New Boat Advice

[sparker]

Hello forum, New to the forum, new to Kayak fishing and about to buy my first boat.

Here's my dilemma/question: I'm pretty sure I've narrowed down the boat I want to buy to the WS Ride 135 or the WS Tarpon 140. I plan to marsh fish mostly, I like the idea of a faster boat, but am not sure how stable or how much stability I really need i.e. R135 or T140.

I'm 6' 180, not a huge guy, so would the ride 135 be the boat to start with or is the T140 a stable enough platform to go with. I hear both are great boats, just depends on what you want, problems is I don't know what I need?

Thanks for any advice helping me sort this out.

[Razoryak]

Hey Sparker - Welcome. I'll be the first of many to tell you "Don't buy until test ride both" or better yet, demo as many as possible - Not sure where you are located, but several kayak stores offer demo days. Masseys in the New Orleans area, Back Packer out of Baton Rouge and Pack and Paddle in Lafayette. Good luck.

[Joker]

Welcome. I own a Tarpon 140. I love it. Very fast, cuts through the wind well and pretty stable. I am only 5'5, but weigh in at 215lbs. Very comfortable yak, good back support and a dry seat (overall dry ride with scrupper plugs in). I can stand in mine to sight landmarks and to pee, but not really able to fish standing. T140 has plenty of storage also. I have a 2007 model, but it looks like the newer ones have slightly better features. I believe you cant go wrong with either one of the yaks you're looking at.

Good luck and enjoy!

[GreenWave]

Welcome. You heard right. Both are excellent choices.

To answer your question, yes the Tarpon 140 is more than stable enough to be a solid fishing platform. You seem to have deduced correctly that the trade off between those 2 boats is extra stability vs. extra speed. I say "extra" because the Tarpon is still plenty stable and the Ride is not particularly slow as kayaks go. Just not as fast as the Tarpon.

Try before you buy is the mantra here. The Backpacker will work with you to allow you to try the boats you're interested in. Massey's holds regular demo days. Someone will probably post when the next one is.

That said, if I aspired to stand and fish much, I'd give that a shot in the Ride and see if I felt comfortable. Lots of people stand and fish in that boat quite easily, but it's not rock solid like a bigger Native, Diablo or Freedom Hawk. Not too many people stand and fish from T140s, though I've seen it done from time to time by smaller or more athletic folk.

If standing doesn't turn out to be a major selling point for the Ride, I'd go with the Tarpon. The more experienced you become in a kayak, and the more ambitious you get about hitting different spots, the more you'll appreciate speed over stability. The Tarpon 140 is a fast kayak.

[likeapickle]

I have a ride 135 and I love it. I'm 5"8 145 and I can stand easily and paddle, fish, push pole, net fish, and like anything else. Actually memorial day I was at my friends house and we were swimmin in the lake with a bunch of people and I have a ice cest of beer my friend in the back of the yak and his girl friend sittin on the front hatch and it still floated fine. I could actualy stand and do backflips out the kayak and re enter it with out flipping.

[Ratherbfishin]

I have the commander 120 by wilderness and it is very stable for standing and fishing. I find that it is pretty quick as well although I have never paddled a ride or tarpon

[jpoucher]

Although both are very nice kayaks, dont limit yourself to just those until you try others out. Go to a demo day or one of our next events and you will be able to try alot of kayaks that you might like that you may have not thought of.

[sparker]

Thanks so much for all of the great advice, that's why asked I'm going to look into demoing several yak's before I finally pull the trigger. I'll post what boat I end up with, hopefully soon!

[Branch_Office]

I do not know what kind of time frame you are talking about but we are trying to firm up our "Family Day Event" with BackPacker next week and they bring out their big trailer with a whole bunch of yak as well as members bring theirs for everyone to try out. Good opportunity to demo a lot of yaks!