I recently bought a sea fishing kayak and all the ‘trimmings’ for about £1,000. I worked hard mainly in e-bay but I’m on the water and safe! I wanted to tell others that you can do this too by shopping around and being innovative. To give you some idea of the kit and ideas here goes;

Two man fishing Kayak by winner, with 4 Rod holders, 2 seats, 2 paddles and a dry bag delivered for £480 new from ebay dealer.
Heavy duty trolley and securing strap new from ebay about £40 delivered.
Second hand dry suit – tailor made Kokatat as used by American Coastal services (cost new £1K) bought for £250 second hand (bargain and boy does it work not a single leak and it breathes beautifully).
Self made stabiliser system using small new aluminium ladder (ebay £20) and two boat fenders (second hand ebay £50) enables stand up fishing.
New marine hand held Cobra radio £50 (ebay).
Small anchor new (£8 ebay)
50m rope new (£10 ebay)
Two new kayak fishing rods from shop in Gower (£10 each).
5 new kayak leashes (£10 app on ebay).
4 new luggage straps for stabiliser system (£6 ebay)
Pair of ladder clamps for roof rack (innovative?) (£30 at Wickes) you can clamp the kayak through the bung holes and padlock it onto the roof!!!
Drogue, new (£15 on e-bay).

All the kit was tested last weekend in Mumbles and I am pleased it all went well.

The prices are not exact on the smaller items but pretty close – I’m now going to work on an electric motor and a leisure battery but I might have to give the credit card a rest! I’m going to get a waterproof floating cover for the radio but in essence I have got out there with all the kit I can think of and looking forward to both bass and trout fishing from a safe kayak!!

Submitted April 2011