In my humble opinion, there are three ways to go with kayaks. First is 'as cheap as it gets', and the boats will float and paddle fine, but everything about is is uncomfortable. Crappy seat, small storage, thin hull. Wilderness systems like what I have are kinda middle of the road. They aren't the Cadillacs of the kayak world, but they get the job done, and the seats are comfortable, and have more storage room, both outside and in. Then you can go expensive and get an even more comfortable seat and more outside and inside storage... the pedal drive and rudder and spend nearly 4K.

The bigger you are, the bigger the kayak you'll need. Length makes taller people more comfortable, and the boat more buoyant if you are a heavier person. If you are only going to be on it for an hour here and there, on short fishing trips, then you may get away with the cheaper models. I'll go on record saying that if you are over 40 and plan on spending more than 2 hours in one at a time, you'll thank yourself to get one with a comfortable seat. We launched at 8:00, Sunday morning, and hit the beach at 2:00. Six hours paddling/fishing, and other than a good upper body workout, my legs, back, and rear end were no worse for the wear. A hard plastic seat, with no back support for that long would have been torture.

Be advised, I'm far from an expert, but I was patient and picked up that blue wilderness systems ride for $500 advertised on Craigslist. Took a few months to find it, but it was almost exactly what I wanted. Shop around the used market and you can find some for about half the price of new ones. A new one like that would be around $1K.