You’re new to kayak fishing and want to learn about the difference between pedal and paddle kayaks,
2. You use a motorboat for fishing but are considering alternatives,
3. You use a paddle kayak for fishing and wonder if you’d benefit from an upgrade.
To answer the question whether it is better to pedal or paddle a fishing kayak, I like to think about pedal and paddle fishing as two different sports.
If your interest emphasizes fishing and a kayak is simply a means of getting you to the fish, then a pedal kayak is better. If you find kayaking to actually be fun and that fishing is just one of the activities you can enjoy while sitting in one, then its better to paddle a fishing kayak.
Table of Contents
First choose your sport: pedal kayak fishing vs. paddle kayak fishing
When you think about pedal kayak fishing and paddle kayak fishing as two different sports, it becomes easier to make the decision as to which is better.
This is because the question isn’t ‘which is better?’ Rather, the question is ‘which is better for you?’
Wherever you are sitting, take a moment to perform this thought exercise. Hopefully it will help you figure out which sport is right for you.
Picture your next kayak fishing trip. Maybe it will be your first one. (If this is the case, then you’ll need to use some imagination.)
Step 1. Picture yourself loading your kayak onto the roof or bed of your vehicle. What are you thinking about while performing this loading task? How do you feel as you think about it? Are you thinking about the upcoming trip or how much your shoulders are shaking as you lift your boat?
Step 2. Now, picture yourself on top of the water. You’ve just launched your kayak and are making your way to the honey hole that will definitely yield fish.
As you picture yourself shuttling on top of the water to your pre-determined location, what are you thinking about? Is this a happy time or an anxious one?
Step 3. You’ve arrived at your fishing location. What are your first thoughts? Are you happy to finally have that kayak trip over with?
Step 4. You spend several hours in and around your fishing spot. What do you think about during this time?
Step 5. Finally, after a great day on the water, it’s time to head back to shore. You’re tired and have a good journey ahead of you. What do you think about?
For heaven’s sake, why so many annoying questions?
What I want to tease out is whether you actually look forward to and feel positive about the activity of kayaking, not just fishing.
If you find yourself miserable and frustrated when loading your boat on your vehicle and want to reach your fishing destination as quickly as possible, then perhaps you’d be happier with a pedal-powered fishing kayak.
If, however, you are excited about the prospect of not only kayaking to your fishing spot, but also kayaking back to shore again, even when you’re tired, then maybe you’d benefit from a more traditional paddle-powered kayak.
Ok, with the thought exercise in the rear-view mirror, let’s move on and discuss what’s important when kayak fishing.
Speed. Pedal fishing kayaks are faster than paddle fishing kayaks.
Right out of the gate, pedaled kayaks are faster than paddled ones, in open water. Usually.
I wrote a couple of articles about how far you can kayak in a day and how to increase your kayak speed.
In the first article, I calculated that, based on a 9-foot kayak water line, a paddler exerting 67% of her maximum effort should be expected to glide across the water at about 3.1 miles per hour.
The longer the water line, the higher the maximum speed (but the higher the strength required to reach that maximum.)
Anecdotally, the good folks at Kayakanglermag.com ran an ultimate fishing kayak Olympics. The purpose of the event was to measure and compare the performance of various pedal-powered fishing kayaks as they undertook a series of tasks.
One of the tasks was to simply pedal fast. The fastest boats scored top speeds of over four miles per hour. That’s faster than the average paddler at significant but non-max effort. And by the way, they were going backwards.
For context, pedal fishing kayaks are constructed to book along the top of the water at speeds up to 5.5mph (frontwards) without the pedaller breaking a sweat.
The reality is that pedaled kayaks move across the top of the water faster than paddled ones.
Can a super-buff paddler outpace a skinny-legged desk-jockey on pedals? Sometimes.
But, that is usually the exception, rather than the rule.
If you need to make your way across a huge bay or traverse several medium-sized lakes, in order to reach your honey hole, then you might prefer a pedal kayak, unless you really love to paddle.
While paddle fishing kayaks are typically slower than pedal ones once on the water, it is faster to get a paddle fishing kayak into the water.
Here’s what I mean.
Once you’ve removed your heavy fishing kayak from the roof of your vehicle, you have to transport it and the pedal unit to the actual put-in location.
Having arrived at the put-in spot, the pedal unit needs to be installed in the fishing kayak. Although some boats require installation once out on the water
After installation, you must wade into deep enough water so that the propeller or fins (depending on the actual propulsion method) don’t grind against the ground or beach debris.
This can take time and be a bit of a nuisance.
So, while pedal fishing kayaks are typically faster on top of the water, they do require extra time (and planning) to transport, assemble and push off.
Weight. Paddle fishing kayaks weigh less than pedal fishing kayaks
Many folks inquire about the typical weight of various types of kayak. In fact, they ask so much that I crunched some data and wrote an article all about it.
