General Kayak Fishing Discussions
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kingiFiddler
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:42 pm
- Kayak Make: Phoenix
- Kayak Model: Hornet
- Location: Mangawhai
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Blazer60
- Posts: 1066
- Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2013 3:51 pm
- VHF Call Sign: ZMW5911 - Blazer60
- Location: Whitby, Wellington
Wed Jan 17, 2018 11:34 am
Just purchased a nice piece of Cedar so about to embark on my first GP build. Let the chips fall where they may.. I know there's a GP in this length of timber somewhere.
Blazer60
Stealth Fisha 500 ZMW5911
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kingiFiddler
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:42 pm
- Kayak Make: Phoenix
- Kayak Model: Hornet
- Location: Mangawhai
Wed Jan 17, 2018 4:19 pm
Good luck with it.
My next one will still be native timbers but ultra thin. There may or may not be unidirectional carbon fibre between the laminations. Buggered if I know if it'll work.
The one after that will be native too, but 100% Tanekaha. Just have to let the timber season before I dare use it.
Couldn't give a rat's backside if they all fall apart or have me going in circles. As long as learn something along the way.
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Blazer60
- Posts: 1066
- Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2013 3:51 pm
- VHF Call Sign: ZMW5911 - Blazer60
- Location: Whitby, Wellington
Mon Jan 29, 2018 8:05 pm
Progress, blades starting to emerge. Loom next. Lots of learning, couldn't do it without my six friends.
Blazer60
Stealth Fisha 500 ZMW5911
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Hairy Little Dwarf
- Moderator
- Posts: 7023
- Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2008 9:39 am
- Kayak Make: Phoenix
- Kayak Model: Hornet
Mon Jan 29, 2018 8:37 pm
Nice colour flow in that one.
Phoenix Hornet - Specialty Assault Craft
Dad! Dad! Look at his fish! It's way bigger than anything you've EVER caught! - Nosey 7-8yo boy on opening my icebox to father strapping down his $XXX Stabicraft 759(?) - Gold. Pure Gold.
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kingiFiddler
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:42 pm
- Kayak Make: Phoenix
- Kayak Model: Hornet
- Location: Mangawhai
Mon Jan 29, 2018 9:22 pm
Noice. I still can't get the loom shape right for me. Seems like I want different shapes depending on the conditions. Probably just inexperience.
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Blazer60
- Posts: 1066
- Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2013 3:51 pm
- VHF Call Sign: ZMW5911 - Blazer60
- Location: Whitby, Wellington
Tue Jan 30, 2018 2:34 pm
A little way off shaping the edges but I have absorbed all the advice I can garner around how they should end up. I have a ‘professionally made’ stick as a template so that serves as a good reference point. Thanks.
Blazer60
Stealth Fisha 500 ZMW5911
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Hairy Little Dwarf
- Moderator
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- Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2008 9:39 am
- Kayak Make: Phoenix
- Kayak Model: Hornet
Tue Jan 30, 2018 2:43 pm
Blazer60 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 30, 2018 2:34 pm
I have a ‘professionally made’ stick as a template so that serves as a good reference point. Thanks.
I'm fairly sure Max has taken to thinning his edges right down now he's got more water hours with them.
(He agreed with me that my flashy whizz-bang carbon stick was horrible to use too

)
- As an aside, he's in the throes of making a SOF at the moment, frame just about done last I saw
Wood all the way

Phoenix Hornet - Specialty Assault Craft
Dad! Dad! Look at his fish! It's way bigger than anything you've EVER caught! - Nosey 7-8yo boy on opening my icebox to father strapping down his $XXX Stabicraft 759(?) - Gold. Pure Gold.
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Mac50L
- Posts: 451
- Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 9:27 am
- Kayak Make: SeaLand
- Kayak Model: Mac50L
- Location: Banks Peninsula
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Contact:
Wed Jan 31, 2018 10:04 pm
Hairy Little Dwarf wrote: ↑Tue Jan 30, 2018 2:43 pm
- As an aside, he's in the throes of making a SOF at the moment, frame just about done last I saw
Serioius stuff, full marks.
Wood all the way

Definitely yes, I've always paddled my wooden kayaks with wooden paddles - for the last 4 decades.
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Blazer60
- Posts: 1066
- Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2013 3:51 pm
- VHF Call Sign: ZMW5911 - Blazer60
- Location: Whitby, Wellington
Sat Feb 03, 2018 3:29 pm
First coat on board. Well pleased with first effort. Heaps learned and a very satisfying project.
Blazer60
Stealth Fisha 500 ZMW5911
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kingiFiddler
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:42 pm
- Kayak Make: Phoenix
- Kayak Model: Hornet
- Location: Mangawhai
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kingiFiddler
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:42 pm
- Kayak Make: Phoenix
- Kayak Model: Hornet
- Location: Mangawhai
Thu Feb 15, 2018 3:34 pm
Blazer, it's been two weeks. How did the new paddle go on its maiden voyage?
I'll finish up GP2 and GP3 this weekend, all going well. Still experimenting so am not sure which, if either, will paddle OK.
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Blazer60
- Posts: 1066
- Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2013 3:51 pm
- VHF Call Sign: ZMW5911 - Blazer60
- Location: Whitby, Wellington
Thu Feb 15, 2018 4:30 pm
Blazer, it's been two weeks. How did the new paddle go on its maiden voyage?
Great. There was some flutter on the power strokes from a dead in the water position but, changing the angle of attack sorted that. I will trim down the edges of the blade a little more and be a little more precious around the shaping of the blade faces of opposing sides. My eye is still adjusting to getting that harmony between each face. So once I've tweaked this paddle and started the next I'm hoping to grow that skill set. That said, really chuffed with it. They aren't a fast start paddle as you know but, once underway I just love the ease with which you can generate some impressive go-forward. Even in a weighty Reload.
Buying the next length on the weekend.

