Hobie Pro Anglers in weed situations.

Many of the lakes and ponds near me are very weedy. What problems should I anticipate with the Mirage Drive, Rudder and Skeg on the Pro Angler and how do you deal with them? Any insights here would be greatly appreciated.

Same as you would any other boat, except you're the engine that's gonna be slowed down and running hard...

If you don't have some clear water to engage the mirage you're just not gonna move forward. Pull it up and paddle out until you do.
Loads of lily pads and grass in Lake Washington where I fish. Lillies are easy enough to peddle through if they're not packed in together. Same with hyancith (floating topwater so mirage can freely swim). But weed and grass? I'm paddling there.

I don't have the skeg model but it looks to me like it's curved enough to avoid catching much on the weed side, but I'll defer to 2015 owners to answer that one.

I was just fishing in a lake that had thick grass and all u have to is paddle ur way out of it. Just make sure to retract ur rudder/Skeg and place ur Mirage drive in the non-extended position and you'll go right over it. Hope this helps.

Sometimes if you flutter pedal (keep flippers close to the hull), you can get through light weeds okay. It just varies with the conditions. The earlier comments are correct. If it's too weedy where the drive will just constantly catch or tangle in the weeds, you have to sometimes use the paddle to get through that area. It helps once you get through the weeds to pull up the drive to let any tangled weeds fall off and then re-seat the drive and continue on.

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Steve Stubbs
USAF (retired)

SeaDek Fishing Team
Unfair Lures Pro Staff
Ziptailz Ambassador

2015 Pro Angler 14 - Papaya
2018 Compass - Sea Grass

in my opinion, plow away! I was just at Big Bear Lake this weekend and I was in a shallow bay, as shallow as 1.5-2 ft with lots of underwater vegetation, and had no issues plowing through it. Sure the weeds can get caught in the mirage drive, but I would just pull up the drive and pull the weeds off. I didn't find that it caused any issues with the drives.

But I found that the weeds were otherwise pretty soft (considering they are in the water all the time). I also second the previous recommendation to "flutter" if need be. You can actually still move and have rudder control that way.

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Vegasvec
2015 Pro Angler 17t
Lowrance Elite 5 Chirp
Zieman Trailer w/ Cradles

I fish my pa14 in very shallow water with lots of submerged vegetation all the time...it is really not a problem if you just flutter the pedals so that the fins are operating close to the hull. It amazes me that it takes so little effort to move that big heavy kayak! I only use the skeg if I need to go in a straight line when it is windy. I've never had to lift the rudder for weeds. You have to go where the fish are if you really want to have a chance at catching them and this kayak is simply outstanding at getting me there!