For at least a decade now, kayak fishing has been one of the fastest growing sectors of the angling scene here in Australia, as well as in many other parts of the world. Interestingly, this phenomenon shows little sign of slowing. Sales of kayaks and related paraphernalia continue to boom, marking this as one of the strongest niches in the marine and boating industry. I must admit that I’ve been a little slow to embrace the whole kayak “thing”. I spent lots of time sitting (usually with a wet bum) in various Canadian-style canoes throughout my early fishing career, and I was delighted when I could finally afford to graduate to a “real” boat. Don’t get me wrong: canoes have their place, and I’ve enjoyed some wonderful times in them. However, once you’ve fished from a craft that’s sufficiently large and stable to stand up in, especially one with a raised casting deck, it’s very hard to willingly go back to the low, cramped, unstable and often wet confines of a canoe. There were also other factors holding me back from kayak fishing. One was a perception that many ’yak fishers, as well as those who catered to their equipment needs, seemed to be missing the whole point of simple, minimalist boating. Some of the ’yak rigs I saw on the water and in magazines or videos had more “fruit” hanging off them in the way of electronics and accessories than my 4.8 metre trailer boat! Some actually required dedicated trailers of their own just to get them to the water’s edge, and half an hour or more of fiddling, tweaking and setting up before they were good to go. Wasn’t portability and ease of use supposed to be the whole point of ’yakking?...