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  #31  
Old 02-09-2023, 05:59 PM
Mumbles Mumbles is offline
 
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Originally Posted by thumper View Post
Three things I like about the Hobie 'fin' system, compared to a prop system are:

If you need to transverse matts of surface weeds, you can easily hold the fins very close to the hull, (or pull it out) and use your paddle

If you do get weeds caught on your fins, it's quick & easy to pop the drive out, clean them off, and continue on your way.

If you're in shallow water on a slow current stream, you can use your fins to gently 'pinch' the bottom, and hold your position.

My Hobies were/are all 'old style' - no 'reverse'. I've just kept the paddle handy for 'reverse gear' !

^^^^THIS^^^^
Well said.
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  #32  
Old 02-09-2023, 07:25 PM
Smoky buck Smoky buck is online now
 
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To the guys with experience with the Outback how is the leg room length wise?

I am 6’2 220 no issues with my compass but read a few reviews where they said the outback is not as good for tall people

Looks like I might be stuck upgrading my wife’s kayak now too after she started seeing some of the YouTube reviews on the outback and pro angler

Nice to have a wife who gets out hunting and fishing but sometimes it makes the hobby more expensive
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  #33  
Old 02-09-2023, 08:59 PM
338Bluff 338Bluff is offline
 
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Originally Posted by Smoky buck View Post
To the guys with experience with the Outback how is the leg room length wise?

I am 6’2 220 no issues with my compass but read a few reviews where they said the outback is not as good for tall people

Looks like I might be stuck upgrading my wife’s kayak now too after she started seeing some of the YouTube reviews on the outback and pro angler

Nice to have a wife who gets out hunting and fishing but sometimes it makes the hobby more expensive
6' 3" and 230. It's just enough, but a little more would have been nicer. Only a real problem on a 8-10 hour grind.
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  #34  
Old 02-09-2023, 09:10 PM
Smoky buck Smoky buck is online now
 
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Originally Posted by 338Bluff View Post
6' 3" and 230. It's just enough, but a little more would have been nicer. Only a real problem on a 8-10 hour grind.
Thanks for the response and you are close enough in size that I should expect a similar fit

It is not unusual for us to do long days especially if we are out of town we use as much daylight as we can
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  #35  
Old 02-10-2023, 09:57 AM
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A tip for anybody that goes on any river in Alberta.

Go to rivers.alberta.ca and check out the river elevations and flowrates.

As soon as you go on there, you'll see all these numbered stations. Scroll with your mouse wheel to expand the map and you'll see way more, and you can focus in on whatever river you are interested in boating on. Kayak, jetboat, canoe or even just tubing. It's great info.

How this works of course, on every navigable river in Alberta, there are stations with laser scanners set up. The laser records the water depth and from that, the flow rate is calculated.

Before every outing I always pull up the info for the section of river I will be kayaking and check out the tables (usually the McLeod R.).

There is one called Table Data and that lists numerical level and flow rate, and I believe it spits out new numbers every 15 minutes all day long. Of course you can scroll back through the numbers.

Second is Weekly Graph. On that the level and flow are plotted on a graph, which really shows the trend of the river, whether it's rising/falling.

Last there is Yearly Graph.

And before we set out for our trip that day, I print the Table Data and Weekly Graph. At the end of our trip, I record what time we started, ended our trip.
I will also note fishing results.
I keep all these in my filing cabinet. Great reference for future trips.


For info: I am also 6'2" 220lbs.

Also although I am not endorsing the Pelican kayaks, my wife and I absolutely love ours.

We get out on the McLeod R, every chance we get, when the weather is nice and the river is not in flood stage basically.

A few more pics.


This is a pic of my Pelican Maxim 100, anchored in too strong current, in the McLeod R.
It might not look like much from this picture, but the river was high, flow can be deceptively fast.
The small ripple in the pic is all you can see of the boat, as the strong current is pulling it down.

