Wondering if many others are planning any kayak trips this summer? I know most say that kayaks dont work in the BW however I believe it should work fine as long as you choose your route wisely. I am pretty green to the kayak scene but have many tandem a solo or two under my belt. The kayak I will be trying this year is a old town vapor 10 angler, which weights around 44lbs and has a capacity of up to 325.
I am planning on a Sawbill entry and am considering heading over to Pheobe for some fishing and exploration. Would love to hear about anyone's experiences or plans.

TJ

I took my Kayak on a 5 day trip last September with no problems. I've got a Danger 10.5, it weighs about 50 LBS and portaged great with a yoke. I started from Round and went over to little Sag and back through Crooked and Copper. I had to double portage but wasn't in a hurry and liked the walks in the woods.

if you paddle with a partner and pack lite, simply have each grab an end and portage. two trips, it works well

I have a return trip planned to Gull/Pietro/Clearwater area this June where my kayak will make it's 2nd trip into the BWCA. The maiden voyage last year worked well, planning, spring creek yoke and practice helped. I'm also planning a trip on Isle Royal in July.

In addition to that as many fishing trips as possible after work, Saturday or Sunday's without kids soccer games, and "sick days" from work as I can manage to the local Madison, WI area lakes and rivers.

We have brought several types of kayaks to BWCA ranging from 12 feet to 18 feet. In short.. .longer they are the faster and better for paddling a straight line.

Kayaks are designed for specific tasks. For a multi day trip involving several miles of paddling I would not bring a "rec" boat, but rather a kayak designed for touring and carrying a good deal of gear

We now bring 14 feet or longer, front and rear hatches, 55 lbs or lighter.

The key to using a kayak is understanding that it is in fact a kayak not a canoe. In other words, it is not designed to be carried like a canoe but rather a kayak. Watch the guys that do the long distance kayak touring. They carry their boats on one shoulder. What we do is cut one of those things called a noodle in the kids section and slide it on one side of the cockpit, and carry our kayaks through a one shoulder. There are two choices on portaging the gear. One is to put a backpack behind the seat, and all the gear in small dry sacks. At the portage, empty out the dry sacks and put them in the backpack and carry through. The other was to use larger tapered dry bags. You slide out the dry bags from the front and rear hatch, slide them onto the shaft of the kayak paddle, and carried them through like that. As to the boat, we have found that kayaks with front and rear hatches 14 feet minimum in length work best. We don't bring rec boats. The reason is that you have to put the gear on top of the kayak which destroys much of the advantages to using a kayak.

I have done many multi day trips in rec boats and disagree with ockycamper on many points, carrying a yak on one shoulder from the car to the lake is fine but carrying one on a long rocky, hilly portage is a recipe for disaster in the form of a painful back injury, a properly balanced yoke is a much better idea so the weight is centered and your not twisting or pinching to one side. Touring yaks are fine for long distances and speed but fishing from them is a complete pain in the rear so it all depends on what you want from a trip. I have a Pungo 120 and a Pungo 140 both plastic rec boats, with the two hatches and extra width (over a touring boat) of the 140 I never have to load anything on top except for my rods/reels and fishfinder.

We are doing our 3rd trip in 3 years using our Synergy 12 open top kayaks. The first year, we did a hand carry to portage and ended up tripling each portage. That led to an audible to basecamp on Caribou and daytrip To Little Caribou and Pike, hiked to Johnson Falls. It was a learning trip. Last year, my husband researched and made a rack to carry overhead. Cut the portage trips to doubles. Went in on East Bearskin to Alder to Pierz and then over to Canoe. Stayed a couple nights on Pierz and 3 at a gorgeous site on Canoe. Hiked to Johnson Falls from the other direction. It is worth the hike.
This year, we are going in on Lizz Lake, down to Horseshoe determined to see moose, going down to Gaskin and Winchell. We play it by ear based on weather and how much we like the site and traffic in the area. We leave on 6/5 this year, earliest we've gone yet. We are in countdown mode!
Enjoy your trip. We love using the open top boats. They pack kind of like a canoe and we are getting better every year at packing/portaging.

I just bought a new pelican bounty angler . (38# and has a recessed rear deck for a large pack)

Going in at snowbank may 14!!!

Fall lake on may 28!!!

Still fine tuning my portaging setup but this kayak should do well once in off the big open water of snowbank.

quote murphylakejim: "I just bought a new pelican bounty angler . (38# and has a recessed rear deck for a large pack)


Going in at snowbank may 14!!!


Fall lake on may 28!!!


Still fine tuning my portaging setup but this kayak should do well once in off the big open water of snowbank."

