On Father’s Day I finally got to take out my new Big Tuna with my 5-year-old son. I bought this boat primarily to fish with him and to support some solo adventures. These are my initial impressions on the boat; overall it met my expectations and surprised me in more than a few ways. The trip was on the wide water upstream of Great Falls on the Potomac River around Algonkian Regional Park. This is a wide and relatively shallow section of water that resembles more of a lake when the water isn’t high.
About Me
Before I get into the review I want to tell you a little about me because I think where I come from heavily influences what I am going to say later. I am a total newcomer to the kayak fishing world, however, I have been fishing and kayaking individually for a long time. Fishing has been mostly form canoes, row boats, and shore since I was a child. Kayaking has been all whitewater variety and I paddled almost daily for 5+ years. This being said, life happens and it has been about 8 years since I have been in my whitewater boat. My main motivation for getting a kayak over a canoe was that there have been too many days that the wind has ruined my fishing when a canoe was the vessel. I wanted something that had a chance to get me out there when it was blowing.
About the Jackson Kayak Big Tuna
Transport
This is a Big and Heavy Boat. I am able to car top it by myself on my 2010 Honda Pilot but I would never tell anyone that it is easy. I opted for the Yakima HullyRollers and Mako Saddles as they were the only thing I found that comfortably handled the weight of the boat. They held it well and made loading and unloading a little easier. I read another review where the author said “Unloading at the ramp was a cinch!” I laughed out loud. Unless you have it on a trailer, there is no way I would agree with that statement. I also removed the seats and the Tuna Tank to lighten it up a bit and that did make a difference. Don’t get discouraged, the rest of what I have to say makes it worth it!
Next week I am taking it on a road trip to the Adirondack State park in NY. I have some ideas about how to transport with the seats in and fully outfitted. I will need help to load and unload it, but it will save me some precious cargo space for our family vacation. I will post and update on this when I get back.
Launching
Once it was off the truck it only took me a few minutes to get the seats in and everything ready to go. It was very easy to set up. Launching was a snap and we were on the river. I set it up with the front seat in the high position for my son and the rear on in the low position.
Paddling
First impression was that I wasn’t a big fan of the low position so I immediately moved the rear seat to the high position while on the water. There was absolutely no issue with this. I loosened the strap holding the seat down slid forward and lifted the seats onto the risers. I was surprised how stable the boat was while doing this. I later realized that I didn’t like the low position because it requires a low angle paddle stroke. From my whitewater days, I naturally have a very high angle stroke that works very well from the high position. This had me immediately wishing that I had opted for the 240cm Werner Corryvrecken (high angle design) paddle over the Camano (low angle design). Other than this, the Camano worked well and 240cm is definitely the right length for me.
From there I paddled to across the river to an island to fish the shore upstream. The wind was blowing nicely which allowed us to drift upstream controlling the boat with the rudder. We did this for almost an hour and a half and I couldn’t have been happier that I opted for the rudder. I was amazed at how well I could control the boat with it. I also found that the rod staging bungee cords are a great paddle holder. It is quick, easy and holds the paddle very securely. Once we had had our fill I had to turn around and got to see how this boat really paddled.
I was about a mile or so upstream and the wind had picked up quite a bit. I felt my hat lifting several times and being caught by the strap. In some sections, the water was beginning to white cap. I was a little nervous about getting back and immediately thought that I would be screwed if I was in a canoe. I spun the boat easily with the help of the rudder and headed directly into the wind and current. I was pleasantly surprised how well the boat tracked and was able to maintain a very good clip the whole way back to the take out. I am a fairly strong paddler and while a little out of practice, I feel like I have very decent form. This may have helped. One other note on this; as long as I was paddling we were good, if I stopped we would weathervane as soon as we lost our glide. With my light son in the front, this wasn’t a big surprise.
Overall I love how it paddled, it basically tracked well when I needed it to and turned when needed that, what else can you ask for in a paddle craft!
Fishing
One thing I immediately noticed is that I need to change my fishing habits. As I said before, I am a novice kayak fisherman. I brought along my tackle bag which quite frankly was in the way the whole time. This boat is a tackle bag! About half way through the trip I was so frustrated I took everything I needed out of the bag and spreading it around the boat.
- One Plano box on either side of the seat
- One on either side of my thighs in the bungies
- My tools in the pouch under the seat
- My plastics in the bag on the back on the seat.
- The Tackle Bag in the back dry storage, never to be seen again!
I was much happier now and everything was in reach and very easy to access. This was a fundamental shift for me that I am very happy with. Rod storage was great, I used the holders behind the rear seat and my son used the stagers up front. No issues with either.
Everything else was equally as pleasant from a fishability perspective. My son actually stood a good bit of the time and was very comfortable. I stood for a bit and let’s just say it is something I will have to get used to. I was fine until a boat wake came rolling in and the rocking was a little unsettling. There was also plenty of room for two people to fish comfortably. You do have to pay attention but you do not feel like you are in each other’s way. We did appropriately slime the boat with a Bass each.
Moving Forward
This week I am heading to upstate NY for some trout fishing on some small lakes and then to Maine around the 4th for some large lake Bass Fishing. I will try to keep this updated as a rolling review.
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