On this particular incident, I dropped anchor without proper awareness of the power of the current that day. As soon as it dug in and the line tightened, Whammo!! I was upside down.

Trust me, if you want any advice on kayaking it is DO NOT ANCHOR IN CURRENT!


We love the trip from Rosevear Ferry down to Hwy 32 Bridge. This pic is at the bridge at the end of our trip.

If you want to do a real nice over-nighter shore camping trip, the trip from Hwy 32 Bridge down to Whitecourt takes 2 to 3 days.



The wife cruising on the McLeod R.


Old Fort Point, Athabasca R, Jasper. I kayaked from Old Fort Point down to the flats on Hwy 16.
That is a great trip, and there can be some pretty decent white water at certain times of the year!

Also there can be quite extreme winds, due to the effects of the mountains.
The stretch of river from Snaring R, down to the flats along Hwy 16, the winds were wild. There were huge whitecaps churned up by the wind actually, and caused me to have to paddle relentlessly to control the boat.

But that is still a great trip!
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  #36  
Old 02-11-2023, 08:04 AM
Mumbles Mumbles is offline
 
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Anchoring in current in rivers can be dangerous yes, but if you and your kayak is prepared with a anchor trolley, the proper length of rope on your anchor and some sort of quick release system it can be done with the greatest of ease.
I’ve anchored in many rivers. Hell there is a group of girls that catch sturgeon on the Fraser in their kayaks. So the whole DO NOT ANCHOR IN CURRENT warning is completely unfounded. Be careful in flowing water yes but you need to be careful on small trout ponds too.
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  #37  
Old 02-11-2023, 09:09 AM
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^ @ Mumbles. I have an anchor trolley, and am very familiar with using it to anchor.

I have anchored and fished in the McLeod R many times.

The picture of my kayak upside down was incident #1. And that was a solo trip, where the wife did not accompany me, as I mainly wanted to try some fishing.

On that particular trip, as I had anchored in the river 'lot's of times', I wasn't really concerned.
I knew the river level was up and also that the flow was above normal.

But the weight, power, mass of that flow I under-estimated. And I admit that I was careless in the position/angle of the boat, as the anchor dug in. In other words I was sideways...

As soon as the anchor dug in, the line went taut, it was astonishing how violently the boat dug in against that line.

And there was no way to prevent flipping.

I was dumped in the water, but had my life jacket on, and swam to shore.

Then I attempted to free the boat.

Holy crap! So much water pressure from the anchor line to the mostly submerged kayak! And as soon as you even touch the boat, it forces it to sink even more.
Attempting to pull myself down to get to the quick release was futile.

I made 3 tries and it was just impossible to do.

I returned to Whitecourt and came back with my ATV and 100' of nylon rope. I was able to drive to a field right above the spot where my kayak was floating.

As I arrived, a couple of other kayaks were just coming down the river.

They took my line and were able to go out and tie it off to my kayak, then me and this other guy were able to pull the boat to shore.

From there I used the rope to pull the kayak up to my ATV and got away, with the loss of a few bits of gear and a cooler of beer.

I asked the people that helped me to watch out for my beer cooler, and danged if they didn't find it and I got it returned to me, with a few beers missing!


The salvaged cooler...


Second incident: This time I was in my Catch 120, which is a much more stable kayak than the old Maxim 100.

The wife and I went out, beautiful day, the river levels and flow rates were much less than on the first goat roping exercise.

But we get to this great fishing spot and I drop anchor.

And after I had dropped it, I could feel that it was bumbling along on the bottom, and wasn't holding. I realized that I had to pull it up, the current was too strong.

But just as I went to grab the anchor line, the damn anchor slammed into a big rock, and same as the first time, I was upside down in a second.

Pretty much a repeat of the first go-around in which the boat wasn't turned correctly. Just unfortunate that I recognized I was trying to anchor in a dumb spot but just didn't have the extra second of time to get my anchor out quick enough.

