The Evolution of Kayak Transport

So when you buy a kayak think of how you are going to transport it around. Be it on a car or in a truck. This is my tale of what I have experienced though out the last year. It all started with one kayak, but with having a large family I found my one-man fishing fleet quickly grew from one to four. With that said most would go about the usual way and buy something from Yakima with all the bells and whistles if you have the money for a rack / bed extender.  Myself being a welder, I took the route of making my own racks / bed extenders for my truck. And boy does it get the job done!

To start, one bare bone kayak with the need to get covered in fish slime and marsh mud.

Next, I had to figure out what I was going to build and the materials I was going to use to construct this yak fishing helper of a contraption and get to work.  I had some left over materials from a trailer build I had done previously.  So I started working on a single battle yak carrier.  This battle yak carrier would mount to the yak-battle wagon (aka my truck) via the tow hitch.  I welded it up, ground and smoothed the edges out.  I also tricked my kids into manual labor by telling them how fun it is to help with projects.

 

Phase One - The single yak carrier set up I first made was quite simple, and it’s very quick and easy to hook up.  It makes loading and unloading of the kayak fast and extremely easy.  It also made it possible to go to different areas in the same day to fish if I wanted to.  This system was great for the one yak but as time went on, I found that more yaks I owned meant the need to adjust the yak carrier and make it more accessible to carry more than one.

Now Phase Two of the yak carrier was in effect...

 

Armed with the same help from my kids as before, it was now time to redesign the battle yak carrier from a single to double.  After a slight modification in the original design, plus some cutting and grinding along with a little touch of paint, the finished product came out amazing.  It can now make a few fishing buddies have a great time so they too an get in the water for some fishing action.

 

 

 

Now by this time I could carry a total of four kayaks.  Two on the yak carrier and two more stacked on top of them, but the max that I’m doing with this trip was three due to all the extra fishing gear we were taking with us.  I didn’t want to take the risk of damaging any rods with a fourth yak that would be stowed in the bed of the truck.
Phase Three - The next step, but not the last.  I’ve been working on a plan for the Yak-Battle Wagon.  I’ve taken some time on this one.  I wanted to make sure it looked and functioned. I have looked around online and stalked around a few parking lots armed with a tape measure to gather a few ideas.  I was able to come up with a design of my own for the Yak-Battle Wagon.  It’s a kayak rack to mount on top of the camper.  After about two weeks of pondering and doodles on paper I was able to whip two of these up in about 4-hours.

Took me a bit to get the angle right on the pads to bolt down but after a while things worked out.

 

 This is how I made the bends for the kayak saddles.  A little portable press brake I made a few years back.  It comes in handy every now and then.

 

 

 

Time for the fun part again.  I got the grinding done and got the kids to work on the prep for paint.  I Love my little helpers.  Gave them some sand paper and let them go.  Presto, I was able to paint.

 

 

With the primer all dry ad some color to make some things pop and it was time to work on the placement for mounting the rack to the top of the camper shell.

 

Phase Four - Time to finish up the yak saddles.  Oh there going to look sweet…

 

 

All primed and painted.

Time to do some drilling. 

  



For what I chose for the material to cover the saddles with; I went with Rigid HDPE Polyethylene Marine Grade Sheet, 1/4" Thick, 24" x 24", Black from McMaster-Carr.  I ordered it and it was shipped by the next day.  Great customer service from this company.  Before deciding to go with this material I figured I'd email an expert on this type material and pick his brain for how to best work with this material for shaping it.  So I emailed Luther from YakAttack.  A master of his craft with everything he has done with this sport and always willing to help someone out.  Thanks Luther. 

 

Cut the material to length and ripped it to 6-inch widths.  Rounded the corners, heated the bends with a heat gun then bolted everything together after countersinking the bolts.

 

 

 

I didn’t have a good countersink bit so with the heat gun I heated the bolt areas and sucked the tapered bolts into the plastic.

 

 

Time to bolt everything to the rack and place it on the camper now.

 

 

Now isn't that the greatest thing you ever saw.  LOL

Now with that all done, it was time to strap down the kayak on the truck and get it out on the water in the morning.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed my little project and I will see ya on the water.

