The used fishing kayak kit

What this kit assumes about the boat

A second-hand sit-on-top with a fishing-shaped hull — wide, probably 32 to 36 inches of beam, a tankwell behind the seat, and possibly a factory gear track. It came with no paddle, no vest and whatever hardware the previous owner did not bother to unbolt.

That is the most common thing people actually buy, and it is not the boat the accessory catalogs are written for. This list is the arithmetic of turning it into something you can fish from, in the order the purchases change your day — not in the order the catalog puts them.

If your boat is a general recreational hull rather than a fishing-specific one, start with the first season kit instead and come back to this page for the fishing-specific lines.

Why the order is what it is

The vest and the paddle are not negotiable and not sequenced. One is legally required and the other is how the boat moves. Everything below them is a choice; these two are the boat being usable at all.

The track comes third, before anything that mounts to it. This is the line people get wrong and it costs them money. Buying a rod holder first means drilling the deck for that specific holder in that specific place. Buying the track first means one set of holes forever, and the holder, the phone mount and the camera all attach to it without another drill bit. The reasoning is on the gear track roundup.

The rod holder is the first thing that makes it a fishing boat. Everything before it is a kayak that floats safely.

The anchor is fourth because holding a spot is what turns casting into fishing — and because on a windy day without one you spend the session paddling back upwind.

Dry storage and the pump are the safety tail. They are not exciting and they are the two things you regret not having in the exact moment you need them.

Electronics are last, and optional. A fish finder is the most enjoyable purchase in kayak fishing and close to the least important. It is on this list at the bottom, in its castable form, precisely because that version adds nothing to the boat that has to be undone later.

What we have deliberately left out

A kit that includes everything is a catalog, not a recommendation. Here is what is missing and why.

• A crate. Not because it is optional — it is one of the best-value things on this whole site — but because the crate itself is usually free or nearly so, and a bill of materials with a milk crate on it is misleading. Build it from the crate setup and treat it as the cheapest upgrade you will make.
• An anchor trolley. It is four to six new holes in a used hull, and it is only justified if you anchor most trips in current. If you do, it belongs on your list — the case is made on the anchor trolley guide.
• A cart. A genuinely large improvement to a fishing day, and it is on the first season kit rather than duplicated here.
• A stake-out pole and a drift sock. Both are situational answers to holding position, and both are better bought after you know your water. The comparison is on anchor versus pole versus drift sock.
• A traditional fish finder. The head unit is the cheap part; the battery, the box, the transducer arm and the mount are most of the spend. If you want that route rather than the castable one, the honest cost breakdown is on the fish finder roundup.

Where a second-hand boat will surprise you

Three costs that are not on any list because they depend on what the previous owner did.

Perished deck cord. Close to guaranteed on a boat that lived outside. Slack gray bungee holds nothing, and the pump and the paddle you are about to buy are meant to live under it. It is cheap and it is on the deck rigging guide.

Somebody else's holes. Sometimes a gift — a bolt pattern you can land a new mount on. Sometimes a repair, if they have been worked loose or cracked. Check them before you count on them.

A missing or broken seat. The single most common reason a used fishing kayak is cheap, and the fix is not trivial on a boat you intend to sit in for six hours. Diagnose it on the seat upgrade roundup before assuming the price was a bargain.

If you only buy three things

Plenty of people are not outfitting a boat over a season. They have a boat, a trip on Saturday, and one order to place.

The vest, the paddle, and a dry bag. That is a boat you can legally and safely take out, move properly, and come back from with a working phone. It is not a fishing boat yet, and it is a complete kayak.

Everything on this list below those three is about making fishing from it work. The rod holder, the anchor, the track — those turn a kayak into a fishing platform, and none of them makes a difference if the paddle is the wrong length or the vest is in the garage.

There is one legal item people miss in that three: a sound-producing device. A whistle costs almost nothing, is required on most waters alongside the PFD, and is frequently already attached to a paddling vest. Check yours before you buy one. The full legal floor is on the legal minimum kit.

If the boat is a sit-in rather than a sit-on-top

Most fishing kayaks are sit-on-tops and this list assumes one. If you are fishing from a sit-in, three lines change.

The bilge pump moves up the order, a long way. A sit-on-top drains itself through the scuppers. A sit-in cockpit has no drainage at all, so water from rain, spray and paddle drips stays in until you remove it. Attwood publishes up to 8 gallons per minute for its hand pump, and that volume is the whole point.

You probably want a spray skirt. Not for waves necessarily, but because a cockpit open to the rain fills slowly all day. Sizing one for a boat with no model badge is the awkward part, and it is solvable with a tape measure — see the spray skirt guide.

Rod holder mounting gets harder. A sit-in has less flat deck, and the coaming is in the way of exactly where you would want a holder. A track along the foredeck usually works where a side-mount does not, which is another reason to fit the track before you buy the holder.

A sit-in also has the advantage nobody mentions: you stay drier and warmer, which extends the fishing season at both ends by weeks.

How to read the total

The figure at the top of this page is computed only from lines that currently carry a verified live price, and it says so when lines are missing. It is never a remembered number and never an estimate.

What it is useful for is negotiation. If the boat you are looking at has no paddle, no vest and a broken seat, those are three separate purchases and they are legitimate points in a conversation about price. We put numbers on that argument on what a used kayak is worth.

Nobody buys this list in one go, and you should not. The order above is sequenced so that stopping at any point leaves you with a boat that works — just one that does fewer things.

One more thing the total cannot capture: how much of this you may already own. A whistle is often already on a paddling vest. A dry bag may be doing another job in a rucksack. A previous owner may have left a track, a bolt pattern or a usable seat. Check the boat before you check out, because the cheapest line on any kit list is the one you delete.

And if the total looks large next to what you paid for the hull, that is normal rather than a sign you have chosen badly. Outfitting is typically a third to a half of total spend on a second-hand boat. The alternative — a new package deal — bundles a paddle and a vest that are almost always the cheapest the manufacturer could include, which is how people end up buying both twice.