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| My new fleet of Native Watercraft Ultimate 14.5 hybrid kayaks. Their stability is unmatched. |
Of course, selecting a kayak is a personal thing. What’s good for one angler might not be good for another.
With that in mind, I’ve witnessed an interesting phenomenon over the last year. I’ve seen the sales of Native Watercraft’s Ultimate 14.5 skyrocket, while other brands have stayed the course or even plummeted in sales.
Why is that?
Well, I’m probably not the right guy to explain this because I’m a Native Watercraft-endorsed guide. I can try to provide an objective opinion, but, of course, I’m biased.
I hooked up with Native Watercraft in 2007 shortly after the company unveiled its Ultimate line (http://www.nativewatercraft.com/ult_14.cfm) of fishing vessels. The Ultimate isn’t your typical “sit-on-top” fishing boat. It’s more correctly called a “hybrid.” It’s sort of a cross between a kayak and canoe.
Some argue it’s not a kayak at all. I don’t care. They can call it an apricot and I’ll still keep fishing out of it.
What attracted me was the Ultimate’s spacious interior, its tunnel-hull design and that fact that I could stand up and sight-fish. Imagine the advantage you have when you can actually stand up. The boat also tracks extremely well and is efficient.
I was fishing out of a Heritage Redfish 14 at the time. I owned three of them and they did the job.
Since Heritage and Native Watercraft were owned by the same company (Legacy Paddlesports), I was allowed to purchase an Ultimate and fish out of it. The lone caveat was that my clients still out to fish out of the Heritages.
A couple of years later, Native Watercraft invited me to join its guide network, a hand-chosen group scattered across the country.
I jumped at the chance.
I had discovered the Ultimate was the ultimate.
So, I sold the Heritages and bought two additional Ultimates.
I guess part of the gig as an endorsed guide is to sell the boats to the clients. At least we’re supposed to extol their virtues so the clients go out and buy them.
I don’t have to say a word; they sell themselves.
They’re certainly the most comfortable fishing kayaks on the market today.
When it came time to upgrade my fleet, I put the three older Ultimates up for sale. All were sold in less than two hours. And I had a waiting list of more than 20 hopeful anglers – just in case one of the buyers backed out.
None did. One of the buyers was from Sarasota, one from Tampa and one from Daytona Beach. They all bought their boats sight unseen and no one even tried to haggle the price.
You can paddle your sit-on-top. You can pedal in your Hobie.
But you’ll never fish out of a more comfortable kayak than Native Watercraft’s Ultimate.
And my clients are all the proof you need. I’ve had anglers up to 82 years of age and no complaints.
The fish don’t always bite as often as we’d like, but we don’t have sore rear ends at the end of the day.
Steve Gibson
Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing
www.kayakfishingsarasota.com
http://gibbysfishingblog.blogspot.com/
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