Help me decide... (1) Pro Angler 17T or (2) Pro Angler 14's

Me, my mother, my wife, and my son are about to get into kayak fishing and I have a dilemma...do I go for (1) Pro Angler 17T or get (2) Pro Angler 14's?

We live in the panhandle of Florida on the Gulf coast so we will mostly be doing saltwater fishing. We only need the ability to take 2 people out on the water at a time. I am pretty set on the Pro Angler but if I choose the PA14, I am open to selecting a different model for the second kayak, such as the outback. I am looking for the opinions of all you experienced kayakers out there. If you had it to do again, what would you do? If you were me, which would you choose? Well, what should I get?

Here's a couple links to help your decision making process along:

http://www.hobiefishing.com/mirage/mira ... -14/specs/

http://www.hobiefishing.com/mirage/mira ... -17/specs/

*Keep in mind the Olive color option has been replaced by Camouflage for 2017 Pro Anglers, and allPro Anglers will come standard with Mirage Drive 180 Turbo drives.

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Howie Strech
Parts & Accessories Product Manager
Hobie Cat USA

I would suggest two kayaks. One would definitely be the Pro Angler 14...based on how much I like my own. I am also looking for a second Hobie. Initially was thinking Outback, but lately I have been drawn to the Outfitter. I like the ability to seat two comfortably, but be able to remove one seat and have all that open space in front. Would be a great place for the Dog to ride along. I just have not found many opinions/information either way on the Outfitter or Oasis.

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STLKayak
2020 Pro Angler 14 360
St. Louis, Missouri
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005695487937

STLKayak,

If you want to create a separate thread, I'd be happy to add my experiences with the Gen 1 Outfitter and the Gen 2 Oasis. There is also an old thread somewhere on the Gen 1 vs Gen 1 but both the Gen 2s are very different, especially for the Oasis.

Peter

STLKayak,

Thank you for your suggestion, I appreciate it. I am starting to wonder how I would transport 2 kayaks as opposed to 1 on a smaller trailer. I am sure I can modify it to handle it but I suspect I'll have a little overhang on each side.

I modified my 1090lb Harbor Freight trailer with a second kayak in mind. Do a google image search for kayak trailers or Hobie kayak trailers. There are a ton of ingenious designs out there if you want to make, modify or buy. I designed the rack over my Hobie specifically to fit Rhino Rack kayak saddles and easily carry an outback. Right now that is an Ascend H12 guest kayak over my PA14. (Let's not talk about the Pelican on the roof.). I have been spending an afternoon a week taking people out that have never kayak fished before, but are interested. Hoping to share a little of what I have learned and maybe help them avoid the mistakes I have made along the way.

No one ever says nice Hyundai, but people wave me down to talk about the kayaks!

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STLKayak
2020 Pro Angler 14 360
St. Louis, Missouri
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005695487937

STL...nice Hyundai!!!

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Steve Stubbs
USAF (retired)

SeaDek Fishing Team
Unfair Lures Pro Staff
Ziptailz Ambassador

2015 Pro Angler 14 - Papaya
2018 Compass - Sea Grass

We live in SW Florida and the keys, and mostly go out in salt water, we don't fish at all but are avid divers/snorklers and do spear fish once in a while.
One thing we figured out pretty quickly around here anyway is there is nothing but very shallow water and just bare sand surrounding pretty much everything for miles around any body of land around here.
The point I'm trying to make is sometimes in salt water the distances from where you launch to where you can find anything worthwhile can be huge. In our case where we typically launch in Sarasota, it 5-6 miles to the beaches and sand bars where we like to hang out. We have a Tandem Island and we try to use it with the trailer when we can. However this limits where we can launch, whereas there are quite a few kayak launches much closer, but it's not practical to launch a big boat from kayak launches (just stuff to think about).

We have owned many Hobie kayaks, it's actually more work for me to get multiple kayaks down from the roof and setup vs a single tandem. Yea Tandems are always bigger and heavier, we know that.

There is quite a bit of difference between mine and my wifes abilities on single kayaks, we would often go out on long adventures, and my wife would run out of energy and I would have to tow her the 5 or so miles back to launch.

For a while we had an Oasis tandem and a couple Revo 13's, with me solo on the Oasis, and my wife on her Revo, she could peddle circle around me, meaning a really big boat (like a tandem) operating solo isn't so fun. However with two peddlers on the Oasis, we could easily keep up.

I doubt this info is of any value to you, but just stuff we found out over time.

FE

I would go with the two PA14's before a single seventeen ...

fusioneng & Yak9107,

Thank you both for your opinions, I appreciate all the input.

STLKayak,

Thank you for sharing photos of your yaks, they are awesome! Oh, and nice Hyundai as well...what is the rack over your Hobie, did you make that or is it a kit that can be purchased? Do you have any issues with rust or corrosion on your Harbor Freight trailer?


Does anyone else have any opinions, stories, and/or pros/cons?

The rack on top is a TMS truck ladder rack, I just changed the orientation of the pieces to increase the height over the standard 30". That added height allows me easily float the kayak off the trailer. If I had gone with the recommended orientation, the kayak would have gotten stuck under the rack when launching. The basket on top is a TMS roof cargo basket with extension. Cabela's sells the same rack...in fact the extension itself came from Cabela's on sale.

Most of the ideas for the trailer were just me expounding on other people's ideas and making them work better for me. The most innovative thing I did was mount Rhino Rack saddles on custom unistrut mounts to offer side support to my kayak when trailering or storing. Not that I really store my kayak as I fish year round.

Here is a picture of why I mounted the ladder racks the way I did, you can see that even as high above the kayak as the rack sits, I still have to close the seat to float the PA off/on the trailer if the ramp is steep.



Here is a better picture of the trailer itself. No, I don't trailer with the mirage drive in, but I do store it that way.



Oh yeah, you asked about rust. I sprayed the Harbor Freight trailer with Rustoleum as I was building it, and any time a spot creeps up I clean it and apply a little more paint. About twice a year I give the whole setup a once over, check the bolts and harware for rust and fatigue and give it a light spray of paint.

Let me know if you have any other questions. And hurry up and get your Hobies, your missing out on some good times.

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STLKayak
2020 Pro Angler 14 360
St. Louis, Missouri
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005695487937