The new Old Town Sportsman PDL Pro offers anglers customizations for days.
March 20, 2025
By Thomas Allen
Old Town Sportsman PDL 120 PRO There’s a reason the PDL 120 has been the best-seller in Old Town’s Sportsman lineup of fishing kayaks. Measuring 12 feet length and featuring as 36-inch beam promises secure tracking, easy maneuverability and confident stability, without adding too much heft—pop out the PDL drive and seat and it’s a 106-pound boat. That balance of portability and performance makes this a winner for anyone carting to a backwoods lake or over a sandy beach—or lifting into a truck bed for hauling.
Being able to rig a kayak to your specific fishing needs is very important to dedicated anglers, and Old Town made it easy with the new PRO Series. Overview What you see on the Old Town Sportsman PDL 120 PRO and the motorized ePDL+ 120 PRO (the hulls are the same) aren’t minor adjustments to a legacy boat—this is a full-scale re-imagining of the PDL 120 to include major mold updates and hardware innovations.
For starters, horizontal rod holders! Deleting the familiar flat gunnel accessory plates in favor of narrow, 36-inch aluminum tracks allowed designers to bump out the cockpit space and create room for horizontal rod holders, two on each side, tubes going forward into the hull, a great setup for minimizing your profile. The aluminum track rails are repeated along the stern tankwell and there’s a 6-inch bow handle track for a total of 150 inches all around the boat. Three flush-mount vertical rod holders are included—two astern of the seat and a stager forward.
For easy bow-mount trolling motor installation, 4-hole pattern bolt inserts and a wire-rigging plate have been added. At the stern, a second set of stake-mount anchor inserts is included for kayakers who might prefer twin stakes.
Advertisement
Noteworthy Features The new bow hatch has been expanded by 50 percent to accommodate more gear and includes a dedicated mounting spot for a spare PDL prop. The seat now mounts to the floor on a sliding shuttle on tracks, for easier adjustment. Aft tankwell is 55-percent larger than the original PDL 120, with flush-mount lashdown eyes and 6-inch rigging hatch access. Available in the exclusive PRO color ways, Storm (black-blue-white) and Sierra black and tan).
The already famous Old Town Sportsman 120 PDL received some innovative modifications to make accessory rigging a snap. The cockpit of the Old Town Sportsman PDL PRO offers more room, a redesigned seat, additional storage, sub-hull access through multiple pre-installed wire grommets and more. Anglers can now mount a Minn Kota Terrova Kayak Trolling Motor at the bow of the PRO series kayaks. A new kayak-specific Minn Kota bow-mounted trolling motor can be attached to the bow of the Old Town PRO series of kayaks. Old Town Sportsman Pdl 120 Pro Length: 12’ Width: 36” Weight: 106 lbs., 131 lbs. rigged Usable Capacity: 420 lbs. Construction: High Density Polyethylene Propulsion: PDL Pedal Drive, Paddle MSRP: $3,499 To learn more about the new PRO models and other great kayaks from Old Town Watercraft, visit OldTownWatercraft.com .
