Monday, November 24, 2014

New Plastic

The season is changing and the cold water is upon us, which means our targeted species are also changing. Water temps are now in the 50's, which means it's time for trout, striper and tautog. I haven't been able to get out due to the winds on my off days, but I did receive a new kayak, which is a great consolation prize!



I knew I was going to order either a Wilderness Systems Thresher 140 or 155. I decided with my weight at 185 and only 5'9" the Th140 would be better. Its diameter is only 28.75" and takes off as fast as my tarpon 140, which says a lot. The Th155 is 30" wide, so its take off is slightly slower but it maintains speed due to the longer length of 15.5'. The 155 is also more stable and fits larger anglers better than the 140.  More specs can be seen at www.wildernesssystems.com/kayaks/thresher.

I got a call from Rob Alderman who suggested we have demo day to help with some of the questions we were getting from the kayaking community. So it was set that on Saturday we would meet up and let anyone who wanted to paddle take our kayaks out. I wasn't going to let someone else have first crack at my kayak, so on Friday with the winds howling, I took the new plastic to trout fish. I braved the 20 knot winds, landing three trout -- 22", 23" and 24 1/4" citation speckled trout. Not bad for sliming the Thresher!



As you can see I upgraded this year to a dry suit -- finally! I went with Bomber Gear dry suit. They have a great reputation with the white water guys and it absolutely makes a big difference. It's really night and day fishing with the suit now. I don't have a lot of time in it, so I'll save a review until after more time with it on the water.

The following morning we had our Wilderness Systems demo day. Had a pretty good turnout despite the cold weather, and people were excited to try it out.



Afterwards, Lee and I headed out with only an hour of light to tog fish and test out the new wreck anchor he made. The anchor worked flawlessly, and we even caught some tog!









With the temps still dropping, let's hope we can stay on the inshore tog bite and hopefully the big striper show up for the remainder of the winter! It wouldn't really be fair to write a review after just one trip on the flats in a boat designed for the offshore environment. So be on the lookout for a full review after a little more time in the Thresher, the good with the bad.