If a beginner walked into a kayak shop with $4,000 and a brief to start fresh in 2026, IL Yakkin would steer them past a string of headline-grabbing accessories and toward six items: kayak, paddle, PFD, battery, motor, blackpack.
The channel's host laid the build out in a long-form starter walkthrough, opening with the most contentious call. After years on pedal drives, he is no longer convinced they're worth the money for new anglers. "Five to six years ago, pedal drives were awesome and they revolutionised the sport," he said. "With the onset of these lighter motors like the Torqeedo, the Newport, even all the bow-mounted power, I don't really see a reason for a pedal drive."
His hull pick is a 10 ft 6 throw-and-go like the Crescent Smallie at roughly $1,500, with similar Old Town, Bonafide, Native and Wilderness Systems options sliding into the same niche. "I feel like I can do anything I want in those 10 to 11 ft kayaks, which makes them super versatile," he said. He owns a 13 ft Crescent CK2 Venture and called it bluntly: "This is a lot of kayak. It is too much kayak. I do this stuff full-time and it is too much for me without a trailer."
The paddle is the line item where he says new anglers should part with real money. "Spend some money on a good paddle," he urged, recommending a $200 Bending Branches mid-range stick over the $400 hero model and warning against the "$15.99 Walmart" trap. "When you're doing those long river floats or you're spending all day out on a lake, having a good paddle when your motor goes out is a blessing."
Where the host pulls no punches is the gear new anglers do not need on day one. He singled out the giant 16-by-16 tackle crate ("you guys are taking way too much stuff out on the water"), the $2,000 forward-facing sonar ("will this help me catch fish? Yes — but for 90 per cent of what I do, going a more simplistic route, this is going to be a down-the-road purchase"), the Power-Pole Micro and the kayak anchor wizard. A small graph or a Deeper Sonar paired with a 13-by-13 black pack will, he argued, do everything a beginner needs.
On the water, the line everyone should heed runs through the safety segment. "Kayak fishing is one of the deadliest. Kayak fishing actually contributes to a lot of death annually in the kayaking sphere," he warned. He prefers a non-inflatable PFD like the NRS Chinook for chest storage and confidence around moving water, and steered new buyers away from inflatable models after multiple bad experiences.
His closing line is one new buyers will want to tape to the wall. "The biggest mistake I've seen a lot of new kayak anglers make when they go out and they decide they want to buy a new kayak is they get it with everything," he said. "Then they decide that kayak fishing is not for them — and guess what? Those rigs are on Marketplace as a deal. The pieces are always greater than the whole."