Kinda the same as the first capsize, except I did not have my life jacket on, went in under the kayak and got tangled up in lines momentarily, then had to swim to shore, with the wife freaking out.

We we able to paddle back out to my capsized kayak, and once again, I was unable to get to the quick release.

So we ended up cutting the line and abandoned that anchor on the bottom on the river.

Third incident: Have you ever been to Clearwater Lake, B.C. Wells Gray Park?

Down near the rapids, where the river empties out of the lake, I dropped anchor. I guess I was 150 yards above the rapid?
The current really wasn't that bad.

But what happened there is that the bottom there turns out to be just covered with huge submerged logs.

And my damn anchor went into those logs in such a way that it was impossible to pull it back up.

So while I did not capsize, I had to release my anchor, and that damn thing is still tangled up in those submerged trees.



So after all that nonsense I am going to agree with you, it is safe to anchor in the river IF YOU ARE PAYING ATTENTION.

Honestly in both incidents I was careless, and wasn't paying enough attention to the power of the current, and the angle the boat was at, as the anchor dug in.

I still have the anchor trolley on my kayak, but honestly have not even taken an anchor with me since the Clearwater L incident.



Jim
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It's time to go hunting and quit all this ballistic masturbation."

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  #38  
Old 02-11-2023, 10:43 AM
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58thecat 58thecat is online now
 
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Dam, those are some close calls, turning your yak into a deep diver once the anchor hooks up must be a violent reality check.
These types of real experience reminders are very much appreciated.
I learnt that hooking up a 34 inch laker or larger fish to not fight it off the side of the yak as it will flip but rather move your rod over the front and when the lunker is tired and you want to release it open your bail on your rod just in case it wants to run again....The other thing now is I went on amazon and got a bunch of those plastic/rubber coils tethers/lanyards and any gear that doesn't float is attached to the yak.
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  #39  
Old 02-11-2023, 11:50 AM
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^ Ya I have tethers on most all my gear, but sometimes **** goes sideways... or upside down.

I survived and learned from each of these.

There really are safe, effective methods of anchoring in the river.

A person should always have a life jacket on.

Respect the current!
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It's time to go hunting and quit all this ballistic masturbation."

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  #40  
Old 02-27-2023, 10:48 AM
Gbuss Gbuss is offline
 
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I won a 106 pdl at East slop tournament last year. Was the door prize. It has been great. I plan on strapping a couple razer blades to the housing were the prop goes on the help cut up weeds. It has been a great yak so far and I am putting a garmin uhd 75sv on it once it warms up a bit more.

If I was to get a new kayak for tournaments I would get the jackson nar. It has a 12:1 gear ratio on the peddle drive and can put 6 7' rods on the boat in the proper storage area in rod tubs. Nothing standing up behind you to get tangled in for casting. But that is my opinion.


All in all the 106 pdl is a nice comfy ride. The seat is great and I can fish for hours on it.
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  #41  
Old 02-27-2023, 11:00 AM
Gbuss Gbuss is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Demonical View Post
^ @ Mumbles. I have an anchor trolley, and am very familiar with using it to anchor.

I have anchored and fished in the McLeod R many times.

The picture of my kayak upside down was incident #1. And that was a solo trip, where the wife did not accompany me, as I mainly wanted to try some fishing.

On that particular trip, as I had anchored in the river 'lot's of times', I wasn't really concerned.
I knew the river level was up and also that the flow was above normal.

But the weight, power, mass of that flow I under-estimated. And I admit that I was careless in the position/angle of the boat, as the anchor dug in. In other words I was sideways...

As soon as the anchor dug in, the line went taut, it was astonishing how violently the boat dug in against that line.

And there was no way to prevent flipping.

I was dumped in the water, but had my life jacket on, and swam to shore.

Then I attempted to free the boat.

Holy crap! So much water pressure from the anchor line to the mostly submerged kayak! And as soon as you even touch the boat, it forces it to sink even more.
Attempting to pull myself down to get to the quick release was futile.

