I picked up my first Hobie, a PA 14 on Friday from Tri-State Trolling Motors in St. Louis. It is a family run business specializing in trolling motors (hence the name) and all things fishing electronics - and now Hobie! Really good group of guys out there, the big guy that runs the place scares the (censored) out of me, but seems pretty solid, and the whole team is pretty sharp.
Picked her up around noon and had her in the water at Silver Lake in Highland a couple of hours later. Probably the worse day I have kayaked. Winds gusting to 20-30mph nice big rollers and whitecaps. And me without my wading pants or gortex anything. But I had to get the boat in the water.
I could not believe how stable this boat is. Not once did I feel tippy even in the worse of the wind and waves. I would not have been caught dead out there in my Jackson Cuda. It is not a big lake by any means, but that wind was moving and kicking up a storm. I was the only person on the water. Anyway, it was a good shakedown of the boat...though I would probably have been better off waiting until Saturday...but I had the fever.
Spent 9 hours on her today at Lake Coffeen. It is a power plant lake, so the water is always warm, I think around 60 at the outlets. Really got a good feel for this boat. It is so different than my Cuda. Different in a good way. I could sit off windy points facing the breeze and peddle in place. The rudder is amazing, along with a few short strokes really gets you pointed in the right direction. I think I covered more water, and actually fished more this one day, than the last three in my other boat. Oh, and did I mention the seat? I loved the seat in my Cuda...now I don't know how I will ever go back! The seat, in no uncertain terms, is amazing. I did not realize that the high/low made such a difference, but also changes your relation to the peddles. So I did have to adjust the peddles when I went high. But thinking, I will probably be in the high a lot more than low...and it is super easy to adjust anyway.
One last thing. I can stand in a kayak! I can stand and take a wiz in a kayak! Forget fishing while standing, I don't have to get out of this boat to do #1! Obviously, #2 is going to require a trip to shore, unless the Hobie engineers get really creative.
One more last thing. This boat at 140lb is heavy, but it does not feel heavy in the water. It also rides much better on my Harbor Freight trailer. That extra 60lbs makes all the difference in the trailer being bouncy or smooth.
Here is a picture of the boat and trailer, from Friday, before being rigged. Probably the cleanest it will ever be! Since, I have added the YakAttack LeverLoc Anchor Trolley to both sides - still have to run the 550 cord - but it mounts with only 4 added holes, one extra for the pad eyes and two for the loc itself. Everything else uses Hobies existing mounting points. I have two new pockets to add on each side (one to hide my lowrance power and sounder cable when not in use), the batter box, a cigarette lighter adapter for charging, a couple of USB ports, and a couple of toggle switches. Everything else mounts on the H-rails - two rod holders, a 1" RAM ball, and a H-rail mighty mount. That is along with the stuff that came with the kayak.
I think that the fun has just begun! Of course, I have spent so much money on this 'project' in the last week that I am going to have to live on peanut butter and tuna fish...or whatever I can catch...until payday!