Old Town’s New Salty 120 PDL Pedal-Powered Fishing Kayak Reviewed

What It Is:

The Salty PDL a hundred and twenty is a pedal-powered fishing kayak produced by Aged Town in the spring 2020 as portion of its Sportsman line of fishing kayaks. The Sportsman collection contains eleven boats, every developed to be powered possibly by electric motor, pedal push, or regular paddling. The Salty PDL is 1 of four models in the collection rigged as a pedal-powered kayak, and geared towards the thought of the coastal angler. If your autumn hinges around chasing striped bass migrating from New England to the Mid-Atlantic, or expending the wintertime stalking redfish across shallow mudflats in the southern U.S., the Salty PDL a hundred and twenty is what Aged Town has in intellect.

For the Salty, Aged Town didn’t require to reinvent the wheel. It took the tested and well-known style and design template of a sister model, the Malibu PDL from Ocean Kayak, and created some tweaks to set the boat up as a maritime do-it-all fishing rig.

“The Salty turned portion of the line because we wished a craft that would be fast, reasonably compact, and could tackle some waves,” states Sharon Scott, the senior director of model management and product or service development at Johnson Outdoors’ watercraft division. “The Malibu Pedal’s prompt palms-free of charge forward and reverse would make it a good platform at a extremely beautiful price issue, so we re-imagined it for the angler.”

As Scott notes, the Salty has been outfitted with just about any characteristic you would expect to find on a fashionable fishing kayak. It is a sit-on-leading fashion, open up-deck kayak, with an elevated seat to support in casting, vision, and preserving you significant-and-dry. Storage wells open up in the bow and stern for stowing equipment and tackle. A common transducer mount is all set to install a fishfinder. From there: developed-in rod holders, plus multiple accessory tracks for your GoPro and GPS, or fish-finder screen.

At twelve ft prolonged, about 34 inches broad, and weighing one hundred and five pounds assembled (a wieldable eighty five pounds with out the pedal method mounted), the Salty PDL retails at $1,900.

Why We Like It:

As a paddler, my very first impact seeking at the profile of the Salty was, “this is going to be enjoyable.”

The boat has rocker, specially as it curves up by way of the considerable, wedged bow. The leading of the nose sits approximately eighteen inches from the ground. What does this imply on the drinking water? The Salty can experience out some swell, and retain drinking water out of the cockpit. The rocker in the bow not only implies you can bust by way of some waves, but also transform downhill and capture a number of rides.

Whilst narrower than the other pedal boats in the Sportsman line, the slender width provides a tiny more velocity, with out sacrificing considerably balance. Also thanks to the pontoon-fashion tri-hull, standing casts felt stable, where waves rolled right below the boat even though adrift. I have examined the Salty in busy inlets with erratic boat wake, as very well as letting it sit broadside to short-interval wind-swell, and never felt the require to make a reactionary seize at my paddle for bracing strokes.

The open up deck of the Salty is laid out in a easy and usable manner. The bucketed storage very well in the stern is roomy, with a 27-inch by 22.5-inch footprint formed to easily seat a cooler the sizing of a Yeti Tundra 35. The bow storage very well is smaller but still has a capacity for a good-sizing drybag. There is also a smaller dry-storage compartment developed in the leading of the pedal push that lies concerning your ft inside of the cockpit area—great for preserving goods dry and easy to obtain like a mobile cell phone, treats, very first assist package, or spare batteries. If you max that out, there is also a dry hatch situated below the seat, which also provides obtain to mechanical elements inside the hull.

There are 3 developed-in rod holders (1 forward-going through and two rear-going through), building room for multiple fishing rigs all set to fly. The two pre-mounted accessory mounts and paddle lock are nice out-of-the-box elements that imply you really do not have to go drilling holes in your new boat to complete your setup. The mesh seat provides an elevated casting posture, far better visibility, retains you significant and dry, and most importantly, is comfy. Basic buckles change the pitch of the backrest. The seat slides forward and again with a peg method inside of easy reach to go your self to the ideal length from the pedals.

The twelve-inch span of the rotating propeller on Aged Town’s trademark PDL Generate delivered a great deal of gas. In a powerful headwind, the Salty easily trolled alongside at around 1.5 to two mph, and was in a position to speed up into a dash of around 5 mph when wanted. I found the power of the PDL Generate to offer a self-confident quantity of horsepower to tackle any wind and tidal currents I confronted. The bicycle-fashion pedaling method is intuitive. With the capacity to also kick the PDL Generate in reverse, it would make me wonder how I ever fished with a paddle in hand. When moving into a shallow stretch or building a landing, the push can immediately be rotated up from below the hull, and locked in a disengaged posture, pictured higher than. The rudder on the Salty would make for outstanding steering. At around sixteen inches in size and bellying out just about four inches, the usable surface spot provides a limited turning radius, and can hold a line in challenging circumstances. The hand-managed steering for the rudder method is small critical, responsive, and conveniently put on the remaining side of the boat where your hand wants to rest. A hand knob on the steering dial tightens down to lock the rudder angle, building for a clear-cut and practical autopilot-like functionality.

 

Nitpick:

If there is a location for advancement on the Salty, it is in its mechanical elements. The hand command for example. Considering how closely the steering dial mentioned is used, the materials and style and design appear mild duty. My impact based mostly on the feel of the present materials and establish, is if some thing will be very first to fall short on this boat, it will be this hand command.

Likewise, the pre-mounted paddle lock is presently in an odd posture. If a paddle is latched, it provides some interference with the reels of a rod in both equally the forward- and rear-going through rod holders on the remaining side of the boat. If I were being to make a fast seize for my paddle, I could see unintentionally sending a rod in the consume. A little bit transferring the posture of the paddle latch would seem it could easily ease this.

 

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