May 10, 2014 was an epic day for most kayakers around this area of Canada after a long, long winter. A get-together of people with one common interest: kayak fishing in the waters of the St-Lawrence River in Boucherville, QC.

It was the afternoon of May 9, I was hard at work when I got this text message: “want to go to Montreal for that get-together?”. It was no other than “Indiana” James McBeath, our Jackson Kayak Director of Marketing.

After talking to my “other half” (she’s a definite keeper!) we set to meet in my place at 5:00 AM to drive 1:45 hr to Montreal to get our Quebec fishing licences to be in Boucherville (east end of Montreal) for 8:00 AM, where we met the organizer, wet through some introduction, raffles and we were ready to set sail for 9:30 AM.

The weather forecast was an overcast day, windy, with gusts of 50 km/hr (32 mi/hr) – YIKES! Temperature was expected to reach 24C (75F), which is what we’ve been craving for.

All-in-all it was a very nice day of fishing. The Big Rig is a TANK! A super stable and comfortable ride. I am not a very heavy person (190 lb.) but I am tall (6’3″). Standing and sitting back down on such platform is extremely easy, and if it wasn’t for all the equipment I have it rigged with, I could dance tango on deck! There was a point when I decided to test this vessel’s stability by sitting with my long legs hanging from the right side of the boat (of course I was wearing my life jacket!). The Big Rig didn’t tip at all!

We “tried” fishing for about six hours, the water temperature was 49F. Needless to say, the fish didn’t cooperate since they were a lot deeper, but I really wasn’t too keen on moving closer to the main channel with such strong current and wind gusts. You guessed right, we didn’t catch anything, but it was a very pleasant experience (until it was time to paddle back to the launch).

Paddling against very strong current and 50+ km/hr wind gusts was a heck of a workout. What originally took us about 15 minutes to paddle, took us 1:45 hr. This was my first paddle of the year, so you can imagine how sore I woke up the next morning. But it was all worth it!

The Big Rig is and AMAZING machine. Stable, comfortable, and definitely, and eye-catcher. The down-side about it is it’s a heavy boat and when the wind picks up it is hard to control, but all-in-all I loved my first experience on it and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Bass fishing is what I do the most and I have found the best platform to set the hook on. C’mon, give it a try at your local JK dealer, it won’t disappoint you!

Tight lines y’all!
Roberto “DrB” Briones

Twitter: @BassinDrB
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