Boomstick

Somehow I missed this post earlier, but hello from Northwestern MA! There's also some great lakes in southern Vermont.

You are right, they aren't the fastest and are work to paddle, but I fish primarily lakes and the exercise will do my fat ass good! The biggest thing for me is I have bad ankles that can act up time to time and I'm a big guy myself, so it's pretty much impossible to be too stable for my liking.

Welcome to the forums! It looks like you wasted no time picking up a sick boat either. That's going to be so much fun, I have to say I'm a little jealous.

Hello and welcome to the forums. Be warned, you say you will limit your purchases to $500 but once the bait monkey hits, it can't be stopped. It's more addictive than drugs but much better for your health. I too plan to buy a kayak this summer and get off shore. I'm going with a Bonafide SS127 myself. You're going to have a blast.

Hello and welcome

Hello from the other side of New England

I honestly think it might be worse if you actually see them. I lost the biggest fish I ever hooked, I caught it right after a 30" pike and if I didn't see it, I would have thought it was a 40"+ pike, but I got a good look at the belly of the fish and it looked bass shaped. I have since to hook anything close to that, but on the other hand knowing I lost el mondo just makes me want to go back up there and try harder. Not like when you lose the biggest fish you ever hooked and didn't get to weigh or measure it!

Anywhere from 3 to 70 miles really, depending on the day of the week, length of time I have and so forth. It also depends if I'm meeting someone somewhere and where they live.

The biggest difference is they dropped the weight down a bit imo but that is still nothing I am going to go out and sell mine for.

Do you think this one is true or false, you didn't say. This one might start a war but I'm going with that it's false, but not as false as many may think.

Oh yeah the Voodoo is listed as a hybrid skiff/kayak/paddleboard, but that sounds good to me. The Vibe actually looks really good too, but so does the Crescent, but it's fairly new too.

Hardly. I keep telling him he'd prefer a kayak but he thinks the SUPs are like the coolest thing ever. But he generally does recognize that the hybrids are probably a better all around fit for him. Regardless, with a seat or a cooler he can choose to sit or stand. One thing that is somewhat of a concern is it would be good to get something that won't soak him much more than a kayak will, since it gets cold up in W. Mass.

The lady got me a tackle cabinet this year so I already set that up and sorted that out. I need a couple of double height open 3700 boxes to hold some random stuff I have on the top shelf, and one more open 3700 box for the rack on the bottom etc but I already sorted through it with the boxes I have now etc. It hasn't been as bad as cleaning my reels 30 times this winter at least.

It has to be a crankbait for me because of all the smallies I got on Lake Champlain. I got a few others, but last year was a tough year for me.

Yeah, I know Hobie makes good kayaks and if money wasn't an object I would own a Hobie Mirage Pro Angler 14 in a heartbeat. The complaints and videos were all mid-late 2019, so it seems to be a newer issue. That said I would imagine it will be resolved pretty quickly. There's also a video of how to fix the problem yourself on YouTube as well, and it doesn't seem to need any parts which is good.

I don't know from personal experience, but I have seen numerous complaints about the system and some video demos as well. Apparently the pull to drive system doesn't engage for some people and the time to slow down was significant enough to the point they were unsure that it engaged and keep going forward as a result. Honestly it's probably the #1 complaint about Hobies rather easily -- then again it may also be nitpicking since they have nothing else to complain about. This is what I was referring to as well as the fact that you can simply turn with a paddle quicker should you start drifting hard. The hand paddle is a good idea, but if you're on a budget just guy a two-piece paddle and you can literally use half of it.

A necessity? Absolutely not, but I will admit they are nice to have. The primary reason I am not going for a PDL system is that I feel that it is not a necessity, and I like the Bonafide's stability. I'm also a big guy and sometimes my ankles get stiff (probably arthritic from having gout too many times) so the more stable it is, the least likely I am to take a bath. The secondary reason is simply money. I too would like to buy a bass boat someday and I have other financial obligations and concerns to potentially worry about, and since I'm buying a kayak and a SUP for each of my kids this year as well, that extra $1k+ per kayak adds up fast. Most of the lakes I will fish are fairly small. You can row across it in ten minutes if you row hard, find a spot to anchor down and work for a while. The largest lake in under a hour drive is 617 acres and you would only want to work no more than half of that lake in any given day, depending on the time of year and and the shoreline is pretty well cut out. There is one that is large I fish periodically, but the prime structure of the lake is a giant crevice that runs along the north side and is not far from the boat launch and there are no weeds at all-- if I'm going to catch a ten pounder there, I would bet my life savings it would come from around that area so most of the time, I'll work the shore along that crevice! So getting spot to spot is not the largest concern for me as it might be for someone using it on larger lakes. As far as positioning yourself when fighting a fish, that is easier in theory with pedals, but not always. For example even going forward to reverse on Hobie kayaks is a chore. Sometimes a hard one handed paddle can turn the boat in the right direction a lot faster, because you can turn hard. Now of course you can do both, but should you go PDL, I would get a high angle paddle as you'll be able to turn a lot quicker! Finally, another reason I chose not to get a pedal drive system is you will burn more calories rowing, and I could use that.