Tight Lines Everyone. 

 

UPDATE!!!!

The newest mod for the new truck. Needed to get this in here.

 

Of course I painted the bars to match the truck.

 

 

 

I finished this a while back but figured itneeded to get added.

Enjoy everyone.

 





My 2012 Striper Season

  My 2012 Striper season started off on my birthday November 10th on a trip out of  Wallace Marina in Hampton Virgina. It was my fist time out after Sandy blew through the area and I was still hopefull  to find some gator specks. Didnt find the Specks but I did find a small school of Striper in which I was able to get this on on a topwater Bomber Badonk-A-Donk. Not what I was searching for but always enjoy a good pull no mater what it is.

   Since work is a priority and family comes first I got back out on the water in December a month later where I hooked up with a couple of fishing buddies Mike (FishNinja), and Patrick (HarborPartrol) from the TKAA and we thought that we would give Lesner Bridge in Virginia Beach a try.

   We launch from Crab Creek and paddled out to the bridge.

  Mike was able to hook a small drum in the tail off the bottom with a jig, of course I didnt get anything this trip but was able to try out my new Frogg Togg wadders in which I think work great and I think Patrick got a few bites.

   By the end of the night after fighting the current around the bridge I feel the best part was passing the bar by the water wishing the fishing was a little better in that spot so i could fish, listen to drunk people singing and watch sports on the big tv all from my yak. Still it was good company and great to be out fishing.

  A week later I was out at the HRBT.  The bite was on and I spent the night trolling back and forth allong the bridge with the Striper on force with a surprising hit an pull from some good slot sized fish though the night. Patrick got a few that night himself. Myself I was able to get 7 good ones between 18 to 21 inches.   I got there at 1800 and I left about 0100 in the morning.

   With my 2 chosen keepers for the night.

   All packed up ready for the trip to the house.   Cooked them the next day with some breading and a little olive oil and butter in the bottom of the pan and it was melt in your mouth goodness. I was ready for some more.

  It was now time try my luck at getting myself a Cow Striper.  Been planning this trip for a while so Mike came over to the house and we carpooled across the bay to Kiptopeke to try our luck at the Concrete  Ships.  First stop we headed over along the way to Oceans East 2 and grabed us about 6 eals each from Kayak Kevin and the shop crew there and some extra hooks and some weight for our leaders and we were northbound to the ships.

  We tryed around the ships for a while with no luck then looking out to the horizon and seeing that everyone else was heading out to deeper water we felt that maybe someone knows something we dont.  So with the old saying, (When in Rome, Do like the Romans do.), we headed out on our way to the hopefully promised water of big fish.  We started out drift with the incomming tide around the bouy and with my fishfinder I watched our distance and after a good drift of 3 1/2 miles Mike and I got to feeling that the ships were looking a little far off so we started our very slow trip against the current back to the ships. If we waited another hour we would have had a much better trip back with the outgoing tide.

  Back to the ships it we were dropping some eals and since we both had some Blue Crab we tried at some Tog too.  Again everything was slow no hits and everyone I talked to said they were having no luck.  There was a report of a few 30 pounders being caught but the were few and far between.  After this trip I was down with the flu for about 2 weeks with the family. Fishing was the last thing on my mind then I just wanted to feel better.

photo by: Mike Manning

  Now feeling better but not 100%,  28th December my final night for the 2012 Striper season was again a slow night for the fishing for me. I did have a good time though. I met up with a few guys from the TKAA like Jeff, and Dave (SurfDawg) and we set out from the public boat ramp on the Norfolk side of the HRBT.  There was a lot of kayakers out there that night and was glad to meet a lot of them and put a face with the name.   There were fish being caught that night but all in the 10 to the occatiional 17 in range from the reports people I was able to get from poeple as i was passing by them.   I had fish all around me at some points where i could have touched them but they didnt like what I was giving them on the menu.  Heared from some guys that were in ear shot of me after they hooked up a few times that they were useing some jerkshad on jigheads, well I didnt bring any that night.  I was still a great night to be on the water and good company to talk to.  Glad I went out.  Untill next year everyone Tight Lines And Good Safe Fishing.