Kayaking the Nashua River
I just bought a Native Watercraft Manta Ray 12 on Wednesday and finally got on the Nashua River tonight for 2 hrs. The Nashua is a wide river with a decent flow, no white water. I launched at the canoe/kayak put-in by the Rt 119 bridge in Groton.
I have not rigged the yak for fishing yet, I want to get used to it and try it “raw” before starting to customize. I primarily fly fish with the occasional spin casting.
I have a reasonable amount of paddling experience with recreational kayaks and a lot with canoe. This is my first sot. Getting in and out is amazingly easy! The seat and cockpit are very comfortable – no knee banging like on a sit in. I’m 6’2 and 240# so cramped cockpits are a bummer.
The Manta Ray handled very nicely, had good speed and maneuvered well. I clipped my 9′ fly rod in the right paddle holder for this trip. Once I fished, I just tucked it under my leg and paddled to the next spot or re-oriented in the river. I didn’t bring an anchor – intending to just drift with the current and cast. It required the occasional paddle drag or stroke to keep oriented. Would a rudder allow me to control orientation while drifting with the current or do they only work when you are going faster or slower than the water?
From this trip I think I determined a few things:
- I’ll probably rig my anchor trolley on the starboard side (I’m a righty fly casting).
- The angled console seems like a good place to mount a ff / gps. Tonight I used a portable handheld Norcross Hawkeye FF3355 and a Garmin 60C GPS and duck taped them in place. I think a combo finder/gps makes sense.
- I have a Scotty fly rod holder that I think I’ll mount on the flat top of the console. For traveling, I can keep an eye on my rod, seems like a good place to troll a fly from too.
- I’ll outfit a crate with some rod tubes for trolling, an anchor container and tackle.
- I need a foam cubby for my “beverage” can. My DC got warm too quickly.
It was a great 2 hours! Caught a really nice perch and several 2 1/2 – 3 # large mouths.