Why “Just Buy A Bass Boat” Gets Kayak Fishing All Wrong (Video)

Spend enough time in the kayak fishing world and you’ll start to notice there are two types of kayak fisherman— or at least, two types of kayak fisherman who are loud online.

On one hand you have the tech enthusiasts. The kayak fisherman who invest in fish finders or rig up Starlink on their boat. Often these kayak anglers engage in tournaments and competitions or are YouTube content creation; they’re the sort of anglers for whom kayak fishing has become their whole life and likely eaten up most of their wallet.

On the other side of the fence you have the good old-fashioned kayak anglers, the folks who believe that the heart and soul of kayak fishing boils down to a kayak, a paddle, and a simple fishing rod and that’s the way it’s meant to be. These anglers tend to echo the same refrain: if you’re going to add bells, whistles, and a motor to your kayak, why not just get a bass boat?

Why “why not just get a bass boat” misses the point of kayak fishing

“I can take this kayak, put it on the flats in six inches of water and I can go catch redfish,” explained Justin Floyd in a TikTok video tackling that very question. “Or I can drop it on a 30,000 acre lake and go bass fishing. Or I can just put it on the pond in my backyard.”

@justinfloydoutdoors

Replying to @Preston Pretty simple really. Here’s why I prefer kayak fishing #fishing #bassfishing #fishing #bass

♬ original sound – Justin Floyd

Whether you fish with a budget fishing kayak or have a several thousand dollar rig, there’s great fishing to access in a kayak that in a bass boat you just can’t reach. Beyond fishing those sweet shallow backwaters, the increased maneuverability of a kayak, and general closeness to the water, even the most expensive kayak fishing rigs don’t hold a candle to the cost of a bass boat.

“This thing right here takes a whopping zero gallons of gas per year,” explained Floyd. “How many times are you filling up that bass boat per year?”

Ultimately, no matter the rigging a fishing kayak is still a kayak.

“At the end of the day I don’t want to be in a boat. I want to be in a kayak. I think fishing is more fun out of a kayak and that’s the bottom line,” added Floyd. “You cannot beat the feeling of catching a 40-inch redfish out of a little 12-foot plastic boat.”

How do you spend $10,000 on a kayak?

While Floyd fully answered the question of why kayak fishing with an expensive rig is still kayak fishing in his first video, he took to a follow up video to explain how exactly a kayak angler might find themselves spending upwards of $10,000 on a kayak.

@justinfloydoutdoors

Replying to @user1602275280813 This is how to spend $10,000 on a kayak #bassfishing #kayakfishing #bassfishing

♬ original sound – Justin Floyd

“Well technically you don’t, you spend about $10,000 on electronics and accessories. Usually on my kayaks I’m running dual motors, so bow and stern,” shared Floyd.

Floyd shared that his motors cost around from $1500 and batteries for those motors $600 to $1200. From here, you add in fish finders, transducers, live scopes, rod holders, a variety of mounts, lights, and other accessories and without the kayak, paddle, or PFD even included in cost you can quickly find yourself looking at over a $10,000 kayak fishing rig.

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