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barrell

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  • Interests (Hobbies, favorite activities, etc.):
    trappin,huntin,fishin,surfin,yakin,eatin,readin
  • What I do for a living:
    self (root beer barrell surf shop)

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  1. A good headlamp is all you need and because you can move it around it is very visible.
  2. I haven’t been back to NJ in four years since I left. But I would come back for my funeral.
  3. Of course I had cracked hulls. Especially in the early years before click and go. Please post the entire link as I think you might have altered that quote out of contex thinking I was dead. Where you came up with that conclusion I don’t know. The Philadelphia inquire article was about our retirement.
  4. Im still alive. I moved to my waterfront Home in Fort Pierce florida. I havent been back in the communist state since I closed the shop two years ago. After 44 years of running the shop My body was struggling with all the heavy lifting and my wife was worn out . I guee with Covid right around the corner it was a good move to get out of retail. I kayak fish behind my house but the serious fishing we do here is on the bottom offshore. I have a decent boat that although not big enough for rough weather gets us out there on nicer days. Being a Fisherman in Florida you have to decide what kind of fishing you want to get good at. There are so many options down here from chasing giant redfish on then indian river flats at sunrise to wrestling with giant snook at night around the bridges. You can troll for huge grouper and Cuberra snapper along the drop offs of the inter-coastal or gig fluke at night in the shallows with a spotlight. You can bridge fish, kayak fish, boat fish, jetty fish, or beach fish.All of the preceding is without ever going out the inlet. No matter where you drop a bait in Florida the chances of something big,real big is a possibility all the time. The fish down here fight like nothing you have veer seen up north except maybe a 30 pound blue fish. But unlike a blue fish theese fish are freeking amazing to eat. Now once you head out the inlet there is a whole new world of fishing. At the mouth of the inlet are Tarpon to over 200 pounds. Sometime hundreds of them like now during the mullet migration. Cobia start close to the beach although we have done best at around 40 to 50 foot depths. Spanish mackeral by the tens of thousands are close to the beaches year round as well as Pompano and permit. Sharks are everywhere the younger gys like to target mega sharks from the beach at night. They use kayak to take their bait out and the real serious guys have 130class penn reels and are strapped into full body harness. Ive learned from friends who have lived there whole lives here that the most dependable fishery is bottom fishing the natural reefs. Trolling is very popular and we have done well in the past catching Mahi, wahoo,and king mackeral on the troll. But you can also get skunked if you cant find a awesome weedline or a rip to troll. I dont like getting the skunk so we tend to get right on some good rock bottom and spend the whole day anchored up using chum and the gulf stream to bring the fish to us. We put out flat lines into the current with no wheight, sometime a balloon and stick them into rod holders before we get into the real serious sport of bottom fishing. We use 80 pound braid on all our rods and leader starting around 60 pound test. Anything can hit off the bottom. Snapper of all species and all sizes are common as well as the fish that prey on them. A full day usually results in 14 or 15 different species being caught. We use 8 ounces or more to hold bottom in the gulf stream and break off 1/3 to 1/2 the fish we hook. The chum slick brings in sailfish, sharks, mahi, cobia, kingfish and even an occasional African pompano to the flat lines. Everyone on board keeps a casting rod handy for when a school of Mahi suddenly moves in and surrounds the boat. I even caught a 25 pound blackfin tuna once that hit the rod in the rodholder with a 1/2 ounce white jig just sitting on the bottom as we were taking a lunch break. I had a couple customers telling me in our last year that I would hate retirement as it was boring as hell. But that has not been the case. I feel there arent enough hours in the day for me and hate sleeping.
  5. The compass is a excel ant kayak. In fact,The compass has a few advantages over the outback. Reverse drive is not all its cracked up to be.
  6. A good friend of mine works full time at Viking in west palm beach installing them.
  7. They arent bearings like you think. No metal involved. They are roller bearings made from thin carbon straws. They are impervious to salt water.
  8. You sure you want a H bar in the surf. Think wipe out with kayak tumbling sideways all the way into the beach.
  9. I think the gt drive is the closest they got to perfection. The jury is still out on the 180 drive as they havent been out long enough.
  10. We discussed this back in the day before click and go. About 5% off those old boats with the knobs developed cracks and where replaced. Since click and go its been almost non existent. Maybe two or three since click and go. All replaced for free within warranty. Out of warranty is not warranty. Thats called goodwill.
  11. Hobie doesnt use that against customers. Some companies do.No one can say what there warranty policy will be. The fact that it says kayak must be returned to factory is a killer for anyone who doesnt live close by. I had Maine built boat develop a problem while I was living in Florida. The company in Maine said boat needed to be brought to Maine for warranty.
  12. Void if you modify the hull. A rod holder or fish finder is a modification
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