[jyl]

There is a brand of sit on top kayak that has foot pedals driving a sort of propulsion fin under the boat. This allows you to make headway with your hands free.

If the weather is even modestly windy and wavey, a drifting kayak is unpleasant. The boat turns in the wind, the waves start hitting it from the side, and the paddler needs to use the paddles to brace and balance and get the boat nose-in to the wind again. If your hands are occupied with a rod, that’s not great. Eventually you’ll get in trouble or drop the rod into the water as you fumble for the paddle. Unless you only go out on calm flat windless days, in which case why bother with a kayak, a canoe would be fine.

I have a very good kayak, a 17’ Feathercraft expedition boat. It is the most seaworthy kayak around, beamy and high volume. I’ve taken it on multi day trips, loaded with 100 lb of gear, launching and landing through surf, paddling in rough water, out of sight of land in the Pacific, I know the boat very well. I tried fishing from it and it didn’t work at all - might have worked on a calm lake, but in the ocean, I wanted my hands on the paddle.

Also, have a mount for the rod so you can troll. I didn’t because I was fly fishing.