How to get your kayak ready for summer

submitted by Daniel Hayes

During the tough winter months of fishing on the coast with low tides ton of exposed oyster beds as well as shell bottom this has created a lot of wear and tear on the kayak.

Full FD Cleaning

I take time at the beginning of spring to get my kayak ready for summer fishing as well as tournament ready. In doing so I completely take all parts off of my kayak and rinse the boat thoroughly with an aggressive cleaner. Then do a full tear down on the lower drive to clean all of the mud and excess dirt out of the unit. After re-oiling Everything on the lower unit I then put the boat back in its normal condition putting Loctite where it needs to be. I remove all oil from the upper unit by using a compressor to blow out the old oil-grease, I then re-apply oil and a lubricant mixture to the upper unit this helps longevity as well as quieting it down. And then flip the unit over and start working on all of the oyster rash.

Spruce up the bottom

Using 180 grit I sand the bottom of the boat really good until most of the extremely damaged parts of the boat are fixed I then apply some new protective tape on the bottom where the kayak scrapes most often. Doing this helps the longevity as well as performance of the kayak in the months to come.

All of this is key to the life of the boat as well as knowing every inch of the unit that you are using so if something goes wrong on the water you have a Plan B to tackle any situation.