Complete setup
Kayak Angler's Great Lakes Starter
A pedal kayak, a paddle, an anchor trolley and a worn PFD — the honest minimum for fishing protected Great Lakes water from a plastic boat.
Pieces
7
All in, roughly
$3,000–3,400, and the kayak is nearly all of it
Built for
St. Clair
Target
Smallmouth Bass
What this kit does
A kayak opens a specific and very good slice of the Great Lakes: protected bays, drowned river mouths, harbor structure, marsh edges and shallow flats. Anchor Bay on St. Clair, the Les Cheneaux Islands, Green Bay’s back waters, the Erie tributary mouths, Grand Traverse Bay in a calm week. These are places a big boat either cannot reach or will not bother with, and they hold smallmouth, pike, perch and walleye.
The Old Town Sportsman BigWater PDL 132 is the boat this kit is built around because of the pedal drive and the hull. Pedal propulsion keeps your hands on the rod and, more importantly, lets you hold position against wind and current — which is the difference between fishing a spot and drifting past it. Thirteen feet of waterline tracks well enough to make a mile-long crossing in a chop instead of getting blown sideways.
The Bending Branches Angler Classic paddle is not redundant with the pedal drive. It is your backup propulsion when the drive fouls on weed, your close-in maneuvering tool in skinny water, and the thing that gets you home if a pedal linkage fails. Never launch without it aboard.
The Onyx inflatable PFD is worn, always, not stowed. In a kayak you are already at water level and a capsize puts you in immediately. An inflatable is comfortable enough over a full day that you will keep it on, which is the entire point.
The YakAttack anchor trolley lets you shift your anchor point from bow to stern along the hull. This is a safety feature as much as a fishing one — anchoring a kayak from the side in current is how kayaks flip. The trolley lets you set the pull where the boat wants it.
The drift sock does the opposite job and is the better tool most days: it slows your drift across a flat to a fishable speed without pinning you to one spot.
Deeper PRO+ castable sonar because a kayak has no console and no transducer, and you still need to know where the grass edge and the drop are. It pairs to a phone and it fits the boat.
The Ugly Stik GX2 combo is here honestly: a medium spinning combo that costs under a hundred dollars, is nearly indestructible, and does not make you cry when it goes over the side. Kayak rods get dunked, stepped on and lost. Start cheap.
What it deliberately leaves out
No open-water crossings. This kit does not include anything for running the big lake, because you should not. A kayak on open Lake Michigan or Superior is an offshore small-craft operation requiring a drysuit, a VHF, a paddle float, a bilge pump and re-entry practice. That is a sea-kayaking discipline, not a fishing one.
No fish finder mount, no rod holders, no crate. All of it is kayak-model specific and half of it comes with the boat.
No anchor. Weight and style depend entirely on the bottom where you fish — a folding grapnel for rock, a stakeout pole for shallow mud and grass.
No wading gear. Kayak anglers get out and wade constantly, and waders in a kayak are a hazard if you go over. That trade-off deserves its own thinking.
Watch the wind before you launch and the wind forecast for when you plan to return. An offshore breeze makes an easy paddle out and a very long one back, and it is the most common way kayak anglers get into trouble on these lakes.
The list
Every piece, in order
- 01Old Town
Sportsman BigWater PDL 132
4.6(210)4.6 out of 5 stars, 210 reviews, on Amazon at the time this was writtenA thirteen-foot pedal kayak with the hull volume and freeboard to handle a Great Lakes chop, which most fishing kayaks genuinely do not have.
- 02Bending Branches
Angler Classic Paddle
4.7(2,100)4.7 out of 5 stars, 2,100 reviews, on Amazon at the time this was writtenA fiberglass-shaft angler paddle with a hook retrieval notch and a measuring scale on the blade, light enough that a full day does not wreck your shoulders.
- 03Onyx
A/M-24 Inflatable PFD
4.5(4,100)4.5 out of 5 stars, 4,100 reviews, on Amazon at the time this was writtenA low-bulk inflatable that is comfortable enough to wear in August heat, so summer anglers stop leaving the PFD in the bow.
- 04YakAttack
Anchor Trolley Kit
4.6(1,420)4.6 out of 5 stars, 1,420 reviews, on Amazon at the time this was writtenA pulley loop along the kayak's gunwale that lets you move your anchor point bow to stern, so you choose which way the boat sits in wind and current.
- 05Lindy
Drift Control Drift Sock
4.4(960)4.4 out of 5 stars, 960 reviews, on Amazon at the time this was writtenA cone of fabric that drags underwater and cuts your drift speed roughly in half, which is what turns an unfishable windy day on Erie into a productive one.
- 06Deeper
PRO+ 2 Castable Sonar
4.3(3,400)4.3 out of 5 stars, 3,400 reviews, on Amazon at the time this was writtenA castable sonar ball that maps depth from a pier, a kayak, or a hole in the ice, without a boat or an install.
- 07Ugly Stik
Ugly Stik GX2 Spinning Combo
4.5(11,800)4.5 out of 5 stars, 11,800 reviews, on Amazon at the time this was writtenThe rod you hand a kid, keep as a pier spare, and never worry about again.