Fishing Kayak to Solo Skiff – making the switch

With a lot of people making the switch from a fishing kayak to the Solo Skiff we get asked a lot of questions, so this article may hopefully help those people. The first thing that comes to mind is to outright say:

The Solo Skiff is a motorized kayak – a hybrid, part fishing kayak, part power boat, part paddle board, and you get the benefits from all the above.

It’s like a kayak, yet like a boat, yet like a paddle board won’t swamp. Not being human powered to get to and from fishing grounds is what its all about, because to not have to fight wind, current, fatigue, etc opens the door to longer trips, quicker trips, and you fish more because instead of spending 2 hours paddling, you spend 15 minutes under power and the rest fishing !! But,like a kayak, you can paddle the Solo up close to the fish, and like a yak, its dead quiet. So again, its the best of both worlds, power to go the distance,and human power up close for the stalk (unless you use a trolling motor then its all hands off)
Now, the next big change relates to the whole cockpit concept of the Solo Skiff. Look at the Solo Skiff cockpit. You can move about easily. You can walk all over it.

This is a huge difference from a normal kayak.

Now I know you can move in a yak, but in a Solo Skiff you can easily move your feet around.

There are no foot wells, hatches, pedals, etc. on the floor. This goes a long way in being comfortable.

To get up and stretch, or stand and cast, you don’t have to worry about tripping on anything, you can place your feet wherever is comfortable for you. The Solo was designed so you can stand and fish all day if you like! Now, under your seat you have another huge benefit- storage. Because it is located under you in the cockpit, you have easy access to as much gear as you can store as well as a built in cooler on the front deck.

A major thing this little one man fishing boat does much better than ANY other fishing kayak is – offer a fly fisherman an awesome platform.

A fly fisherman needs:

• No snags
• Line stripping area
• Stability
• Rod Storage

The Solo Skiff is much more friendly than any sit on top kayak for a fly fisherman due to it’s design, it simply works better.

Solo is a more stable platform, has a huge area to strip fly line with no line snagging hardware, and you can easily stand easy. Being someone that has spent MANY HOURS fly fishing, I know the ups and downs of each. Next is rigging. Switching to a Solo Skiff from the aspect of a kayak really is not that different concerning rigging,other than we do not attach a ton of stuff to it- why ? I’ll explain.

Any piece of hardware that can be purchased for a skiff, or a kayak can be easily mounted to a solo skiff.

So we believe to let customers put stuff where you want it, not where we guess you want it. The Solo Skiff having the open layout and flat areas it has offers the DIY guy (or your dealer) many options to do custom rigging. From rod holders, lights, anchor accessories, to a live well, there are a ton of things you can do with a solo skiff.

There is a big difference rigging a kayak that has gear all over it VS one that does not and you have to do it to fully appreciate the difference.

If you have a question about what you can rig on one, just ask. There are also so many small accessories available to the kayak fisherman, and any of them can be added to a Solo Skiff (being reasonable) it is simply a matter of where you want it. You can access almost the entire inside of the hull for thru bolting if needed so mounting things secure is easy. The hull being over 1/2” thick adds to the strength of mounts.

There it is, the Solo Skiff… the power and storage of a boat, the stealth of a kayak, the openness of a paddle board
If your thinking about making the switch, and have a question we did not cover ? call us. We will be happy to help you figure out what will work best for you, regardless of what it is.