So just a tip, make sure to use some small heavier packs in the front of the kayak while paddling if you can, otherwise your bow to stern weight ratio will be skewed to the stern. I have a similar kayak with a large recessed well in the back, it paddles more normal if it's not stern heavy.

quote gsfisher13: "

quote murphylakejim: "I just bought a new pelican bounty angler . (38# and has a recessed rear deck for a large pack)



Going in at snowbank may 14!!!



Fall lake on may 28!!!



Still fine tuning my portaging setup but this kayak should do well once in off the big open water of snowbank."

So just a tip, make sure to use some small heavier packs in the front of the kayak while paddling if you can, otherwise your bow to stern weight ratio will be skewed to the stern. I have a similar kayak with a large recessed well in the back, it paddles more normal if it's not stern heavy."

I might be base camping on snowbank if the weather is tough. The forecast for this weekend is not good. If I do, ill be sure to have a large rock rigged up as an anchor sitting up front by my feet.

quote ockycamper: "We have brought several types of kayaks to BWCA ranging from 12 feet to 18 feet. In short.. .longer they are the faster and better for paddling a straight line.


Kayaks are designed for specific tasks. For a multi day trip involving several miles of paddling I would not bring a "rec" boat, but rather a kayak designed for touring and carrying a good deal of gear


We now bring 14 feet or longer, front and rear hatches, 55 lbs or lighter."

ockycamper, how are you portaging the longer/heavier kayaks? My wife and I have matching Current Designs Storms - roto- 17', 62#s. We have portage yokes that we've used, where I portage both boats, as my wife can't handle the portages; we've also done the portages where we each grab the end handles and walk them over, but then it is doing 4 portages each time. What's your system(s).

quote griz81: "Wondering if many others are planning any kayak trips this summer? I know most say that kayaks dont work in the BW however I believe it should work fine as long as you choose your route wisely. I am pretty green to the kayak scene but have many tandem a solo or two under my belt. The kayak I will be trying this year is a old town vapor 10 angler, which weights around 44lbs and has a capacity of up to 325.
I am planning on a Sawbill entry and am considering heading over to Pheobe for some fishing and exploration. Would love to hear about anyone's experiences or plans.

TJ"

TJ, I did my first solo this fall with a Wenonah Canak, 16', 42#s. It, like all canoes/kayaks, has its good and bad points. It paddles great - both with single paddle and kayak paddle (I used both), lite, comfortable, good capacity, very stable. Some drawbacks - not easy to fish from, can't easily access gear from the front/back cargo areas, not as easy to enter/exit as a canoe. It is based on the Wenonah Prism, but is 6" shorter. It does come with front and back spray skirts and also one for the cockpit. Just some info.

good to see a kayak thread again.

Physics comes into play here. The shorter and wider the boat, the slower it will be and harder to keep it tracking straight. . .however it would be more stable and therefore probably better for fishing.

I am a trip leader for groups at our church. We take 8 to 18 guys every year to the BWCA (we split into 2-3 groups when we get there). We have taken kayaks ranging from 12 foot rec boats to 18 foot sea kayaks. Personally I have taken primarily sea/touring kayaks in the 16 to 18 foot range. I have no problem fishing from one. For me, the primary issue is the ease of paddling, ability to take any type of water, and ease of portaging. My last kayak was an 18 foot kevlar touring boat. Weighed just over 50 lbs. Although I had a yoke for it I preferred to put a "noodle" slid on to one side of the cockpit and carry it through on one shoulder.

All that being said. . now that I am past 60 I greatly prefer a solo canoe (Wenonah Wilderness) over any of the kayaks I had. In fact, I formerly had a Wenonah Voyager. . .17 1/2 foot kevlar canoe with a rudder system on it. Wish I kept that boat.

To sum up. . .we had several guys bring the heavier rec boats. The whole group hated those boats. Heavy to portage, didn't carry much gear, slower then the canoes in the group. The longer kayaks carried more gear, were actually faster then the canoes, but as others have said, you had to adapt the way you fish in them.

If you tour in kayaks I would suggest you look into "tapered dry bags". I had a longer one and a shorter one. They matched the front and rear compartments. I would put all my gear in small cinch style bags, then into one of the two tapered dry bags. . .sliding them into the hatch areas. At a portage, slide out the two tapered dry bags, slide one on each end of the paddle shaft, and carry all your gear through on your shoulders in one trip, coming back for the kayak. That also gets all the gear in the kayak, not on top. Big difference in how they handle.

I took a four night trip into Slim Lake last September in my Old Town Loon 12'6". I was solo, and had no problems packing gear. I do a lot of backpacking, so I pack light, which helps. I bought a solo canoe yoke, which worked great for portaging. No real long portages getting to Kenau lake, but with double portaging I had no problems. I'm planning on heading in to Clearwater this fall, and getting into Gogebic to do some brook trout fishing.