re: The Official Kayak Thread

Review #1 for the Blue Sky Angler:
Took it out of Mandeville Harbor this morning, had a decent amount of wind and chop

Wind: did fine in the wind. No complaints

Chop: did fine. Stayed pretty much completely dry. I would have soaked in those same conditions in my old yak

Steering: was pleasantly surprised how well it steered. Nice big rudder was very good in changing directions instantly and accurately.

Stability: probably most impressed with this. Felt like I was on a a floating dock. I as able to walk around to the front and back. That ice chest up front in my pics from a couple weeks ago served as the perfect casting platform. It’s about 30” above surface of water and didn’t feel sketchy at all. Could easily stand and turn around. Can’t wait to sight fish for reds. The buyouncy of the boat was also fantastic. Had that heavy ice chest with my 5 year old on it up front and it never felt like it was dipping.

Pedaling/speed: at a leisurely pedal it was about the average speed of my kayak. My buddy was out there with me and said he could keep up. But I was able to get on it and leave him behind. Reverse is awesome. Stops me quickly.

Grass: not really specific to this boat, but I’m sure any of you with pedal drives know that heavy grass is a killer. It was easy to clean the prop off but I won’t be able to go through grass. I forgot my SUP paddle so I have to make a serious mental note not to forget that again. Had my buddy not been with me, it would have sucked bad.

Seat: love the seat. Comfortable, adjustable. 360° swivel is nice. they missed a screw so the seat back kept popping out of the frame. Easy fix though just have to redrill it.

Misc: Loved the rod rack on the side. Loading and unloading was nice with the wheels and also put some keel Rollers on my bed extender.

Next weekend will be the official fishing review. I’ll post anything different I discover.

Hobie guys...would having a 3.5 lb anchor mounted to the stern H-rail using the Scotty anchor lock cause any issues over time from constant weight on the H-rail?

For reference, this anchor lock with 3.5 lb anchor with Scotty H-rail adapter

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how big was that flounder?

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Pretty sure it was a state record, those are 40”+ bull reds

But really I’d say 20” I didn’t measure it
Just knew it was bigger than 16” reds

He has a Wildy Radar not a Native.

Like Lefty said I have a Wildy Radar 135
But the prop premise is the same, to answer your question it’s pretty much useless in grass/weeds you just end up wrapping the grass around the prop, clean it out and repeat
I keep it because of the instant reverse. It’s one of those “once ya have it” situations


And Lefty I used a regular fillet knife, cut around the head (not deep, just enough to hold the fillet)
Cut down the center then work the knife down the meat, will be blackened w/ lump crab tonight

Oh nice. I really like how that drive is spring loaded and just pops up. Really cool idea. Also like how it goes low profile when you fold it forward. I’ll upgrade to a pedal boat in the future and it’s on my list to demo

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AlxTgr

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Did you try that Garmin yet?

Do you have the Striker 4 or Striker 4 plus?