So after careful consideration of everyone's advice I went with the 2015 PA 12. Gary at Travel Country in Altamonte Florida agreed with everyone here and strongly discouraged cartop transport. He recommended a T bone extension for my expedition. To my great suprise, we didn't even need to extension. The back extended just a few feet out the back of my expedition. We just secured the PA and tied the liftgate down. Here's what it looks like.
Untitled by
kimck2000, on Flickr
It really couldn't be any easier. No extension to worry about. No trailer. And I store everything in the PA and just load it. Fishing rods, tackle, etc. I was a little worried about the ride with the liftgate not closed but it was fine. Just cracked to windows open. A little noisy but not a big deal even at 65 MPH. Only problem I encountered was when I was driving on a dirt road to the landing that was pretty bumpy. The liftgate would rise up a bit and then drop down on the PA. Gotta fix that somehow. Unloading was ridiculously easy. And again, everything is already on the PA and ready to fish.
Now to the fun part. In the water this thing is amazing. I can't believe how much water you can cover with those pedals. I was flying. Where I fish it's about a 3 mile paddle from the landing. This would always limit how long I would fish, and how far I would go. But now, with the PA, there is no factoring in paddle time.
Now to the fishing. Prior to this trip I have fished inshore with my old tarpon 120 about 20 times. I've caught a total of 4 redfish. A few trout. Lots of skunks. I don't know if it was the PA, dumb luck, perservance, or all the above. But I caught 10-12 redfish and a nice trout! Most were rat reds, but 4 were slots. It was truly an epic day. I can't believe what a difference being able to stand and sight fish makes. It was a completely different experience than what I could do on my old tarpon 120. Here are some pics!
IMG_1756 by
kimck2000, on Flickr
IMG_1752 by
kimck2000, on Flickr
IMG_1746 by
kimck2000, on Flickr
IMG_1745 by
kimck2000, on Flickr
FullSizeRender by
kimck2000, on Flickr
FullSizeRender (2) by
kimck2000, on Flickr
Just want to thank you guys for all your advice. My only regret is that I didn't get the PA sooner. I'm just counting down the days to get back out again. In case you were wondering I fish the Mosquito Lagoon 45 minutes east of Orlando, Florida. And I'm a catch and release kind of guy, so all the fish were released to fight another day.
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