120 tarpon.. Total Disapointment..

OK, So this Morning for the First time I took My NEW Tarpon 120 Out at sunset bay , The first thing I noticed was about 3 to 4 inches of water Coming up thur the scuper Holes So Much that IF I tryed to open the Center Hatch to get to My Gear water would almost pour in , The Weight Rating for THIS Kayak Should be NO MORE than 225lbs MAX Even with the Scupper Plugs in it was So low in the water It was punching thur less than 1 foot waves and was like trying to paddel a sub..Now I told them I'm Not a little guy 260 , Before wet suit and fishing gear, And I was told this would be a Good Kayak for my Needs and All the Money I could come up With.I am So Disapointed With it and Now see My fising Season Ruined, and Back to My lil blue., Ive put a New fish finder and Angler set up on the Tarpon,And If I had to give it a star Rating it would Be A 1/2 shooting downward star,FOR MY WEIGHT.. Maybe Great for some Smaller person or a woman..My Disappointment could have only been worse if it had sank. OH, one Last thing FOR SALE New RED Tarpon 120 USED ONCE..

That is normal. Just put some scupper plugs in. Even at 160 lbs this happens in my tarpon in the ocean. It's still a fine fishing kayak.

I wish it was that easy Noah, As I said I'm 260 Before wet suit and fishing gear, When the scupper plugges  (that I had in the center Hatch) were put in then Wave water Fills the Cockpit And Only drains when I pull the Plug (to the Edge of the center hatch) Weight rating of 350 is Not what it should be, The Water coming in Wouldn't be a Problem IF it Didn't have the Center Hatch and at that Depth of the Water line the Stability is Minimal at best Don't try to Add A 20 or 30 lb fish to fight..Im sure if I could Drop 100lbs of weight at 6'3' it might be OK But Not 250 or more..I'm sure its just Fine for a Person your feather weight size. But I bougth this So I Could go on  the Ocean..not IN it.

I guess I'm confused about what the issue is then. Is it that the boat is unstable or that you just can't get into the center hatch? My cousin paddles my tapon in the ocean and he goes 225ish without any issues. Did you have the scupper plugs in today?

Again Its the Weight Rating, I did it Both With and Without the Scupper plugs with out them in  the water INside was at the Edge of the Center Cockpit hatch, And with the Plugs in Would fill with Each Wave,(and They Wern't that Big) I even went back to shore to Check if I had taken on water In side and It was Dry, May be The Pool noodles Over weighted it.. As stated When its that low in the water it 's Not Stable Either.. If I can Ever Aford another I'll try the 600 lb rating.

It's normal for the water to be at the edge or over of the center hatch with the scuppers out. Did the boat feel unstable? According to magic seaweed there was a 6 foot swell this morning, that's not exactly a small day. Was it windy too?

The rating on the Tarpon 160 is 375.  Seems the 350 rating on the 120 is unrealistic.

At any rate, 260 pounds only leaves 90 pounds for all your clothing and gear, so you're probably close to being over that with your rod holder, fish finder, battery and all the other things you add on.

Not Normal to have water at the Center of cockpit hatch as You Need to open it and You'd sink..And Lee's right. 225 MAX rating is what I'd say for the t120 , Noah try this ,Go out with a 100lbs extra weight and fishing gear Let me know what you think then..They Should Weight TEST before rating the kayak , I would Think..and It was a Nice day Sure a bit of swell and chop but its the Ocean. Oh and it tends to bury the bow surfing in, (again Small waves)..Sure It would have been NICE if I live near to a place where I could have Tested it First..But I don't.

Not Normal to have water at the Center of cockpit hatch as You Need to open it and You'd sink..And Lee's right. 225 MAX rating is what I'd say for the t120 , Noah try this ,Go out with a 100lbs extra weight and fishing gear Let me know what you think then..They Should Weight TEST before rating the kayak , I would Think..and It was a Nice day Sure a bit of swell and chop but its the Ocean. Oh and it tends to bury the bow surfing in, (again Small waves)..Sure It would have been NICE if I live near to a place where I could have Tested it First..But I don't.

I'll just have to to agree to disagree, I believe it is normal to have water there with the scuppers out. My cousin is 225ish and had the same problem with water coming over the center hatch. He actually wasn't paying attention and got a good amount of water in the boat his first time in the salt. This was fully loaded with gear and fish. Why not just not use the hatch on bigger days?

Can you clarify how big the waves actually were? Were they 6 foot as forecasted? How much wind chop was there?

O wind and there's a web cam for the sunset bay, It was Nice enough for 3 others to go out and Nicer then the Day I tryed to go out in my SINK.Ive been out in Much worse in my Old SOT,  The forcast today was the  I don't feel the First day on the salt in a New yak and If they were Designed to Take on Water when you Open the Cockpit hatch then it works.. Then Maybe You Know who Might wan't to Buy this one. I don't Think They Did a good job on designing Putting the Center hatch so low. But if your so happy with Yours Maybe You like another. 650 plus shipping and battrey and fishfinder and Angler set up is what I've got in it I fig I'm out about $850.00

Well I'm sorry it didn't work out for you.

So all things considered.... Do you feel you're safer in your SINK? Because I think that's the most important thing to consider.  I can understand your frustration about the water up to the hatch, but isn't the reason you bought the tarpon was because your SINK wasn't working very well for you? 

Today just showed me that the 120 is Not up to my needs at all.. My SINK I've had for many years and even though its Not the Best at what I need it will work and I've been in the Ocean on Flat days with it, I've put enough floatation in it it Won't sink but If it was to fill full of water it'd take a long time to bail it out,and I made pontoons for it They just got in the way and made it hard to paddle,Also I was run over a few years back by a truck and getting in and out of it is hard for me, I had a large Necky SOT surf kayak and I sold it last year to pay my tax's, so This year I used my Tax return to Buy the T120.. the T120 would be OK for some like my son who weighs about 145, I'm 260 Before wet suit and gear.I will cont to use my Sink as I can But I'm a big fish in a sardine can in it..see abatar. The Tarpon 120 Pics are on the site and everything I've added..And I'll need to sell it to Try again with a diff yak.I might add I was 300lbs last year and have dropped 40 lbs .I was sure a Kayak with the rating the T120 had would work, I was wrong.

Sorry to hear about your experience Jgrady... :/ stupid question, but have you tried calling the place you bought your kayak to see if they can give you store credit towards another model? Even with you flipping the bill for return shipping it might still be cheaper than trying to sell it. Just a thought and maybe worth the few minutes it takes to make a call...


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Pretty sure They are Closed today ..and It's a long drive from here and I've spent every penny I have on it. SO it's now for sell or trade