Kayak drives

Looking at (finally) getting my first kayak for both surf/offshore and delta trips after my knee heals.    Obviously a bigger version, as I'm 6'6" 240 to start with, but wanted to get perspective from the fly community (especially as it possibly relates to standing and possibly sight-casting, which is why the space considerations are in play in the poll.

Thank you for the insight!

I could not imagine trying to stand up on a kayak. I have a hard enough time getting off the floor from a seated position.
Fly fishing from a seated position is easy enough. At 6'6 you are sight fishing just as well from a seated position as some that would be standing. 
As far as the drive getting in the way; a little getting used to and you won't even know it is there.
I paddled for a decade before I got a Hobie in 2009. Won't go back to paddling if I don't have to.

There are a lot of different kayak styles and they fit different purposes.  Go with the one that your going to enjoy the most for the type of fishing you will be doing.  I obviously love Hobies, and my first Outback was incredible to me, being new to the whole fishing off a boat idea I thought it was perfect for everything.  And then after some time I decided I didn't really like how my OB handled in the ocean, so I gave a standard SOT a try.  Turns out that I much prefer a standard kayak for rock fishing, the lighter and longer the better because it handles much better than a short wide kayak through surf launches and feels safer in nasty conditions.  Still I love my Hobies other purposes, especially trolling and using a DR.  If you want to stand an fly fish there are a number of boats out there that are suitable to that purpose.  For example the Freedom Hawk is designed for exactly your purpose: https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/freedom-hawk-pathfinder/  But will it surf launch well, not really sure.  Or you can get something like a Hobie PA and that can be stood on, but it's very heavy and not something you want to car top, so a trailer is likely needed to transport.  If you can try before you buy that can help you decide.

My $0.02.  I have Native Titan.  I have not taken beyond the delta, but I stand up in it all the time to fly cast.  I find it super stable.  I can't imagine sitting and stripping streamers.  One pain is if if I'm in current, I am constantly going between sitting and standing to adjust kayak position.  Sometimes I drop anchor to hold position to work a section of bank then pull up and drift a bit to get to next section...  I'm not sure a typical kayak drive would handle this well.  A trolling motor with spot lock would be great but $$$.  (If I had to do again, I would have just bought a small aluminum with outboard and put on trolling motor.  by the time you trick out your kayak, you'll be thousand($) into it.  For my Native, I need a launch ramp anyway...)

My $0.02.  I have Native Titan.  I have not taken beyond the delta, but I stand up in it all the time to fly cast.  I find it super stable.  I can't imagine sitting and stripping streamers.  One pain is if if I'm in current, I am constantly going between sitting and standing to adjust kayak position.  Sometimes I drop anchor to hold position to work a section of bank then pull up and drift a bit to get to next section...  I'm not sure a typical kayak drive would handle this well.  A trolling motor with spot lock would be great but $$$.  (If I had to do again, I would have just bought a small aluminum with outboard and put on trolling motor.  by the time you trick out your kayak, you'll be thousand($) into it.  For my Native, I need a launch ramp anyway...)

I drag a 4' long big chain off the side of my kayak to drift with the tides in the delta.  It keeps me pointing at the shore pretty good too.

I am looking to buy a kayak, too. I have pretty much settled on one of two possibilities; a Hobie Outback because it is a fishing machine, and a NuCanoe Unlimited because it is not. The Outback has the Hobie 180 peddle drive with all of its pros and cons, well known, trusted and true, the NuCanoe’s new propeller drive peddle system is just coming into its own after a couple years of debugging and tweaking. I have confidence in both drive systems, concerns about Hobie, leaning toward NuCanoe.

If you want a kayak primarily for fishing, I think it is going to be very difficult to best the Outback simply because it is designed specifically for fishing, and specifically for peddle-power fishing. It works and it works really well. Yup, you can put a small motor on an Outback but it really is designed for the peddle system to be installed, as a peddle-drive fishing kayak. Any motor is an after-thought.

The NuCanoe is basically a clear, flat deck with rails for mounting stuff everywhere. If you buy one, Yak Attack is going to love you. Oh, and a simple 360° swivel chair, that’s it. No storage hatches, nothing. You need to buy the rudder system and paddle, or peddle unit, or batteries and a motor. It is designed for all three types of power; paddle, peddle or motor. From what I get from reviewers I think are accurate, you don’t really want to have to paddle either boat, especially the Unlimited. You want either a peddle or motor to move either an Outback or an Unlimited. There is no hole in the kayak floor for the peddle system in the Unlimited, it anchors in the rail system, in front of the chair, and uses a flexible cable to drive the prop on the rudder in back. It is efficient and virtually silent to operate. The column with the peddles folds forward to open a clear deck space between the seat and the peddle unit. It is designed so you can stand up in it.

Where I am at now:

Peddle-only for fishing kayak: Hobie Outback – I do not want to have to paddle it.
Peddle or motor for any use kayak: NuCanoe Unlimited – I really do not want to have to paddle it.

If you think you will ever want to put a motor on your kayak, the Outback may not be the best choice. Instead, look at NuCanoe and Old Town. From what NuCanoe is saying, the Unlimited with two 100AHr batts and an electric motor (2.5hp) will move the kayak for almost 10-hrs and cover 40 miles of water (4.5mph). You can easily go from Santa Barbara to Santa Catalina Island. And you can almost make it back.

There are plenty of pix of the Outback and its peddle system out there. Here is what the NuCanoe Unlimited with the optional peddle system looks like. You can see how the column with the peddles will open up the space between the peddle unit and seat when folded forward.



The Unlimited is very stable but can be flipped. Here is a video of Aliex Folgueira trying to flip it, he does, then trying to right it, again.

I have an Old Town PDL 120 and it is great for standing (though I don't do that much on the ocean where I fish primarily)

In relatively calm waters it is ridiculously stable. Look up some videos and you'll see people demonstrating this.