Newbie Recommendation for a Do-It-All Yak

Greetings everyone! Apologies in advance, but knowing myself, I know this will be a long-winded post.

I'm new here. I live in Roseville (just outside Sacramento), and am looking for my first kayak. I love being on the water, love renting kayaks whenever I can, even taken a few classes for sit-on-top and sit-inside kayaks. I've also been an an angler my whole life. Although I've never combined kayaking and fishing, it's something I've always wanted to do. So, naturally, that's one of the main reasons I joined this board.

So, I'm looking for a recommendation for my first fishing kayak, right? Well, it's a little more complicated. Since this will be my first, I need it to serve multiple purposes, and I have multiple requirements (or at least "wants"), at least until I can afford to buy multiple:

- It needs to be relatively fast and efficient. Touring will be one of my primary uses, at least initially. I turn 50 next year, and with every major decade, I try to do something I've never done before. For 50, I plan to circumnavigate Lake Tahoe over 5 days (paddling ~ 4-5 hours per day). No, I don't expect it to be as fast as a sit-inside touring kayak, but I don't want to feel like I'm paddling a barge either.

- It needs to have reasonably decent primary and secondary stability. I don't expect to be doing any standup fishing on it. But I will occasionally be providing water safety duties at local triathlons, and it needs to be stable enough for a panicked swimmer to grab on, without capsizing it (although it still happens sometimes).

- It needs to be light enough for me to carry solo. It will be transported atop either a Subaru Outback or Mazda CX5, so not too high of a lift. I've got decent upper body strength, but I realize that as I approach 50, I'm no spring chicken any more, and my joints and tendons are starting to complain a lot more now. I would probably rule out anything significantly over 75 lbs.

- I'm not inclined to spend more than $600ish (not including paddle, etc.), and I'm very receptive to buying a used older model if it is worth it. (With that said, I'm not super keen on spending that amount for a rotomolded poly yak that's 10+ years old, unless you convince me otherwise.)

- And of course, it should be decent for fishing. Probably limited to smaller lakes near me and in the Sierras. I don't anticipate mounting a trolling motor -- if I ever got serious enough about it, I would probably wait until I got one of those big, heavy floating-tackle-box-barges.

OK! With that out of the way, let me mention some of the yaks I've been considering, and what I've learned about them.

Wilderness Tarpon 160i - Harks back to an time when fishing yaks weren't big and heavy. Highly favorable reviews. But with its last year of production being 2009, it's going to be at least 10 years old.

Wilderness Tarpon 160 (most recent models) - Heavier than the 160i, but also a drier ride, and much great seat out-of-the-box. No longer produced, so it's going to be at least a few years old (which is fine).

Wilderness Tarpon 14 / 12 - Current models, readily available (especially the 12 at reasonable prices). But how much do I lose in speed/gliding?   

Ocean Kayak Scupper Pro - Like the WO 160i, it's from the era of more svelte kayaks. Fast. But a very wet ride, from what I'm told.

Eddyline Caribbean 14 - I've never seen one in person, and way out of my price range at the current time, even used. But people seem to love it. Worth the wait to save up? Buy once, cry once?

OK, I'll shut up now. Interested in hearing your thoughts!

(P.S. If it helps, I'm just shy of 5'-10", and currently a husky 220 lbs....Hey, are you looking at my gut? I'm working on it!)

Contact Headwaters in Lodi and get a demo on a Crescent Kayaks UltraLite or LiteBite...just a bit more than your price range but I think it would be a fit for what you're looking at.


Either way, Headwaters should be able to provide you demos of several options in your price range for new.  Used is fine but can be difficult to find.  I find glide is a "nice to have", but I would stay away from a 16' as your first boat. I'd stay in 12-14' range.

Thanks bmb. Someone else mentioned Headwaters (in my Intro post) too. Sounds like I need to take a morning to get down there and demo some models.

im a fan of the trident 13 / 15 pretty good all around kayaks i have a 13 you can try out if you want feel free to shoot me a pm i usually get fri and sat off and can do the port of sac or something im out in vacaville so either there or the sloughs if you want to

It is a tough answer because kayaks are very personal choices, like surfboards or skis. It all depends on where you prefer your compromises to be.

I use a 2005 Tarpon 140, I haven't upgraded because I haven't found a better kayak for me yet, and the yak has held up so well. Positives on the WS models are thicker plastic that feels stiffer on the water.

The Eddyline yaks are great boats, the main complaint I've heard is they position the paddler too high and that costs you some COG, especially in windy conditions. Eddyline build a great product though and I dig the low weight of the hull.
Ocean kayak Trident is a tried and true model. Great hatches but I prefer adjustable foot pegs to the indents.