Blazer60
Stealth Fisha 500 ZMW5911
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kingiFiddler
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:42 pm
- Kayak Make: Phoenix
- Kayak Model: Hornet
- Location: Mangawhai
Fri Feb 16, 2018 8:45 am
Good for you. If you get the chance, after a few outings could you try your euro paddle again and see how that now feels? I'm just wondering if yours will be like my experience and it felt so ugly that I gave up after about 100m. Also keen to learn what you settle on for the loom shape. It's still a mystery for me. I really like the oval shape for short sessions but much prefer a rounded rectangle for longer paddles. Still trying to work out the ideal shape to compromise. And then there is the option that HLD mentioned, of changing the orientation of the loom to pitch the blades at a more natural angle.
Trouble is, cedar is bloody expensive. I snagged some offcuts from a job to do GP2&3 but would not be willing to afford it while experimenting otherwise. Maybe once I've totally nailed down the best paddle shape I splurge on cedar.
The two I am in the process of making are laminated cedar and it's great to put them side by side and see the differences. There are plenty, even on the flex depending on whether heart or sap cedar was used.
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Mac50L
- Posts: 451
- Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 9:27 am
- Kayak Make: SeaLand
- Kayak Model: Mac50L
- Location: Banks Peninsula
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Contact:
Fri Feb 16, 2018 9:46 pm
kingiFiddler wrote: ↑Fri Feb 16, 2018 8:45 am
Good for you. If you get the chance, after a few outings could you try your euro paddle again and see how that now feels? I'm just wondering if yours will be like my experience and it felt so ugly that I gave up after about 100m.
I'd also like to hear the result. Maybe haggle over whether 80 metres or 110 metres.
Also keen to learn what you settle on for the loom shape. It's still a mystery for me. I really like the oval shape for short sessions but much prefer a rounded rectangle for longer paddles.
I'm starting to suggest the latter (rectangular) for all paddles but expect it would be shovelling @#$% up hill.
Trouble is, cedar is bloody expensive.
What!!!??? About $20 for a paddle? I read about Brits paying the NZ equivalent of $1000 for a Euro paddle.
That less than $20 gets me a plank ~20 mm thick, just over a handspan wide and just over 2 metres long.
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kingiFiddler
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:42 pm
- Kayak Make: Phoenix
- Kayak Model: Hornet
- Location: Mangawhai
Fri Feb 16, 2018 10:03 pm
To be honest, I never really priced just enough for a paddle. $20 sounds way better than I thought it would be. I just bought 5 lengths of cedar for a pergola extension job I'm on and that came to almost $900 so didn't even bother doing the math on one stick for a paddle. On the matter of length, GP2&3 are longer than 2m. I found our fishing yaks are relatively wide and I have been scraping the side of the yak or my fingers, so I've widened the loom but kept the blade length the same. They are now slightly further out on the lever so I'm thinking that even though I wanted to try a slightly wider blade (but still get my midget mitts around the end of the blade), I'll see how it feels to have the blade a bit further out on the lever. It might be all the load I'm comfortable with.
So many ideas and things to experiment with, so little time.
Last edited by
kingiFiddler on Sat Feb 17, 2018 8:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Blazer60
- Posts: 1066
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- VHF Call Sign: ZMW5911 - Blazer60
- Location: Whitby, Wellington
Sat Feb 17, 2018 8:03 am
I think my length of WRC was around $60. Loom shape: I didn't commit to a particular shape at the start. My one and only GP has a round loom so if anything, that was the default. I'd read all the commentary around the options and I could connect with the rectangular logic. What I ended up with was probably edging closer to rectangular than round, and that was more by happenstance than a predetermined plan. Either way, it is comfortable. I reckon for the next one it'll be the same methodology, just see where it takes me.
kingiFiddler wrote: ↑Fri Feb 16, 2018 10:03 pm
I found our fishing yaks are relatively wide and I have been scraping the side of the yak or my fingers, so I've widened the loom but kept the paddle length the same. They are now slightly further out on the lever .....
Agree. My home made GP has a longer loom than my bought one for that reason and I found that with the original one I did have my hands embracing more blade than root of the loom. The longer loom suits. I also manufactured it broader in the shoulder. This had had the effect of creating more blade surface area from that taper up to the widest part of the blade.
Blazer60
Stealth Fisha 500 ZMW5911
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Hairy Little Dwarf
- Moderator
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- Kayak Make: Phoenix
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Sat Feb 17, 2018 11:21 am
Go for the KASK laminated version. Get 5 blades for $90
I sell the first paddle from each batch which pays for all 5, plus enough Epiglue, oil and sandpaper to cover the next 10 blades.
Plus, you can mix up the laminates from different boards to get nice contrasts
In this temperature, I can whack out a blade from first cut, to last coat of oil in a weekend (Still give the epiglue a week to do it's thing before the baptism though)
Phoenix Hornet - Specialty Assault Craft
Dad! Dad! Look at his fish! It's way bigger than anything you've EVER caught! - Nosey 7-8yo boy on opening my icebox to father strapping down his $XXX Stabicraft 759(?) - Gold. Pure Gold.
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kingiFiddler
- Posts: 247
- Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:42 pm
- Kayak Make: Phoenix
- Kayak Model: Hornet
- Location: Mangawhai
Sat Feb 17, 2018 11:36 am
Hairy Little Dwarf wrote: ↑Sat Feb 17, 2018 11:21 am
Plus, you can mix up the laminates from different boards to get nice contrasts
And different flexes too. I was surprised at the difference. Learning at every turn

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