I left Anchorage, AK it was minus 7 deg F. Rolled through Sterling, AK and checked the area weather and it read 19 below in Kenai Alaska. Ouch. But my destination Homer another 90 miles down the road is reading 13 degrees so I keep on rolling. I get there and the water looks great. Of course once I am on the water, it starts blowing up to 15knts making for a pretty decent wind chill.
I was amazed how warm I stayed with relatively few layers on. Toes and fingers got a tad nippy, but that's easily fixable.
Spectra line was a bummer. The only saving grace was it was cold enough to freeze the line immediately so the spool on the reel stayed relatively dry,
I had a MAJOR issue zipping up my drysuit. rubber turns to steel even when moderately cold. Even though I could easily zip it when it was off, once I put it on, I could not zip it up. I drove 4 hours one way and I almost gave up because of it. It was inside the vehicle but in a cold spot.
I had greased the rudder lines and they performed fine. Mirage drive worked fine as well. The only other problem I had was as i was coming into land, I yanked on the "down rudder" line to unlock it. Then I yanked on the "up rudder" line...nothing. Huh? The shore is fast approaching and I look at the locking cleat and it is encased in ice. I would have broken something had I kept yanking. So I jump out prematurely into frigid water and bang on the cleat with my fish whacker until finally the line breaks free.
After about three hours I had about 1/8 to 1/4 inch of ice built up on my Outback. I decide to call it a day when the swells get large enough and steep enough that every few minutes I would catch a ride on a swell large enough that it would trip my deep six diver I was using as I surged forward. So discretion being the better part of valor, I call it a day.
I didn't catch any king salmon but I did manage a few pollock. But I will declare victory knowing that I can comfortably fish in 15 deg weather and my equipment will function properly. Basically what that means is that on any given month, I can legitimately get out and catch fish using my Hobie Outback. That's pretty cool when you live in Anchorage, AK!