2015 Hobie Outback Storage/Fish Cooler ? (And 1/7/17 LJ Report)
 

Used the 2015 Outback I picked up right before Christmas for a short while at San V before I left town for the holidays. Just sort of piddled around for bass for a short while. It was exciting to finally give it it's first real test in the salt at LJ yesterday.

Even tho the surf was pretty much flat yesterday, I took my sweet time getting everything together on the beach. Was glad to see the landing was still open and I launched around 1030 and not too far away, saw that there were a good bit of excited birds, def a promising start to the day! There were a good amount of boats/yaks in the area. Eventually saw some whales not too far away. Had a heck of a time finding bait around the kelp, out to the '100 range. Should've been looking twice as much deep, it seems. Eventually, I started to sweat a good bit in my lightweight waders and had to take them off. Found out that the front hatch could be pretty tricky to access. Besides standing up on my haunches (which made me pretty nervous) I found out that I needed to slide down on my butt on the floor and straddle the yak with my legs over the sides to help me reach forward far enough to open the front hatch just enough so I could put away my waders, get my food, etx...

Been thinking about where I'd be able to put YT or similar sized fish on the yak and still be able to access the front hatch just enough to slide things in or out. Seems like I'd need to strap the fish down on the front hatch, but if I did that, it'd make getting into the front hatch pretty difficult, with a pair of fish sliding here and there.

Are any of you using a fish cooler strapped down on the front hatch? Can you still access the front hatch with the bag strapped on top? There's a couple of models of flat coolers for around $40 on amazon but it doesn't look like it'd be easy strapping down those coolers because they don't have anchor points. The reliable fish cooler looks a lot better and efficient, but at $179 for a 36" cooler. Kind of ouch. I think I've seen them around and they look kind of smaller than 36". Not sure if I'm wrong about that? Could you slide two 20-30 lb. YT into it?

Have also thought about forgetting the use of the front hatch entirely and strapping down a large dry storage bag behind the bait tank for my food and clothes storage, any of you do that?

No fish at the end of the day, but ultimately, it was an incredible day. I can't believe how much better it was fishing out of the Outback over the XFactor I had for a while. I covered a LOT of water quickly and for the first time, I didn't come back to the ramp completely exhausted. Definitely pretty easy to see why a lot of people have said they'd never go back to a paddle yak for the salt.

Hope you are liking the yak dorian.

-Brandon

Haha yep, it's awesome!!!

Wet burlap sack on top of fish that I secure forward. Does the trick until I hit the beach. Typically, I head in shortly after gutting etc to keep fish in primo condition.

Replace your round hatch in front of seat with with the much larger rectangular hatch (found on proA?). It's easy to install yourself and well worth the money (about $100?). Best investment I've made on the outback.

HUH
 

You gut your yellow tail before heading in?
:confused:

Yes sir. Bleed first then gut. If not comfortable with the knife, wait to hit the beach.

He bought the kayak from me. I did the upgrade myself well before I sold it.

Thanks, appreciate the suggestions. The rectangular hatch is cool for that pair of lowrance tackle boxes but I still need a decent storage idea for food and clothes.

I may just strap fish on the bow for now but I hate the way sea lions stare at those fish especially if they slightly extend over the yak. I'm always worried about how one day one of those lions will try to snatch a fish and possibly flip me over.

Here's what I dohttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e6afd46e97.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

What's that? Looks good.

http://www.seattlesportsco.com/roll-catch-cooler.html

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Got it supper cheap on ack

Just tied down with paracord no drilling required

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

That looks really nice. 32" might be a bit small though on some of those days. Cool, thanks for giving me something else to think about.

Some times tails stick out but keeps them and me safe.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk