Review Of Jackson Kayak Cuda/fishing Presidents Day weekend

I showed up to pick up my rental for President's Day weekend and it turned out that I was in luck, the Cudas had come in. I had enjoyed paddling the Coosa so much on the Mokelumne that when Dan mentioned there was a longer version he might have, perfect for the trolling I was going to try over the weekend, I couldn't help but get excited.  At first glance I saw how long the kayak was and asked," will that fit in my truck bed?" Dan's reply was, "let's find out." So we strapped the 14 foot long Cuda into my 7 foot long (with the tailgate down) truck bed and made sure to attach the handy included Jackson Kayak Red flag to the end. Miraculously the strapped down kayak was stable enough to go down the highway. Now all I had to focus on was getting up to New Melones and catching some trout while trolling from a kayak, which was a totally new experience for me.

I arrived on Friday evening and couldn't wait to test out the boat. My buddy and I carried it down the bank and dropped it into the water. I grabbed my fishing gear and was ready to roll. I was very pleased with all of the storage found in the Cuda. The center hatch I found particularly sweet because you could stow a fully rigged extra rod in it and with a little work be able to access it while out on the water. I made sure to put the seat in the high position. As far as I'm concerned that is a major selling point of these boats. They're like kayak recliners. Another bonus of the seat is that you can store items that you may need quick acces to right under you so they are easily reachable. So off I went for an hour long troll.

My first impression in the boat is that it does not have the rock solid stability of the Coosa. That being said, even with my limited experience in Kayaks and even with the seat in the hi position I never felt at any point like I was going to fall out of the boat. My next thought was how easily the boat was propelled along, probably thanks to the fact that the Cuda is narrower and therefore less stable than the Coosa. The trout were rising on the surface of the water so we spent the weekend trolling with no weight. At most I would take 3 paddle strokes and then glide for sometimes half a minute, in order to keep from going too fast and having my lure break the surface of the water. I went to bed that night skunked, but looking forward to playing with the Cuda more tomorrow.

I was enjoying paddling the Cuda. In the hi seat position I couldn't have been more comfortable while still getting exercise. We made it out onto the main body of the lake and I knew this is where the true test of the Cuda would happen. There was a bass tournament going on over the weekend and since there wasn't any wind, Bass boats blasting past me at 65mph would be the only waves I would see. I took wake from every angle possible and never felt even close to flipping, despite having a higher center of gravity in the high seat. The only dowside to the entire 4 hour paddles was that despite switching to every lure I could think of I still had yet to catch a trout.

Finally I had to do the ultimate test. Jackson Kayak says that the Cuda is stand up stable, they even include a littl strap to help pull yourself up with. I made sure to do this test close to shore so if I fell in, it wouldn't be the end of the world. I grasped the strap and stood up. The first thing I noticed was that while I can stand up in the boat, I wouldn't exactly call it stable. As I was standing I was definitely teetering from side to side trying to stay in the boat. Keep in mind that I am 6'1'' and about 180lbs, so I'm not exaclty built for stablity. The long and short of it is that I could stand up and not flip the Cuda in flat water, but I certainly wasn't going to cast in a standing position. My thoughts on standing in a kayak are this: It's a kayak, it's made for paddling, not standing.

Overall I would definitely recommend the Cuda to anyone looking for an extremeley comfortable boat for trolling and doing other open water activites.

Not to be forgotten, I did catch a limit of trout over the weekend.

-Bill