Newbie from Vashon Islans, WA

Greetings---

   This is my first post.  I am 65, live in Puget Sound and have been a sit-in kayaker for 25 years, just sold my Current Designs Expedition to get enough $$ for a sit-on-top boat to fish waters local to Vashon Island.  My other boat is a 15foot Arima, but the cost of gas is making the per pound cost of salmon ridiculous!!
    I used to make expeditions to Clayoquot Sound and Barkley Sound, always dragged a Buzzbomb behind, and usually ate salmon.
   I am 5"9, 170#, and am mulling over whether to buy a Hobie Outback, Mirage Classic, or some other model???  I like the pedal drive, and would like some advice from others on boat choice.  Would love to meet (if only online) other local salmon anglers. Enclosed a pic of a beach on Vargas Island with all the goodies I could stuff into my 17 foot Cadence for a 2 week trip.
   If you have a Hobie to sell, please let me know!

Terry Roth

PS---I installed that Tempress rod holder on my kayak in 1983.  Does that make me a "legacy" kayak fisher??   ;-)

Mornin, Terry, and welcome to the group..good bunch of people here,

as for adding a rod holder to your yak back in '83,  i'd consider myself ahead of the curve, or just someone whose been more  enlightened than others for a very long time...

have been reading about expedition paddling, your pic showing what you stuffed into your boat just provided me with lots more ideas..

hope to see you on the water

oh, btw, if you look at the tool bar on the top of the page , click forum, then go down to classifieds, and click, then look at the top of the page, there is a link to the surrounding area craigslists that might have the hobie you want..
Rich

Welcome to NWKA Terry. I fish an Outback and love it, so glad i didn't get the smaller one, they start to seem small pretty quick as you accumulate gear, as you can probably attest to by your pic. I really like the width of the outback, very stable platform.

Welcome kallitype.  Would love to see some old pictures of kayak fishing in the 80's.

-Allen

It really depends on what kind of fishing you're going for. If you want to cover a lot of ground, the Adventure can't be beat. A real Puget Sound speed demon! The Revolution comes next and is a great versatile yak that can handle a lot of conditions. Great for sound or lakes. The Outback and Outback sport are the slowest of the bunch but have room forever. Great bass boats IMO. The classic is a cool yak but a little tough to outfit for fishing. Just not a lot of room.

Z

Hey Terry, did you see this ad?

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/boa/736500115.html

not sure how close it is to you but a good deal!!

Thanks for the replies---I paddled the Outback and the Revo at Lake Washington yest, sure was nice to get out of the heat (91) and into the water!!  The Revo is very slick, I'm looking for the best price.  The Outback was roomy but took more energy for the same speed, felt sluggish compared to the revo.  Now for some gear suggestions for Puget Sound salmon-----diver and plug-cut herring?  small flasher and hoochie or Coyote spoon???

Now for some gear suggestions for Puget Sound salmon-----diver and plug-cut herring?  small flasher and hoochie or Coyote spoon???

It's always going to be different for different places times of day etc.. My go to gear is a downrigger w/ a 4# ball, small flasher and hoochie. Spoons will produce along with plugs and... well you get the picture. Experiment and figure out what works for your local spot. Once you get it all down it's gonna be fun!!

Z

I have the Hobie Classic, it has been interesting trying to get it outfitted for fishing.

There isn't really a tank well to put a crate in - there is a small well, but it has a hatch cover over it.  I went with RAM mounts for the rod holders cut another 6" hatch in the center for tackle storage and mounted the FF on the forward hatch just clear of the pedals.

So far so good, I'm 6' and go about 190lbs, fairly comfortable in the Classic, i do like the Revo, basically same hull - might be my next boat.

I've salmon fishing areas 10 & 11 for 20years

In my big boat - my "goto" set up right now is the 11" proll troll e-chip flasher with 30" leader to an army truck coyote spoon, working 75 - 95' down on the rigger in about 120' of water.  Koho killer spoons are hit and miss, rarely use herring these days unless I am mooching.

In the yak, haven't got a downrigger set up yet....took a big halibut rod with a Penn senator reel and a 5lb Cannonball, ran that down once side and the salmon rod down the other - jury rigged downrigger - results were marginal, too much farking around trying to make it work - pretty sure I would end up in the water if I was determined to fish that way.  Did catch a sh@tload of dogfish using herring out of the yak - kind of drift mooching, think you could get salmon that way if you were patient enough to wait out the trash fish.

Deep six diver, smaller echip flasher and Coyote spoon has produced shakers in the Yak, hard to get down deep with those divers. 

Think I might try the old school trolling weights (banana) and see if drift-stop-pedal-drift-stop allows it to drop far enough down..

SC