What I calculated is that the average pedal fishing kayak (in the tested sample) weighs 118.7lbs, is 12.2 feel long and 38.1 inches wide.
In contrast, the average mid-quality, paddle fishing kayak weighs 77.6lbs, is 12.5 feet long and 33 inches wide.
This second result comes in pretty close to the average recreational & touring, sit-on-top kayak that weighs 58lbs, is 11.54 feet long and 29.98 inches wide.
What I learned from this data exercise is that fishing kayaks are heavier than recreational kayaks and that pedal fishing kayaks are heavier than paddle fishing kayaks.
This information shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that has spent any time learning about kayak characteristics.
Fishing kayaks, as a group, are built to be rugged – getting anglers and their gear to their secret fishing holes efficiently and safely.
As an angler, you pay the price for owning a fishing kayak over a recreational kayak every time you hoist your boat onto your roof rack. Understand this up front.
However, if you use a pedal mechanism, it is stored inside your vehicle during transport, not on the roof rack, attached to your boat.
So you don’t risk the health of your back to mount the full weight of a pedal fishing kayak onto your vehicle, only the hull.
The benefit of a heavier kayak is the stability it provides while you fish.
Stability. Pedal fishing kayaks are slightly more stable (on average) than paddle fishing kayaks
Stability tends to be determined by the weight and width of the kayak.
A heavier, wider kayak is typically more stable than a lighter, narrower one.
I noted earlier that the average pedal fishing kayak weighs 118.7lbs and is 38.1 inches wide. The average mid-quality paddle fishing kayak weighs 77.6lbs and is 33 inches wide.
So as a group, pedal fishing kayaks have more of the characteristics important to increasing kayak stability.
A stable kayak improves the fishing experience.
At minimum, a stable kayak allows you to not worry about tipping over as you try to reel in a Tidewater Chinook that switches direction on a dime and burns drag off your reel as it runs upriver at 13mph.
More interestingly, a stable fishing kayak lets you stand up to fish.
Stand-up fishing on a kayak provides many benefits over sitting down.
First of all, they say that sitting is the new smoking. Just saying.
Second, you can execute longer and more accurate casting. You can pitch and flip. Visibility is way better when you are out of your kayak seat. Finally, it’s easier to keep fish on the line and out of cover.
While you can stand-up fish on either a pedal or a paddle kayak, pedal boats provide higher weight and increased width, on average. This allows for a superior kayak fishing experience.
Hands free control. Pedal fishing kayaks have it. Paddle fishing kayaks don’t
Perhaps the biggest benefit of a pedal fishing kayak, when compared to a paddle kayak, is the hands-free operation of the boat.
Think about it, not having to deal with holding and operating a paddle allows you to do a whole lot of other things, like, say… fishing!
Consider what you can do with a pedal fishing kayak when your hands are free:
1. Cast while on the move.
2. Hold a rod and troll a lure.
3. Back away from trouble in an instant, while playing a fish.
2. Hold your position against a tide or current by gently pedaling against the flow, while reeling in.
3. Take photos or video while moving.
4. Cover greater distance because you’re using leg muscles that are stronger and don’t fatigue as quickly as upper body muscles.
Basically, a pedal fishing kayak allows you to multi-task. With hands-free operation, you can control your kayak with your legs and feet (mostly) while doing any number of fish-related tasks with your hands.
It bears mentioning that, if you choose to stand on your feet to kayak, you lose this ability to multi-task. Still, what you lose in multi-tasking you gain in direct fishing effectiveness.
Shallow water. Paddle fishing kayaks are better than pedal fishing kayaks (but the pedals are catching up)
When putting-in your kayak in shallow water, a paddle fishing kayak is, without question, the best.
A paddle kayak only requires a couple of inches of water to remain afloat and begin moving forward.
A pedal kayak is different. Pedal fishing kayaks drop a 16”-ish draft below the hull of the kayak. This mechanism usually includes some combination of propeller, fins and/or rudder. It is responsible for propelling and directing the kayak.
The problem is that the draft needs deeper water to operate. The propeller can’t spin and the fins can’t move in four inches of water.
So, in shallow water, paddle fishing kayaks are better than pedal fishing kayaks. The mere fact that there’s nothing sticking out the bottom of a paddle kayak allows it to get to tighter, shallower places, with you in it.
Not only does the draft require deeper water, but it can impact underwater obstacles, causing desperately annoying, not to mention expensive, damage.
But, as the great Bob Dylan noted: ‘The times they are a-changin.’
Newer pedal drives are being constructed with fins that kick up when they strike an underwater object or the bottom of the lake.
Also, some mechanisms are now designed with the ability to rotate 360 degrees in order to access and remove oneself from particularly tight quarters.
