perk

So here's my deal. I want a kayak for just puttering around rivers/lakes in Louisiana. I don't need it for fishing, as I'll only be fishing very casually. Mostly just because I'll be out on the water, so maybe I can save some money not going with an angler specific yak?

I'm going to go with a SOT and don't really want to go over $500. The other thing is length. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get told here that anything under 12 is a pain, but is a 10 really going to suck for someone like me who just wants to float around and maybe do an overnight trip once in a while?

It seems like 12 would probably be my safe bet, but would a ten be a lot easier to grab and go, or is a 12 or 14 not going to make that big of a difference as far as loading/unloading goes?

I'm not in a hurry so I've been looking everyday on FB marketplace and CL. A few have jumped out at me, but I'd like to screw down which length I really want first.

I'm looking at the usual suspects. Wilderness, Perception, Native. Saw a good priced Hurricane Phoenix 14 and also the Native Manta Ray 14 for $400, but the native seems to be about 75 pounds and I don't know if I'm going to want to deal with that just for going out for a few hours. Also, some tarpon 100's, that's why I'm trying to figure out the length first.

Appreciate any advice.

Thanks, y'all

Guess I'll ask this here because it's all that I found. I've never camped Louisiana so instead of going up to Kisatchie, since I'm in BR, I was thinking about doing the Atchafalaya Basin. The two that came up were Sherburne and the Wildlife Refuge for camping.

Are these mostly car camping and are there some good trails for walking? The Sherburne one mentioned some primitive spots there, but not much detail on that.