^7. Tough crowd... tough crowd

I am about the same size as you and after a bunch of research I'm going to get myself a Bonafide SS127. The plus side is that it's as stable as they come, but the downside is that they are not the fastest. They also do not have a pedal drive system, although it is possible to modify them to be pedaled but I doubt that will work as well as it does on kayaks designed to pedal. The Old Town Topwater is also similar. Adding the rudder to either would probably be a solid investment. There is also a Topwater PDL version as well.

I actually could have got it out possibly as soon as the end of 2018. I waited until this year though for two reasons. First, the chance of recurrence is higher for two years and then drops significantly after that, so I'm nearing two years now and second was simply due to insurance purposes. I have to have annual colonoscopies for the rest of my life, so I do them in early January and late December to stack insurance and this was the on year They didn't even give me the option to keep it -- or to keep Pubert in a jar (what we named the tumor).

So I have figured out which kayak to buy for myself and my youngest son, and how we plan to rig it out but my oldest son wants a SUP instead of a kayak. So maybe someone here will have some experience with various SUP models who can help me out. Option #1: The Ocean Kayak Nalu 12.5. It's also the cheapest of the lot, but I have heard from some people that the max. weight should be around 190lbs. He is currently 160lbs, and will likely put on a few more as he gets older but if 190lbs is the max it handles well, that is pushing it too close for me. https://oceankayak.johnsonoutdoors.com/paddle-boarding/nalu-125-sup Option #2: The Crescent SUP+. These are new so I don't have a lot of data to work with, other than they are supposed to track wonderfully due to the skeg. They are also fairly light in weight. If it does handle 330lbs well (or even 250) this seems like a great option and the price is right too. They come with YakAttack rails as well so I don't have to buy them additionally. https://www.crescentkayaks.com/product/stand-up-paddle-board-sup-plus/ Option #3: The Vibe Maverick 120. These also come with rails and a 450lb weight capacity. I'm fairly sure this is a safe bet, many people seem to consider them the Cadillac option for fishing SUPs. Would go with the hero seat for the added height, but may use a cooler half the time too. https://vibekayaks.com/products/2019-vibe-maverick-120-hybrid-kayak-angler-package Option #4: The Kaku Voodoo. These seem like the Vibe Maverick with a motor mount and a V-hull -- may be worth the extra cost over the Vibe? https://kakukayaks.com/collections/voodoo/products/voodoo If anyone has any experience with any of the above, I would appreciate any input.

Wow, that is harsh but I am glad that you are clear. You don't want that one to spread!

As many of you know, I was diagnosed with colon cancer back in 2018, survived surgery and chemo and came up clean. Early last summer, my final symptoms of chemo faded as the weather got warmer and have not returned as it's now cold. Yesterday, I had my medi-port removed, which marks the end of this saga of my life.

I must admit that I am suffering from cabin fever badly right now. I have been planning on getting kayaks for myself and the boys (my oldest wants a SUP) and I have largely figured out how I'm going to rig those up (the only thing we're undecided on is which SUP) and also how I'm going to build my harbor freight trailer. It's going to be a lot of fun. I just ordered a frog rod and another reel, so I can fish a frog and jig concurrently on heavy rods with braid. I feel like a little kid at Christmas right now waiting for the lakes to thaw. Next I will start booking camping sites for the spring and summer, and I have two extra weeks of vacation this year as a one time thing due to a change in my employers vacation policy (a one time thing). I can use a total of 8 this year and 6 in the summer. One of my closest friends is even considering renting a storage unit so he can buy a kayak and join us (he lives in an apartment complex). If not, we will shore fish a few days and go to lakes we can rent a canoe from like we usually do. The thing is I don't have a winter replacement for roughly 5 months of the year. I want to go fishing so bad. It almost makes me want to move south, but come July I will remember how much I hate the heat too -- at least you can catch them up here in the middle of the summer and I can survive the heat on the positive side.

That is awesome to hear!