So, while paddle fishing kayaks get the nod for operation in shallow water right now, engineering creativity and ingenuity could change how this looks in a few years.
Stealth. Paddle fishing kayaks are better to sneak up on fish
The draft of a pedal fishing kayak is not sneaky. It sticks out the bottom of your hull while the attached propellor churns up whatever it gets close to, making a real mess in shallow water.
Furthermore, pedal drives aren’t quiet. They aren’t obnoxiously loud either and are certainly less disruptive than anything with a motor, but silent they are not.
A paddle fishing kayak has a different profile. It slips across the top of the water. A skilled paddler can propel and navigate her boat with no disruption to the surrounding area and do so in virtual silence.
So, the strength of the kayak pedal boat with respect to speed is also its weakness with respect to stealth. The pedal drive can cover a lot of real estate quickly, but it does so at the cost of disruption and a little noise.
Things that break. Pedal fishing kayaks have more of them
Pedal drives can be complex and have a lot of moving parts.
Typically, they are well-constructed. But any mechanism with moving parts not only requires extra maintenance, but is also prone to break.
The drive train can become less efficient and responsive.
The propellers or fins can snap.
There is a history of pedal cranks fracturing when exposed to significant pressure, like beach launching in waves.
Paddle fishing kayaks do not have any of these problems.
Sure, most kayaks eventually struggle from deteriorating material and the wear and tear of banging into obstacles. But if the pedal drive on your pedal fishing kayak is compromised, you’re not going anywhere until it’s fixed.
Price. Pedal fishing kayaks are more expensive than paddle ones
The rule of thumb is that pedal fishing kayaks cost at least $1,000+ more than paddle ones. That’s a pretty significant uptick in price.
Fishing kayaks are already expensive. They incorporate a lot of material to construct, and use it to build multiple hatches and storage compartments that put the interior of any family mini-van to shame.
On top of these accessories, the piece-de-resistance is a pedal drivetrain that drops just slightly forward of the middle of the kayak.
I haven’t collected and crunched any datasets, so I can’t make any statistical inferences.
However, using Jackson Kayak as an example, the Jackson Coosa FD (with pedals) costs $1,600 more than the Coosa HD (without pedals).
Similarly, the Jackson Big Rid GD (with pedals) costs $1,300 more than the Big Rig HD (without pedals.)
Finally, the Jackson Bite FD (with pedals) costs $1,200 more than the Bite Angler (without pedals).
There is no way around the fact that pedal fishing kayaks cost more than equivalent, non-pedal ones.
Purity. Paddle fishing kayaks are a more traditional, pure method of getting to the fish (eventually)
Some believe there is something special about the activity of paddling a kayak. Purists believe that it should be the only way to kayak.
There is something uncomplicated about using a simple tool such as a paddle and a (fairly) minimal boat to transport you wherever you want to go. And if there happen to be fish at the end of the journey, so much the better.
Paddle fishing kayaks require fewer steps to get into the water, you can paddle pretty much wherever you want and you can feel good about the minimal disruption you foist upon mother nature in the process.
Our ancestors didn’t motor their kayaks around with pedal drives and drafts. To a handful of paddlers, that means something (but you can only claim moral high road if your paddle fishing kayak isn’t equipped with an electronic fish finder!)
Which sport do you choose: Pedal kayak fishing or paddle kayak fishing?
The discussion about purity brings us full circle to the initial question that I posed at the beginning: do you want to participate in pedal kayak fishing or paddle kayak fishing?
We have discussed the features, benefits, pros and cons of pedal and paddle fishing kayaks.
Do you currently fish from a motorized boat? If you do but are hoping to reach fishing locations that are not accessible to a motorboat, then a pedal kayak might be a good choice.
A well-accessorized pedal fishing kayak will get you to your honey hole quickly, let you take almost as much gear as you did in your motorboat and do so at a price point that is lower than maintaining a motorboat.
If fishing is your main focus, then you can do so more effectively in a pedal fishing kayak.
Do you currently fish from a paddle kayak and are thinking about trading up? To purchase a new, pedal fishing kayak, you’ll need to spend between $2,000-$4,000 USD. That is over $1,000 more than it would cost to buy a new, similar kayak without pedal drive.
If money is no object and you are more interested in fishing at your fishing hole then paddling to your fishing hole, then you might prefer a pedal fishing kayak.
Do you have no skin in the game and are genuinely trying to figure out whether your first fishing kayak should be a pedal or paddle?
At this point, I think I’ve made it pretty clear that, if money is no object and your main interest is fishing, then a pedal kayak will get you to your location faster and help you fish more efficiently.
However, if you enjoy paddling as much as you enjoy fishing, then save yourself $1,000 (or spend the extra grand on a better boat) and invest in a paddle fishing kayak.
Either way, the fish lose.