About a year ago, I got a the Canon DR that pmmpete mentions. I have not installed it yet, mostly because I’m not convinced that it’s better. It seems to me that braid will easily slip off of the pulley, which would be a disaster if the DR ball was deployed.

I've used a Canon Laketroll downrigger for many years with braided downrigger line, and have never had the line come off the pulley at the end of the boom when the downrigger ball was deployed.  And that has never occurred to me as a potential problem. However, I have had the downrigger line come off the pulley and get stuck between the side of the pulley and the inside of the pulley casing when I was transporting the downrigger.  When this happened, I had to cut off the downrigger weight, feed the downrigger line back through the pulley, and tie the weight back on.  To avoid this hassle, I keep the downrigger line under tension when transporting the downrigger.  I've installed a hook on the base of my LakeTroll downrigger so I can hang the weight on it when I'm not trolling so the weight won't swing around as the kayak rocks on waves.  I keep the weight on the hook when I'm transporting the downrigger, and keep the downrigger line tight so it won't come out of the groove in the pulley. 

I had a conversation with a fellow (former) kayaker who almost died in cold water.  He made a few mistakes that nearly cost him his life. 

1. Fished alone in the ocean. 
2. Went out on a fairly windy day with some significant swells.
3. Wore a dry suit that eventually filled with water after he went over and was in the water for 5 hours.
4. Never did a test to make sure he could get back on his yak... (he couldn't)

I'll always remember that conversation with him...

I snorkel and speargun for pike in Montana in a dry suit, typically spending 4-6 hours in the water, and the clothing I was wearing under the dry suit will be dry enough to wear on the drive home.  So it would be interesting to know why that former kayaker's dry suit got water in it.  One possibility is that he was wearing a semi-dry suit with neoprene gaskets rather than a real dry suit with latex gaskets.  A second possibility is that he failed to close a zipper all the way.  A third possibility is that the dry suit had been damaged and had leaks, such as from fish spines or teeth.  Whatever the reason he got water in his dry suit, the water would make it harder for him to climb back into his kayak.

But failing to become proficient at climbing back into his kayak ("self rescue") was a major error in judgment.  I almost did that when I bought a 12' Pro Angler 360, and assumed that I could climb back into it as easily as I can climb back into my other kayaks.  I can right my 13' Revolution and climb back onto it in about 20 seconds.  I snorkel and speargun from a 13' Ocean Kayak Trident, and climb back into it many times a day wearing 13-16 pounds of weights on my body and about 2.5 pounds on each ankle.  I bought a 12' Pro Angler 360 last November, and assumed that that I would be able to climb back into it as easily as I could climb back into my other kayaks.  But when the weather and water finally warmed up enough in the early summer that I felt like practicing self rescue in the Pro Angler, I was shocked to discover that it was much harder for me to climb back into the Pro Angler than it is for me to climb back into my other kayaks.  I'm getting old and feeble, and it took all my strength to climb back into the Pro Angler.  Sometimes I would hang up part of the way in.  I was concerned that in big waves and wind, which is the kind of conditions in which I might flip the pretty stable Pro Angler, I might pull the kayak over on top of myself while trying to re-enter it.  If that happened a couple of times in cold air and water conditions, I might become too tired to successfully climb back into the Pro Angler.  I experimented with various techniques and with rope ladders, but wasn't confident that I was certain to be able to climb back into the kayak in bad conditions.  So I installed a telescoping boat ladder on the bow of the Pro Angler, which makes it real easy for me to climb back into the kayak.  See my video:

Sometimes as I float around in my kayak, fishing and looking at the scenery, I compose haiku poems.  On a recent trip on a day when the mountains were covered by brightly colored trees and bushes, my dry suit neck gasket tore, fortunately as I was taking off the dry suit rather than as I was putting it on. That inspired the following haiku poem.

Fall leaves drop from trees
My dry suit neck gasket tore
All things end with death

Does anybody else have any kayak-fishing-inspired poetry?

Comfort question.
Is a back zipper a deal breaker in a kayak wetsuit? will it be a source of discomfort while in the seat?

A zipper across the shoulders of a drysuit should be well above the back of a kayak seat, so it isn't a comfort issue.  The issue is whether you can zip and unzip the back zipper by yourself.  Put on the dry suit and try to zip and unzip the zipper.  If you can't operate the zipper yourself, and would need to have a companion zip and unzip the zipper, don't buy the dry suit.

