I rigged up the Bite with minimal gear: a homemade milk crate organizer with some rod holders and a pair of Plano 3700-size deep StowAways, five casting rods, a net, a cooler and some dry bags with extra gear. I’ll take stability over top-end tracking any day. Luckily, there are good options for that (like the Power-Pole Micro), but without one, I found myself ducking into creeks and cuts a little more often than I would have liked just to get out of the wind.īottom line: There are more maneuverable fishing kayaks out there, but the Bite’s stability and 35-inch beam more than make up for it. I did find myself wanting a shallow-water anchor system while fishing in the wind. I didn’t find myself getting fatigued, even when paddling several hundred yards at a time. On the other hand, the Bite feels incredibly easy to paddle, due in large part to the raised seat. I also wasn’t able to test it in calm conditions, and I have a feeling I would have been more impressed with its tracking if I wasn’t fighting a stiff wind most of the day. At 11 feet, 6 inches and 72 pounds, I just expected the Bite to track a little better than it did, though it isn’t sluggish by any means. The Bite isn’t a kayak you’d plan on taking out in ripping river current, so I wasn’t all that concerned with its relatively modest maneuverability. If you’re looking for an affordable fishing kayak that feels as stable as it looks, this is it. That can be a recipe for disaster in less stable kayaks – especially in windy conditions – but I never had a single issue in the Bite. Without a pedal drive, I regularly found myself drifting into overhanging branches while my hands were occupied with a rod, and, on more than one occasion, I was forced to remove lures on my other rods from tangles of branches. At the first lake, I navigated standing timber and laydowns (unsuccessfully in some cases) in winds gusting upward of 15 mph. #Jackson kayak fullIf I can stand up and make some casts without stability issues, it’s a good bet I’m not going to swamp the boat sitting down.Īfter a full day on the water, my opinion of the Bite’s stability didn’t change. It’s 35 inches wide, which is more than enough to allow the average kayak angler to stand up without too much trouble. The first thing I test on any kayak is its stability, and I was thoroughly impressed with the Bite in that department. It often takes me more than 30 minutes to rig up my personal fishing kayak – and to be fair, I didn’t bring all my usual gadgets to review the Bite – but it took me less than 10 minutes to get rigged up and ready to hit the water once I got to each lake. The storage well in the stern is huge, and a Jackson Kayak JKrate might be the play if you need a rod and tackle storage system to fill it up. In-hull storage is convenient for a lot of reasons, but I found the Bite’s flat, open deck to be optimal for storing a lot of gear that’s easy to get to. The open-concept deck immediately stood out to me as a somewhat unique but absolutely novel design feature. The heavy-duty handles are a must for one-person carry, and the removable, trimmable seat is a big bonus for a price-point kayak. I’d imagine a cart would come in handy for walking the 72-pound kayak longer distances, but it’s definitely manageable if you’re loading and unloading it yourself.Īt $799 (MSRP), you’re unlikely to find another kayak this size that feels as solid and as well-made as the Bite. I’m not a big guy (5 feet, 8 inches and 160 pounds soaking wet), but I didn’t have any issues lifting it out of the truck bed and walking it down to the water. Here’s what I found.īefore even dropping the Bite in the water, I was really impressed with how easy it was for me to lift and maneuver it around. I took Jackson Kayak’s new “price-point” fishing kayak out for a day on the water on a trio of small lakes in western Kentucky. It’s hard to find a really good kayak that blends quality, stability and affordability for anything less than $1,000.Īt least that’s what I thought before I tried out the Jackson Kayak Bite. In the burgeoning fishing kayak market, there’s still a pretty large gap, on the whole, between entry-level boats (think $500 or less) and the top end of the market.
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