re: The Official Kayak Thread

Anyone fish out of a 2019 Hobie Outback? New design looks pretty great, but I’ve only had the chance to mess around in a PA14 which was too big imo.

You were on the wrong side of that cove.

So I've finally finished up with my fish finder set up. I had a few screw ups to fix, and its a little messy around the entry point of my electrical socket. It's not the prettiest, but all in all I'm happy with how it turned out. Now I just need some dry weather tomorrow afternoon, so I can test it out after work!

Drunken Crawfish hooked me up with his Hobie battery holder. I bolted it in, and trimmed the top left corner in order to fit my cables for hook up. The battery is superglued into the bracket with some zip ties to hold it as well. That baby should not be going anywhere


I drilled about 1 1/4 inch hole in the hull cover, and cut rubber fuel hose in half to place around the edges of the hole to work as a gasket. I used a trolling motor plug through a 1 inch rubber hose to insert into the hole. I sealed the plug into the hose with some marine grade silicone. I had to use the hose so that I could flex the plug forward and out of the way of the pedal drive. I used a stick of hardening epoxy to place in any gaps and let it harden. After it was set I sprayed the entire area with flex seal to make sure that it was completely water tight.




I spliced my fish finder power to the other end of the trolling motor plug. I still need to clean up how I'm running the wires through the kayak.


I bought the track mount yak attack switch blade for the transducer, and the yak attack round base fish finder mount for the Garmin base mount.


I bought an extra trolling motor plug and 2 metal connectors to plug in when I'm finished with a fishing trip. The battery never has to come out, and I just connect the battery charger straight to my plug.



The main thing is that it works great, and I'm pumped to finally get to use it. If anyone has any extra advice it is definitely welcome.

I’m sure there is a way to mount it on the bottom or in a scupper hole, but I couldn’t bring myself to drill any holes in the bottom of my kayak. The plug is the 8-gauge Attwood trolling motor connector from Academy.

Old Town just dropped this on their Instagram page. I am not sure how they plan on improving the Best fishing kayak on the market but I am excited to see what they announce.

What I'm hoping for is a predator model that can accept both the pdl and the trolling motor plus an open floor design all along with transducer scuppers.

The "censored" part makes me really curious. Must be a collaboration with someone else. I'd naturally think another company in their family (minn kota, humminbird, Carlisle, etc...), but I doubt they would censor that. So maybe a yak attack, ram, etc... collab similar to the Jackson kayak HD models or the wilderness systems ATAK models.

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I grabbed that screenshot from their instagram account. They have the "censored" sticker fill the screen if you let the animation play, so I don't think it is specifically set to cover something up.

I posted the same picture on the Old Town Predator Facebook and one of the dealers said they were told it is just some limited edition colors with some "small changes". Apparently they are going to release another kayak at the end of the summer with a lower price point than the PDL. Maybe a kayak designed specifically for saltwater since they made the Topwater with freshwater in mind?

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10-4. A pdl version of the ocean kayak prowler big game ii makes the most sense for their next premium kayak. Although I think consolidating everything under old town instead of split with ocean kayak is really what I would do. Maybe call it the predator XT with extra weight and an interchangeable floor pod for either the Mk or the pdl pod.

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I'm guessing a Predator PDL with a redesigned more squared off rear end.

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I've learned through many years of watching new kayaks be brought to market that they rarely change hull designs under the same name because the initial molds are so costly to make. If they do something like change the front end, they'll likely change other significant aspects of the hull and the name. I could be wrong, but that's my guess.

Obviously, situations like the Hobie Outback 2019 are the exception, but that was a total redesign on an old old hull shape where the model name carried significant market weight.

For sure! I plan on taking her out a good bit this spring.

Cocodrie has scarred me. Not sure if I’ll fish another tournament that I can’t pre-fish. I’ll be doing a few of the LCKFC tournaments though.