I made 3 tries and it was just impossible to do.

I returned to Whitecourt and came back with my ATV and 100' of nylon rope. I was able to drive to a field right above the spot where my kayak was floating.

As I arrived, a couple of other kayaks were just coming down the river.

They took my line and were able to go out and tie it off to my kayak, then me and this other guy were able to pull the boat to shore.

From there I used the rope to pull the kayak up to my ATV and got away, with the loss of a few bits of gear and a cooler of beer.

I asked the people that helped me to watch out for my beer cooler, and danged if they didn't find it and I got it returned to me, with a few beers missing!


The salvaged cooler...


Second incident: This time I was in my Catch 120, which is a much more stable kayak than the old Maxim 100.

The wife and I went out, beautiful day, the river levels and flow rates were much less than on the first goat roping exercise.

But we get to this great fishing spot and I drop anchor.

And after I had dropped it, I could feel that it was bumbling along on the bottom, and wasn't holding. I realized that I had to pull it up, the current was too strong.

But just as I went to grab the anchor line, the damn anchor slammed into a big rock, and same as the first time, I was upside down in a second.

Pretty much a repeat of the first go-around in which the boat wasn't turned correctly. Just unfortunate that I recognized I was trying to anchor in a dumb spot but just didn't have the extra second of time to get my anchor out quick enough.

Kinda the same as the first capsize, except I did not have my life jacket on, went in under the kayak and got tangled up in lines momentarily, then had to swim to shore, with the wife freaking out.

We we able to paddle back out to my capsized kayak, and once again, I was unable to get to the quick release.

So we ended up cutting the line and abandoned that anchor on the bottom on the river.

Third incident: Have you ever been to Clearwater Lake, B.C. Wells Gray Park?

Down near the rapids, where the river empties out of the lake, I dropped anchor. I guess I was 150 yards above the rapid?
The current really wasn't that bad.

But what happened there is that the bottom there turns out to be just covered with huge submerged logs.

And my damn anchor went into those logs in such a way that it was impossible to pull it back up.

So while I did not capsize, I had to release my anchor, and that damn thing is still tangled up in those submerged trees.



So after all that nonsense I am going to agree with you, it is safe to anchor in the river IF YOU ARE PAYING ATTENTION.

Honestly in both incidents I was careless, and wasn't paying enough attention to the power of the current, and the angle the boat was at, as the anchor dug in.

I still have the anchor trolley on my kayak, but honestly have not even taken an anchor with me since the Clearwater L incident.



Jim


I and wondering if a shallow water anchor poll on the anchor troly would have been a better option as you can stick it in the the ground and position the boat bow down river or up river. Just couriouse with your experience.
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  #42  
Old 02-27-2023, 11:01 AM
Smoky buck Smoky buck is online now
 
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I pulled the pin and ordered two 2023 Hobie outback’s they will arrive in late match early April. Wife wanted an upgrade too after seeing all my research on YouTube lol

Guess I will have to brave the mayhem selling both our Hobie compass kayaks for sale online soon
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  #43  
Old 02-27-2023, 11:22 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Smoky buck View Post
I pulled the pin and ordered two 2023 Hobie outback’s they will arrive in late match early April. Wife wanted an upgrade too after seeing all my research on YouTube lol

Guess I will have to brave the mayhem selling both our Hobie compass kayaks for sale online soon

Congrats, look forward to a few pics and a follow up on these beauties!


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  #44  
Old 02-27-2023, 11:37 AM
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Terrific, Smoky! Hope you and your wife have a great time with those!

