I have had this kayak for a year now. I stumbled across this at Gander Mountin at dang near 50% off, so bought it merely because of the price and the camo color. I own 2 canoes and several other kayaks, and never figured I would use it. Was I wrong... this kayak is GREAT.
I have taken my 3 year old son with me on a 5 mile Brazos river trip and never had a problem with the stability. The cockpit is big, and tons of room for camping gear. I did add an adhesive Harmony seat pad, and swapped ends on the seat brackets to change the angle of the seat for leg support.
Hands down this is a great kayak. To experiment, I had another adult come up to the side and we did a transfer, with the adult climbing over in to the Predator... from another kayak, this kayak didn't even flinch...
yes it is a little cumbersome to roof load, but bottom line: it is well worth the extra grunt....
Would I buy another one? In the words of Sarah Palin... "Hell yea"
Well first of all I bought this kayak brand new at a flea market. I know how much they are stripped this one was loaded with all the fishing and hunting extras. The guy had 595.00 0n it I said I'd come back and of course he said 550! SOLD!
Great fishing machine very stable and no problems paddling up stream to get those smallmouths up here in Maine. It's a perfect craft if you want something for a bigger guy it's very roomy and all kinds of storage. Best thing I've bought since my double 12! And also your dog will fit in it with out tipping. AWESOME!
I bough this kayak three years ago and have used pretty consistently since. I've fished out of it and used it to poke around in lakes and streams here in the midwest.
Pros:
Despite its weight (about 75 lbs), I don't have any trouble mounting or dismounting it by myself from my explorer's roof rack.
It is super stable. Large cockpit makes it really easy to get in and out of and I've never felt like there was any real danger of tipping (also, I've not used it in surf or significant current/rapids). I like it and am glad that I bought it.
Cons:
I don't think it tracks quite as well as it should for its size. I think this is because it doesn't have much of a keel and no rudder.
It also seems to get blown a bit which I suspect has to do with it being a big, wide, flat bottomed boat.
As its really wide and heavy, it can be a real strain if you have to pull into the wind for any distance.
All in all, I love mine. It's stable enough to fish out of, big enough to haul my camping/fishing gear without having to be picky about what I take and I totally trust it to get me there and back. I would caution against getting one of these if you're not the brawny type as it is a bit heavy to be tossing around and can take some strength to pull if you get into the wind. If you're built more like a bulldozer than a race car, then I think you'll like it as much as I do.
I purchased this kayak for solo waterfowling and for fishing. I have used it a couple of times. What I don't like - it is somewhat heavy, but I can deal with that as I am a big guy at 6' 2" and 270lbs. Being large framed, I fit into and get out of this kayak no problem. I purchased a Paddlecart in order to walk a couple miles into an area before I can paddle to my hunting spot. This makes life much easier.
The kayak is quite stable for me, a couple of dozen duck decoys, a few large magnum goose floating decoys and my gear in a drybag and my shotgun and my 35lb American Water Spaniel. It tracks and paddles well. I have used the kayak to sneak up on unsuspecting ducks to try and flush them (to be honest - I need a little practice doing this).
The paddle strap is great. The handles are great. The mesh zippered work deck works just fine. The rear tie down mesh was torn and was replaced by Old Town quite promptly. To tell you the truth, I would love to get another work deck for the rear. One thing I would like Old Town to do is to put some bungee tie downs on the bow and the stern of this kayak. I will put them on myself to lash down extra decoys and/or grass to camo it up a bit more.
I got this kayak on sale for $692 which I thought was a great price. I recommend this kayak for larger frame hunters looking for a hunting kayak.