Suggestions on Hobie Outfitter?

Post Reply
kdepew
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2017 2:27 pm

Suggestions on Hobie Outfitter?

Post by kdepew »

I was going to buy a Hobie Outfitter to go fishing with my 8 year old son. I also considered the Hobie Oasis (another tandem), but decided the supposed better stability of the Outfitter would be worth the reduction in speed and the Outfitter's additional hull slap. We both have kayaks today (pretty cheap models), but have never had anything which is good for fishing. My wife has a Hobie Revolution 13 so I'm familiar with the Mirage Drive. Currently, we plan to mostly fish lakes and probably 2 to 4 mile round trips to where we want to fish for the more ambitious trips.

Does anyone have pictures of an Outfitter setup for fishing? I believe at a minimum I want a couple of rod holders installed. It has 4 rod holders, but I want something that doesn't just put the rod almost straight up. I was considering having a couple of Railblaza StarPorts mounted on the hull and buying their Rod Holder II. Has anyone used a solution like that? Any suggestions on placement?

I might eventually want a depth finder. Unfortunately, Hobie doesn't include the Lowrance Ready transducer mount on this model (not sure why). Is it difficult to mount a depth finder without the kayak having been specifically built for one?

My truck has a 6.5 foot bed, so with the tailgate I have about 8 feet supported. The kayak is 12ft 8 inches, so I would have about 4.5 feet hanging out the back. I thought I would buy a truckbed extender (maybe the Boonedox T-bone) to support the kayak. Is that a good idea?

We were going to get yellow so it would be most visible to other boat traffic. I don't think the fish care. Is there any drawback to yellow (I wouldn't think so)?

My wife has wheels already for her kayak that should work, so I don't need those. Any thing else I should get when I buy the kayak?
Post Reply