FluxJet Foot Throttle Control First Look: Thumpr Fishing Goes Hands-Free

Russell, the Florida angler behind Thumpr Fishing, is on the water three or four days a week, mostly chasing fish across the shallow grass flats of the Mosquito Lagoon and the Indian River. So when FluxJet told him the new foot throttle control was ready for its first real fishing test, he did not wait for one to be shipped to Florida. He got on a plane.

The trip was coast to coast: Florida to Dallas to Sacramento, straight from the airport to a local lake for a warm-up afternoon. Russell is the first person outside the FluxJet team to fish the foot throttle control, the system the team also calls the Flux Link, and the lake day was only the rehearsal. The real exam, a full day of rock fishing in the Pacific at Bodega Bay, is the subject of his next video.

His verdict from day one is worth putting up front: "It's 100% hands-free, and I can just focus on fishing." By the end of the afternoon he had upgraded that to "I feel spoiled." Here is what he was reacting to.

Coast to Coast for a First Look

Russell had a brief taste of the kayak at ICAST earlier this year, and it stuck with him. What he wanted to know was whether the platform could earn a place in his own fishing, and his fishing is not gentle: saltwater, shallow flats, and enough days on the water to wear things out. Anyone can take a brand new kayak for a spin and say it is great, he points out. The questions that matter to him are about longevity, maintenance, and how a company treats you after the sale.

He also came with a shallow-water agenda. His home flats are full of grass and gunk that foul pedal drives and propellers, and a jet kayak has nothing hanging below the hull. If the FluxJet could slide through the kind of water he fishes every week, it could solve a problem he actually has.

What the Foot Throttle Control Actually Is

The hardware change is smaller than you would expect. A FluxJet already steers with foot pedals: push the right foot to go right, the left foot to go left, driving the jet nozzle. For the foot throttle control, the team added small bracket attachments on top of those steering pedals with a button on each one, plus a single extra button below that switches the pedal buttons on or off.

With that lower button clicked in, nothing changes: the kayak runs on its hand throttle exactly as it always has. Click it out, and the pedals gain a second job. You preset whatever speed you want on the hand throttle, say a slow cruise at 15 or 20 percent, and from then on, pressing the upper part of either steering pedal gives you power at exactly that preset speed. Let off, and the power stops. The pressure plates are on both pedals, so left and right turns come with thrust attached. One press feels like one paddle stroke, delivered without your hands.

One distinction matters, because the name invites the wrong picture: the pedals are not an accelerator. Pressing harder does not make the kayak faster, the way a car pedal would. The foot throttle control is an activator switch: it turns the throttle setting you chose on or off. Speed lives entirely in the hand throttle; the pedals simply engage and disengage it.

The hand throttle never goes away. Reach down and change the preset at any point, or click the system off and drive the kayak the original way. It is the same throttle, with your feet invited in.

Hands-Free Is Not a Slogan

Ten minutes in, Russell was doing full 360-degree turns in place, tying tackle while the boat kept moving, and discovering the thing that sold him: low-speed position control. A FluxJet has no rudder, so holding a spot in a breeze normally means constant small corrections at the throttle. With pedal power, he could point the bow into the wind, set the throttle low, and tap the pedals to hold his line along an edge, hands on his rod the entire time.

Then there is the fish-fighting case, and it is the one he kept coming back to. He has lost fish over the years because a running fish forced a choice: keep both hands on the rod, or reach for a control and give the fish slack. With the foot throttle control, a fish that runs under the boat can be followed with the feet while both hands stay exactly where they belong. "I've never had something where I've been completely hands-free," he said. "You can just focus on fishing the whole time."

It helps that the deck cooperates. Coming from a pedal-drive kayak, the open deck in front of him was a novelty: no drive unit between his feet, room to work, room for fly line if he takes the flats fly fishing idea seriously.

Built for Skinny Water

The warm-up lake did its best to be a Florida flat. Weeds, muck, sticks, and logs, in water shallow enough that Russell high-centered the kayak on a rock at one point, and later simply noted that dropping over logs is standard fare for these boats. The kayak kept moving through weed beds he was sure would have gunked up a pedal drive, because there is nothing below the hull to collect them.