I think I'm at least a year away from getting mine.
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  #45  
Old 02-27-2023, 03:53 PM
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Demonical, nice kayak I got the same one! Lots of good tips in this thread, those stories about flipping in the rivers are wild.
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  #46  
Old 02-27-2023, 11:32 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Smoky buck View Post
I pulled the pin and ordered two 2023 Hobie outback’s they will arrive in late match early April. Wife wanted an upgrade too after seeing all my research on YouTube lol

Guess I will have to brave the mayhem selling both our Hobie compass kayaks for sale online soon
Congrats! Can't go wrong with a Hobie.
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  #47  
Old 02-28-2023, 12:36 AM
Smoky buck Smoky buck is online now
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thumper View Post
Congrats! Can't go wrong with a Hobie.
After owning the compass along with trying a few other brands the wife and I both have developed a preference for Hobie kayaks. The drive is what the big factor is and it could just be we are comfortable with it because it’s what we started with but why fix what is not broken.

Last edited by Smoky buck; 02-28-2023 at 12:52 AM.
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  #48  
Old 02-28-2023, 06:37 AM
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I watch a lot of YouTube vids on kayaks etc and the Hobie kayaks are used a lot in big water, inland and offshore, kinda gives you confidence in its ability.
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  #49  
Old 02-28-2023, 08:06 AM
Smoky buck Smoky buck is online now
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 58thecat View Post
I watch a lot of YouTube vids on kayaks etc and the Hobie kayaks are used a lot in big water, inland and offshore, kinda gives you confidence in its ability.
Honestly any of the higher quality brands make both pedal and paddle models that are very capable when it comes to to big water/rough conditions not just Hobie. There is a big difference between the lower to mid range brand kayaks and I have had both out on big lakes.

I have experienced both there is definitely a big difference between the higher end fishing kayak brands.

I prefer Hobie for the drive more than anything but for a hull capable of handling big water there is definitely some good options in a number of the quality fishing kayak brands

Experience and knowledge definitely play a roll. A little bit of crazy helps at times too lol
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  #50  
Old 03-02-2023, 03:47 PM
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Hobie are versatile too! On my Outback I had a camp cock-pit cover and a shotgun rack for duck hunting, an electric trolling motor mount for fishing, a low-rance sonar with the transducer tucked away into a little hull pocket that Hobie has just for that purpose, - even a sailing kit for goofing around with on windy, summer days! I've hauled around flat rocks on the deck for building stone walls, 2 kids at the same time, armed with 'super-soaker' water guns to patrol neighbourhood docks and dogs in the forward hatch.
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  #51  
Old 03-04-2023, 10:23 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Smoky buck View Post
I pulled the pin and ordered two 2023 Hobie outback’s they will arrive in late match early April. Wife wanted an upgrade too after seeing all my research on YouTube lol

Guess I will have to brave the mayhem selling both our Hobie compass kayaks for sale online soon
congrats one the new purchase!! It gets expensive when you gotta buy two of everything for your partner!

I have to buy two of everything as well but i'm not complaining LOL
whats hers is mine.
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  #52  
Old 03-04-2023, 11:50 AM
Smoky buck Smoky buck is online now
 
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Originally Posted by HuyFishin View Post
congrats one the new purchase!! It gets expensive when you gotta buy two of everything for your partner!

I have to buy two of everything as well but i'm not complaining LOL
whats hers is mine.
It can definitely cost when your wife is also into hunting and fishing

On the plus side I never hear grief over buying hunting/fishing gear
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  #53  
Old 03-19-2023, 08:36 AM
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I’m going to get my first kayak this spring. I’m really set on the Pelican Catch Mode 110. It’ll be primarily for fly fishing but will probably spin cast fish out of it too. I’m up in the Edmonton area so I’ll use it mainly in stocked ponds and lakes for trout, walleye and pike.
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  #54  
Old 03-19-2023, 03:02 PM
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I’m going to get my first kayak this spring. I’m really set on the Pelican Catch Mode 110. It’ll be primarily for fly fishing but will probably spin cast fish out of it too. I’m up in the Edmonton area so I’ll use it mainly in stocked ponds and lakes for trout, walleye and pike.

Yah my wife has the catch 120 and loves it.


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