Kayaks are wonderful craft for fishing but small items like knives, hooks and lures can be easily lost. Neodymium or “rare earth” magnets are an effective and inexpensive solution for this problem. For the last several years I’ve been using these powerful magnets to hold these small items in place while fishing from my kayak. Any object made of a ferrous metal will stick tightly to them and stay put. Owners of small center consoles might find these magnets come in handy to keep items from bouncing off the console.
The magnets are simple to install anywhere and can be moved or removed at any time. Simply place one magnet where you want it on your ‘yak and place a second magnet on the inside of your hull in the same spot so they attract and stick together with the hull sandwiched in between. I’ve found disk-shaped magnets measuring 1×1/8 inches (the size of two quarters stacked together) are best suited for this purpose. These magnets rust easily so I buy them epoxy-coated, but the coating is thin and scratches fairly quickly. After a couple of seasons I swap out the unscratched inner hull magnets with the damaged outer ones to double their life. If you really want to extend their life, you can use a plastic dip spray meant for tool handles to provide extra protection. Just be sure to use only new magnets, as the coating will quickly peel off of magnets that have already begun to oxidize. Neodymium magnets are available from Applied Magnets (magnet4less.com) for $1.29 each, plus shipping. Keeping them away from electronic devices like your smartphone and sonar unit is a good idea.