A story:  On a multi-day kayak trip on the Middle Fork of the Flathead, started by flying into Shaffer Meadows in the Big Bear Wilderness and floating out to the southern point of Glacier Park, a friend was wearing a rear-entry dry suit.  We stopped to scout a rapid which had cliffs on both sides, and didn't notice that the friend had stepped into the bushes to empty his bowels.  We ran the rapid and were sitting in the eddy below it when the friend emerged from the bushes, looked around, and saw us sitting in the eddy. His shoulders slumped, because he couldn't zip up his zipper by himself, and he couldn't hike down to us because of the cliffs.  We sat in the eddy and watched for about 15 minutes while he struggled with the zipper.  I think he finally managed to hook the zipper pull on a tree branch and use that to pull the zipper closed.

Here's an interesting drone video showing interactions between large sharks and kayaks, in particular kayaks dragging fish on a stringer:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpkuR4UuXVs .

An interesting thread with a lot of good opinions from experienced kayak anglers.  A lot of the people who replied favor wet suits. However, if you searched the Northwest Kayak Anglers forum, I think you'd find that almost all the kayak anglers favor drysuits.  I'm from Montana, and I definitely favor drysuits.  A drysuit lets me kayak in comfort and relative safety even in water temperatures only slightly above freezing and air temperatures below freezing, and in windy, rainy, and/or snowy conditions. 

Here is a YouTube video which shows how I have added a telescoping boat ladder to my Pro Angler to make re-entering the kayak easy and reliable in a self-rescue situation:



I don't have any problem re-entering my 13' Hobie Revolution, and can right the kayak and re-enter it in about 20 seconds without using any rescue equipment.  I snorkel and speargun for pike from my anchored 13' Ocean Kayak Trident, and re-enter it many times a day while wearing 13-16 pounds of weights on my body and about three pounds on each ankle.  However, after I bought a 12' Hobie Pro Angler 360, I discovered that it is much harder for me to re-enter that kayak than my other two sit-on-top kayaks.  It took a maximum physical effort for me to heave myself back into the kayak, and I often hung up part of the way in with the kayak pitched up at an angle. In big waves, wind, and/or surf, which is probably what would result in me ending up in the water, I could imagine waves dumping the kayak back over upside down several times before I succeeded in getting back into the kayak.  Because I do a lot of kayaking by myself in cold weather and cold water, I was concerned that in adverse conditions I might find myself unable to get back into the kayak. I experimented with rope ladders and various other techniques and equipment, but none of them were helpful.

Then I came across a YouTube video showing a telescoping boat ladder which a kayaker added to the stern of his Pro Angler.  It looked like a good idea.  However, the kayaker stated in his responses to several comments requesting video showing the ladder in use that he had never actually tried to use the ladder, which was rather bizarre.

But I decided to try the idea.  However, I didn't want to install the ladder on the stern of my kayak, because I would have to climb over or past a large hard-sided cooler, two kayak paddle halves, a net, a spare fishing rod, two water bottles, a pee funnel, two tackle bins, and the back of the kayak's seat. So I decided to install a ladder on the bow of my Pro Angler, because I would only need to crawl over the Mirage Drive pedals, and could keep a low center of gravity.

If you do an internet search on Google or Amazon for "boat ladder" or "telescoping boat ladder" you'll get results for many stainless steel boat ladders for installation at the stern of a motorboat to assist swimmers in getting back into the boat.  Many of the ladders were in the $45-$50 price range.  I bought a three step ladder, which is the appropriate size, and in a day or so I made a mount for the ladder which I bolted on the flat area on top of the bow of my Pro Angler, in front of the front hatch.

The ladder works beautifully.  It's easy for me to deploy when I'm in the water next to the Pro Angler, and it's very easy for me to climb up the ladder onto the bow of the kayak and move back into the kayak seat.  And I can deploy the ladder, climb in, and get the ladder folded and back on top of the bow quickly. I now feel much more secure while using the Pro Angler in threatening weather.

