I have taken up kayak fishing in the last couple of years as the advancements and access to water I can’t get my boat into made it too much for me to resist any longer. I’ve also been the fishing kayak review guy at Wired2fish for some time. So keeping up with that tradition, one kayak I was very eager to test was the Magellan Outdoors Pro Pedal Drive Kayak. I saw the kayak announcement and the pictures looked impressive as was the awesome price!
So I’ve been able to spend a few weeks with this kayak now and wanted to give you my take on it and the features of this particular pedal drive kayak.
SPECS AND FEATURE RUNDOWN ON PRO PEDAL DRIVE KAYAK
The Magellan Outdoors Pro Pedal Drive Kayak comes in at 10 feet 6 inches long and 35 inches wide with a height of just over 15 inches. Those dimensions give this kayak a great platform to build a sturdy boat. The kayak weighs just 88 pounds which is light for a pedal drive and it can support up to 400 pounds of body and gear which is super impressive at 10 1/2 feet long.
But beyond that they quickly removable pedal drive can convert it from a stream kayak to a big water pedal kayak in seconds. The kayak also features foot pegs, molded handles, installed tracking, no slip standing platform, rod holders, closed storage in front with big storage well behind and under the seat as well as lots of storage slots around the boat. It’s transducer ready and has a steerable rudder.
ON THE WATER EXPERIENCES WITH PRO PEDAL DRIVE
I took it out early with no gear on it just to get a feel for pedaling, paddling and standing up in the kayak. The water was cool and I didn’t want to risk gear in a stability test. I was able to stand and sit easily in this kayak. I am not as well balanced as I was in my youth and was pleasantly surprised at this kayaks stability.
As with any kayak you need to spend time learning your break-over points of your boat. That’s basically how far you can tip or lean to one side before it should catch and right you. Or if you continue to apply maximum pressure it will eventually roll. This boat had a nice break-over point.
The boat is fairly rigid from the roto-molding process. Rigidity in a kayaks adds to a boats stability. People generally feel more wobbly in kayaks that have a thinner grade of material that is real pliable. They think the boat is tipping and leaning even though it’s really just the material flexing. So you end up correcting and over correcting all the time at the flex of the weaker made boat.
So I was happy to see this boat had a more rigid material that one would expect in a $1,139 kayak.
FISHING OUT OF THE MAGELLAN PRO PEDAL DRIVE KAYAK
After that initial test, I began fishing more in the kayak. My wife likes to paddle board so we will paddle and pedal around on warm days on the kayak and paddle boards. I enjoy getting into backwater areas while she paddles around. I’ve been mostly chasing bluegills and crappie out of the kayak this spring. It’s a blast to panfish out of and bass fishing will be dynamite out of it too. I’m looking forward to testing it again in some slow moving streams later this summer as just a paddle boat.
I was able to get some serious speed with this kayak. The propellor style pedal drive goes forward and reverse and can be pulled up if going over an obstruction.
The boat comes with scupper hole plugs and I kept those in all the holes in my fishing this spring.
I’ve tested it with electronics mounted in the boat. The track systems are good but they are sometimes hard to get the foot in the track as there is not much opening on the ends of the front tracks. But other than that, everything was sturdy and worked well for fishing and using Livescope on a couple of outings.
The pedal drive can be steered easily with a hand controlled kick-up rudder that installs with one bolt in a few seconds.
The seat is comfortable and I like sitting up higher to fish on this boat. I was able to store a lot of stuff like batteries, krates, tackle boxes back packs drinks and more in the boat with all of the little storage cubbies in front, on the sides, in back and under the seat.
It’s a heck of a good setup on a well priced Kayak that I think a lot of people are going to love.
There is enough room that I was able to strap a kayak paddle on one side, and my Power Pole sand spike on the other, while also carrying four rods and reels with two in the back holders and two down each side. So fully rigged out, this kayak is a workhorse. I have enjoyed fishing out of it and would recommend it to folks looking for a good pedal kayak on a lower budget.
I was able to easily get it in the back of my truck from the storage unit and back into the water by myself without any issue. If you have to move it a long ways, a nice set of scupper hole wheels makes transporting it to and fro a lot easier for sure.
Magellan Outdoors Pro Pedal Drive kayak offers anglers a solid boat for their money, and I think a lot of others will share on that sentiment. I’ll add to the photos and info as I get more experiences under the belt with this great pedal kayak.
