Hello from Anchorage

My name is Tom Taylor and I have lived in Alaska for a little over 3 years. While I am in Anchorage now I lived in the Aleutians for 2 years. I absolutely love fishing and am very new to kayak sea fishing. I just recently purchased my kayak and am very excited to get it out on the water for the first time. If anyone has any questions or wants someone to pal around with do not hesitate to shoot me a message.

Welcome Tom! 

Aleutians, eh? What part?  I run the fuel subsidiaries in Adak and Cold Bay (fortunately out of Anchorage) for the Aleut Corp. 

What type of kayak do you have?  As long as it floats, you will have some great opportunities to slay fish!

A lot of cool folks on this site, a few even from right here in South-central Alaska.  lol.  Crazy how few kayak anglers there are here in Alaska when we have a zillion kayakers and a bazillion anglers.  Fishing is year round here out of kayaks though even I wind things down and ice fish more January through March.

If you are just starting out, definitely a lot of good information on this site to absorb.  Let us know how we can help!   

Welcome Tom, this was my first year kayak fishing and I am now an addict. Watch tha AK forum for great tips.

I have a Ocean Kayak 4.7 Trident Ultra. The goal is to test it out and find all of the kinks in February. I am 6' 10", so I have some stuff to figure out. Is there any stores that people recommend for getting a paddlesuit / drysuit?

I love the Aleutians, the fishing and bird hunting out there is insane. I still do my subsistence fishing out there.

Welcome!  Like you, I'm new to the area and look forward to the 2015 fishing season.  NWKA has some great people, and there's loads of information available.   

Welcome Tom -- I love seeing our numbers grow! Hope to fish with you sometime in the 2015 season. Unlike Kardinal, I'm done for 2014.    Maybe the Homer Derby in March... In February, I'll be fishing Hawaiian waters instead.

On drysuits: I recommend going to Alaska Raft and Kayak or REI in Anchorage to get the right sizing on such an important bit of gear, and then shopping aggressively for sales either local or via mail order. The members 20% off via REI can make a big difference, but as of last year they weren't carrying any of the reinforced angling models on the Kokatat products they sell. Maybe with the addition of Cabela's and Bass Pro-Shops in our town there are more options; haven't been to either one yet.

I agree with Akfishergal.  I got lucky to get connected with Kokatat directly for my last suit.  My other two I bought from Alaska Raft and Kayak.  6'10" might require a custom fit.  I'd recommend going to custom section at the Kokatat site at: http://kokatat.com/products/custom.html

It's hard not to recommend a one piece here in Alaska but maybe others can chime in on options they have found to be effective for the taller folks. 

Thank you for the welcome and the information.