I carry the following tools in the cockpit of my kayaks: A fish bonker, a lip grabber, pliers for hook removal and assorted other chores, a pair of shears and a folding knife for cutting gills and bait and gutting fish, and a UV light for activating glow lures. Each of these tools is attached to a small retractor, or in the case of the lip grabber a larger retractor, so I won't lose them overboard, and so there will be minimal entanglement hazard if my kayak gets tipped over. Then I tie half of the retractors to a loop of cord about 2 inches in diameter, and the other half of the retractors to a similar loop. This makes it easy to attach all the tools to whatever kayak I'm using, or to detach them from the kayak at the end of the day.  I don't need to deal with a bunch of separate tools and leashes. See the first picture below.

In my 13' Hobie Revolution, I put one of the loops of cord over the mount for my rod holder, and the other loop of cord over the mount for my fish finder.  Then I put the tools into the mesh pocket next to that mount.  If I tip over, the tools will almost certainly stay in the mesh pockets.  The tools are readily available, and if I need to drop a tool when dealing with a large and irritated fish, I won't lose it because it's leashed.

I also have a 12' Hobie Pro Angler 360.  Hobie sells some hideously expensive boxes which mount on the H Rails next to the cockpit.  I bought two "Mainstays" ice cube bins from Walmart for two bucks each, and drilled holes in the bottom of each tray to let water drain out.  They fit perfectly next to the kayak's seat.  I tie a loop of cord around the base of each of the steering controls, I put the tools (attached together in groups to retractors as described above) in the ice cube bins, and then I clip each group of tools to the loop of cord around the steering controls with a Walmart mini-carabiner.

I also carry a big fish clip, which I attach to the kayak with a length of cord and a mini-carabiner.  I use this to get fish secured when they're in my net, and then to bleed them before putting them in my cooler.

I leash my fishing rods and net with the smallest size of retractable dog leashes.  If the cord for the retractor is attached to a rod and the kayak in an appropriate place, you won't even notice that it's there, but if the cord is attached to the rod and the kayak in inconvenient places, you can get the cord tangled up in the handle of your reel when casting or retrieving.  I attach the dog leash retractor for my active rod to the rod holder for that rod. For jigging or trolling rods, I tie a small loop of spectra or dyneema cord around the shaft of each rod and tape in in place about 10" in front of the reel.  This keeps the cord well away from the handle of the reel.  For casting rods, I drill a hole in the tip of the handle for the rod, put a loop of spectra or dyneema cord through the hole, and seal it in place with Marine Goop or Aquaseal. The loop has to be long enough to hang outside of whatever rod holder you are using for the rod.  When the retractor's cord is attached to the end of a casting rod's handle, it won't get tangled up in the handle of your reel when casting or retrieving.   

I attach retractable dog leashes for my spare rod and net to my kayak seat with cable ties, and put the spare rod and net in the molded-in rod holders behind the seat of my kayak.

I attach my tackle boxes to the bottom of my kayak seat, suspended an inch above the bottom of the cockpit to keep them dry.

The most important tool I carry in my kayak is a hardware store gas funnel with a foot or so of plastic hose stuck on its tip, which I use to pee while sitting comfortably in my kayak seat.  I run the hose into the drive hole of my kayak, or down a cockpit scupper hole in my Ocean Kayak Trident paddle kayak.  I attach the funnel to the back of my kayak seat with a small retractor, where I can grab it easily when the spirit (or the need to pee) moves me.

Another important tool I attach to my kayak is a simple wind direction indicator, which I put in the mast mount at the front of the cockpit of my Revolution and my Pro Angler.  See my post at https://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=18212.msg195603#msg195603. This tells me exactly the direction the wind is coming from, which is invaluable when you are trying to maintain your position over the bottom when jigging.

I attach my water bottles to my kayak seat with mini-carabiners and leashes which are less than a foot long, so they won't create any entanglement hazard.

I put a bilge pump and a selfie stick inside the hull of my kayak, under the hatch in front of the seat of my kayak, with a dry bag which contains my lunch and various other items.  In my Revolution, I clip the pump and selfie stick to the dry bag so they won't slide forward or backward inside the hull and become unavailable.  In my Pro Angler, they are corralled in place by the foam blocks which surround the area under the center hatch.

This sounds like a lot of gear, but I use it all, except for the bilge pump which I've fortunately never needed.  And the way I attach the gear to my kayaks keeps it readily available on the water, safe from loss, and easy to put in and take out of my kayaks.