Just as interesting was the slow end of the dial. Dialed right down, the jet barely ripples the surface, which is roughly the speed he creeps up on redfish at home, fish that can be tailing in less than a foot of water. Sneak in quietly, hold position with a tap of a pedal, and cast with both hands: that is the flats workflow he has been picturing since ICAST.

The Details He Kept Noticing

Some of Russell's strongest reactions had nothing to do with the foot throttle control. The setup stopped him first: the boats came off the vehicles and were ready to fish in about five minutes. "Just add water and this thing's ready to go," as he put it, and for an angler who sometimes skips short trips because his current setup takes too long to rig, that matters as much as any feature.

On the water he found the battery level display in front of him and a charging port he can run a camera from, and he noted the built-in nav lights. Stability passed his personal test as well. The video opens on his summary of a donut turn at speed: "Shane's tippy. I'm not feeling tippy." And then there is the problem Jason warned him about at the dock: the boat is fun enough that you can catch fewer fish because you are busy messing around in it.

His Verdict After Day One

Russell was honest about the learning curve twice over: it takes a little practice to coordinate pointing the nozzle and clicking for power, and then it clicks fast. By the dock, his summary was that the system is super simple yet has everything you need, that it gives you vector control over your position and angle whenever you want it, and that he was feeling spoiled.

He was equally clear about what one warm-up day cannot answer. His real test is measured in months: hours of saltwater use, three or four days a week, and how the boat and the company hold up. That long-term test is exactly what he is considering signing up for, and his viewers will see it happen either way.

Next: The Pacific Test at Bodega Bay

Day two is the one the warm-up existed for. The plan was a two-hour drive to Bodega Bay on the Pacific coast, four anglers, and a full day of ocean fishing for rockfish, halibut, and lingcod, with king salmon a possibility. Hot and calm at the lake becomes cold and foggy on the ocean, in a boat Russell had never touched before this trip. As Jason put it, nobody wanted him learning the controls in the dark in the ocean.

The full Bodega Bay day is the next video on the Thumpr Fishing channel, and it is where the foot throttle control stops being a first look and starts being a fishing tool.

Pre-Orders and Shipping: Where Things Stand

A quick, straight answer on availability, because plenty of you have been asking. Some customers have already pre-ordered the foot throttle control, and right now the FluxJet team is focused on shipping units. The foot throttle control is a Q4 item, and there is no ship date to share yet. When there is one, pre-order customers will hear it from FluxJet first. Until then, the honest status is the one in this post: it exists, it works, Russell has fished it, and units are the team's whole focus this fall.

Foot Throttle Control FAQs

What is the FluxJet foot throttle control?

It is a new control system for the FluxJet jet kayak, also called the Flux Link. Buttons added to the kayak's foot steering pedals let you engage power with your feet, so you can steer, hold position, and control speed without taking your hands off your fishing rod. It is an activator switch, not an accelerator pedal: it switches the preset throttle setting on and off, and pressing harder does not add speed.

How does the foot throttle control work?

You preset the speed you want on the regular hand throttle. With the system switched on, pressing the upper part of either steering pedal delivers power at that preset speed, and the pressure plates work on both pedals, so turning and thrust happen together. One press feels like one paddle stroke of power, at exactly the speed you chose.

Can you still use the hand throttle?

Yes. A button below the pedals turns the pedal power on and off. With it off, the kayak drives exactly like the standard FluxJet, hand throttle only. With it on, the hand throttle still sets the speed, and you can reach down and change it at any time.

Who is Russell from Thumpr Fishing?

Russell is a Florida angler who fishes three or four days a week, mostly saltwater, including the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River flats. FluxJet flew him to Sacramento to be the first person outside the team to fish the foot throttle control, starting with a lake warm-up day and continuing with a full day of ocean fishing at Bodega Bay.

When will the foot throttle control ship?

The foot throttle control is a Q4 item, and there is no ship date to share yet. Some customers have already pre-ordered, and the team is currently focused on shipping units. As soon as there is a date, FluxJet will share it with pre-order customers first.

Where can I watch the ocean test?

The Bodega Bay trip is the follow-up video on the Thumpr Fishing YouTube channel: a full day of Pacific rock fishing for rockfish, halibut, and lingcod on the foot throttle control, after the lake warm-up covered in the first video.

Photos: video stills courtesy of Thumpr Fishing. The kayak in this post is the standard FluxJet; see what is included with every boat.