Drove an hour up to Asheville and picked it up from a guy who had it listed on CraigsList. A Wilderness Systems Thresher 155. I’ve fished from my dinky 10’ surf kayak for a decade…time to upgrade…
Had a Ocean Kayak Trident 13 when I lived on a canal in south Texas. (Until it was stolen, anyway…) Loved just dropping it in the water and going. Never was very good at fishing with it but I always went with the attitude that I was going kayaking and happening to fish along the way.
(Pano, click for full size)
Last time I went kayaking was on the Medina river in Bandera, Tx, in a rental. First time in years the river had enough water to do it and it was quite an experience.
One of these days I’ll get another when I wind up back living closer to the water.
Those are nice @Fridge and @boomerang10 - love that shot of the Medina. We have some “black water” rivers here in the Carolinas (so called because they pick up the tannin from the surrounding forest)…and they are really fun to float… We also have some sea kayaks - mine is a Cape Horn 17, my wife’s is a Cape Horn 14, and I just ordered my soon to be 6-year old a Perception Prodigy XS…which is just right for a little guy.
Awesome Pics guys! Kayaks are awesome. Got into Kayak/kayak fishing last year, fished my brains out all summer
I live in Southern California so for me it was Bass and Halibut in the bays and Yellowtail in the big water. We were in full on El Nino mode this summer so there was some insane fishing going on. There was guys catching 2-3 Yellows on the regular from yaks 2-3 miles out, and further out there were guys getting into yellow and bluefin tunas, and even a few dorados! It was awesome. Lots of hammerheads poking around too. A little scary being that up close and personal. Still, prefer the HH’s to big Whitey.
Got my first kayak early summer, A Wilderness Systems Tarpon 120. I LOVE it. @BeachAV8R I know a guy who is on the WS proteam and has the same Thresher as you, only in blue. He swears by it. (But I guess he has to lol!) I would have bought one if it wasn’t so long, I don’t have the space for a 16ft boat. They are awesome little boats though.
Offshore at my home beach, trying for a yellowtail. No luck that day.
Also, for the all the vets and interested parties, I got involved with an organization called Heroes on the Water, which provides sort of an outreach program for our veterans, taking them out on the water in a kayak and letting them spend the day fishing and relaxing. It’s a really neat program and its really awesome to see smiles on faces out on the water. I’d post a link to the org but I’m not sure if that’s a no-no here. I’m not advertising or affiliated with them in any official way, I just volunteer as a mentor for their events.
@Kombat_Karl - That’s a nice boat…one of my friends has a Tarpon 120 and we called it the All Terrain Vehicle because he used to take that thing everywhere…over logs, under logs, through swamps, over alligators…LOL… His name is Swedge and he is a huge brute of a guy…LOL…great guy to paddle with…
Now that I have a proper fishing kayak…I’m gonna have to do some research on outfitting. I can’t imagine taking any more than two poles out with me, but I’ll need rod holders, and a milk crate system. The Thresher also has a unique quick release pod (Flex Pod) that you can put your sonar in and take it in and out…but I’ve never had a sonar, so I’m not sure what I’m gonna get or if I’m gonna get anything.
This bigger boat should put better fishing grounds in my reach though…so there are some wrecks and rock piles that are a bit further out that I think I’ll be able to get to now. Would love to fish on the west coast some time. I went snorkeling in San Diego once…which was a huge mistake. I felt like a morsel dished up for a Great White the entire time. Murky, freezing, and just downright spooky among the kelp.
@BeachAV8R To me, outfitting is half the fun, but I’m a gear nerd. I bought one of those 3-rod holders of of amazon for like 15 bucks, and built a live bait tank out of a dog food container which I attatched the rodholders to. Pretty neat, has a self contained battery/pump system and everything. With the two flush mounts that brings my total rod count to 5, although I don’t usually ever have more than 3. Nice to have a place for the gaff/net/gopro pole though. The tank just bungees down to padeyes on the rails on the back, so I can switch it out really easy with a milk crate if I don’t need the tank. The Flexpod is something I wish I could have gotten though, really nice for stashing expensive rods below deck for surf launches. I still have to get a sonar system. Seems like a lot of money to put out in the elements. Been doing research though, probably will go with the Lowrance Elite 4 system with the chartplotter.
My favorite thing about the Tarpon is how fast it is! The Thresher hauls ass too, but it takes a little more to get moving. But once youre at cruise speed you fly.
I only wish I lived somewhere with a few more inland waterways, the ocean is fun and all but It’d be fun to go exploring up rivers and estuaries. There’s a few lagoons and rivers but they are mostly locked down by the insane California/EPA protection/conservation system. I don’t even want to fish, just explore! I don’t know what could be more low-impact than a kayak, but, no-go.
Aye…I suffer that affliction too. You should see all my camping gear. I’d need a train of 20 Sherpa’s to haul everything I’ve bought over the years. Oh…look…a shiny new chair that turns into a lantern/raft…sign me up!
We have it pretty good here in the Carolinas…lots of really cool backwater places to explore, bays and sounds to fish…and then the offshore stuff too.
Been looking at crate setups…I’ll come up with something.
@Navynuke99 sure is! Hard to mistake Encina. Theyre gonna tear it down soon though. Still quite a bit of fish left to catch in the kelp and outside. Grew up surfing and fishing these beaches and lagoons
Heck, even on the rivers here in the Carolinas in the winter I will sometimes wear a dry-suit. I have a full body fleece “pajama” that I wear under it…and it’s awesome.
The day after I took that picture it snowed like a foot in South Carolina… Funny story with that picture there too. First, it was a boat landing I was camping at on a four day trip down the Savannah River…right next to the Savannah River Nuclear Site (they made bombs there). So Mr. Tacti-cool SWAT type guy comes driving up in a Jeep after I’ve been setting up the camp for a bit…wearing an M4 across his chest, a gun on his hip…and a bunch of other tools of the trade. Proceeds to give me a casual interview. Who am I? Where am I going? Why am I on the river? Nice enough…
So it gets dark…and I’m in my tent and all of the sudden…blam, blam, blam…gunfire comes reverberating out of the woods not 50 yards from my tent. I cautiously poke my head out of the tent and this dude comes walking out of the woods. “Just hunting squirrels…”
Oooo…Kay… Next time pack the Kevlar under the dry suit instead of pajamas. Yeah…
