Gear Up: {Vanhunks Zambezi Kayak}

Good morning Jimmy.
Good morning Dan. How you doing?
It’s chilly and raining but I’m ready to go fishing.
Hey, everybody. Jimmy Kennedy with Go Out{side}. I’ve got my fishing buddy, Dan Carns here and we fish together a lot. Well, still kind of lives in southwest Florida but he’s kind of a nomad these days and does the camping life and gets to fish all over the place. And we’ve fish for tarpon, grouper, everything in southwest Florida, redfish, nook and lake Champlain bass. We’ve been fish together for a long time.
And yeah, he’s a pro staff member for Vanhunks boarding and the kayak deal has been part of your life for a while.
25 years
Yeah. And for me, it’s been two days. I’m still learning. But Dan was gracious enough to set me up with this. This Zambezi here. And we’ve been on the Cape now for a couple of days. They’ve been there for three. We’ve got a lot of striped bass, a lot of really good keepers. 28 and 32 inch fish. Quality fish.
Yeah. And it’s been it’s been great. We released a lot. And what I want to show you today I want to show you is like how to set these kayaks up a little bit more from saltwater fish. I mean, it’s pretty similar right from fresh to salt.
“A stripe feeds just like a large mouth or a small mouth.
”
Right?
My kayak fishing is transitioning straight into saltwater from fresh, of course, the gears a little heavier.
Yeah. And the wind’s been a little heavier, too. I mean Champlain is rough as anywhere it has been anywhere from 25 to 35 mile an hour gusts and we’ve had a serious cold front. That’s why we’re dressed like this. We’ll do a quick rundown on what we’re doing. And even some lures. Tell you a little bit about the lures I’ve been using and we’ve been targeting striped bass 100% and it’s it’s just been incredible.
It’s been so much fun. We released I don’t know 100 fish probably.
Yeah.
At least between four of us. And it’s been really, really good. And I can’t wait to get back in a kayak. I miss my skeeter boat. I’m not going to lie. But this is a whole new ballgame and it’s exciting. I know it’s a big industry now and I need to check out these Vanhunks they’re a great craft.
I just want to say that Jimmy’s transition straight into the kayak. He’s a boater and qualified boater and you know, he loves that powerboat. But this kayak fishing is a whole new deal for him. And he transitioned straight into a very first day, very first 5 or 10 minutes, he banged on a keeper striper. Like in no time.
Yeah, I was very lucky. But I did say yesterday when we went out to Provincetown and we looked at the oh, the big water there was no way we’re going out there.
The small craft.
High seas. Yeah. So we’re in a little pond here, a salt pond, and we’re going to see what we can get. I think we’ll to have some luck here. And it’s been fun and I’ll let Dan take it from here. Show you guys how he sets this thing up.
All right. So we’re going to move around in my boat. Hey everybody. So we’re going to talk a little bit about this boat, great fishing craft. And so we’re just going to talk about the saltwater set up. We have because it’s a little different from freshwater this boats about 12 foot six. It’s got a ton of storage and a ton of room. And of course, it’s called a fin drive.
It’s got this pedal system instead of paddling because when you’re kayak fishing in your paddling, your constantly doing this having to put it down and fish with the pedal drive, you just move your feet and fish the whole time. This craft has got a couple of storage areas up front. This one is where I keep my dry bag, this is where I keep all my electronic gear.
I’ve got a Garmin fish finder on it and I keep my battery components in there waterproof. Great pick up handle. This is a dedicated fishing craft. So it’s got rails across both sides for additional rod holders. Because I’m a I’m a rod hound, so I carry a lot gear. So I need extra rod holders. But this boat already came with these two upfront and these two here and two more here.
So that’s six rod holders got the fin drive since because the gearbox that sits in the middle, of course this is a sit on top boat, so it’s got a couple of holes. So if water gets in there like yesterday, the waves were crashing over our boats it drains fast. And of course we’re sitting in our boats for hours at a time, sometimes up to 8 hours and no cushioned seat.
The nylon seat is really great. Of course I like a little extra cushion for myself and if we can move along back here, every kayak comes with a paddle. You must have a paddle. It’s actually a requirement, but with the fin drive, we rarely use the paddle behind the seat is a ton of storage. There’s a dry hatch down there.
I keep one of my tackle bags here. There are official rod holder crates, but I’m a fan of the milk crate that fits everything I need. I can even put a sheet rock bucket in there and make a livewell out of it. So it’s got these included rod holders that I want to. Of course, the gear we’re using here is a little different from the freshwater gear that Jimmy and I are used to.
These are a little bit longer, a little bit stiffer, a little bit heavier. And of course, the lures can sometimes be a little larger for saltwater. But this striper fishing transfers from bass fishing right into this salt stripe fishing. Some of the same lures are catching the same same boats, I mean, the same fish. And of course, there’s track rod holders, track holders on the back for extra stuff.
I keep a net in there. Of course, I think every kayaker should have a flag and a light. I always deploy that. This got a deployable rudder, makes the steering really, really great. So of course I’ve even got more room in the back for extra gear if I need it. So this is a rundown of the Zambezi 12 foot 6
That’s awesome. Yeah.
We’re going to take Jimmy out into a place called Salt Pond and he’s got his boat all squared away.
This is what I’m using. I got two bass fishing x zone swammer catches fish everywhere. This is savage gear, I believe, and that’s what they’ve been catching them on. So I had to join them. But yeah, I got the same set up. Basically milk crate in the back. A few rod holders and that’s it. I mean, it’s very similar to freshwater, but it’s a little different gear and this is where we’re headed, folks.
Give it a whirl.
Thank you.