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This is going to be kind of a double post about my first ever sit on top yak and my first trip to Mariner Point Park. Over the weekend I picked up my new Vibe Sea Ghost 130 from Chris at BigBass USA in Denton. He was a great guy, really easy to talk to and honest about the product. Others here have spoken to his reputation, and he was fantastic to work with. Highly recommended.
I'd done a ton of research through SnaggedLine members, Instagram folks, review videos, and review articles, and the Sea Ghost 130 seemed to be the perfect fit. After my first trip out on it last night I couldn't be happier with my initial findings. It took some practice getting it on and off my RAV4, but YouTube had some videos on how easy that can be once you get it down. I decided to hit Mariner Point Park, mainly because it looked protected from wind, based on Google Maps views. I wanted somewhere I could ease into using the biggest and most versatile kayak I've ever owned. Despite kayak fishing for 16 years, I've only ever owned 2 kayaks, and both were cheap sit-ins. So this was quite an eye-opener. As soon as I pushed off from the shore I felt like I'd gone from a go-kart to a Cadillac! Just being in a raised, lawn-chair style seat was incredible. All of that stability, all of the foot space, all of the storage. Man, it was awesome. I don't know how I spent 8 hours on the water in my sit-in before!
One part of the Sea Ghost that was paritcularly impressive was the tracking and the responsiveness of the rudder. Even with the rudder up, it tracked really well. And with the rudder down, it took only a handful of strong paddle strokes to get it cruising. The foot pedal rudder controls were really nice, and I could immediately turn one way or another with only a small movement of the pedal controls.
Vibe promotes this boat as one that will get you where you want to go quickly and let you stand when you get there. I was able to stand quite easily, but even at 5' 10" 165lbs I'm not sure I've got strong enough sea legs to do much more than look around while standing. I took a few casts, and it was certainly cool to be fishing from a bass boat type of angle while in a kayak, but I found myself worried that I was going to have to set the hook, resulting in losing my balance and doing some sort of back flip barrel roll into the drink. I'll keep working at this and perhaps will get used to it, but to be honest I was more comfortable sitting and felt that provided enough of a vantage point. Overall, so far I feel that it's a great kayak for the price, and I'm excited to spend a whole day on the water with it rather than a quick after work session.
Mariner Point Park was a really great place to go, despite the chocolatey water and stronger than usual current. There is a boat ramp area where I read that kayaks are forbidden from launching, but the regular soft-launch was flooded, and since it was gloomy there was only one trailer in the parking lot, so I used one of the boat ramps instead. On a busy day I can see why they want to restrict those ramps to trailered boats, but today it was no big deal for me to launch there as well. I worked my way out towards the bay and went around the first big corner I came to, using a black and blue Chatterbait with a small black paddle-tail on it. There was way more diversity of structure and vegetation than I anticipated- reeds, logs, trees, a couple of docks, submerged aquatic vegetation, etc. It provided a lot of targets. I worked around some of the reed beds and vegetation and ended up christening the new kayak with a small largemouth that hit the Chatterbait. A couple of small yellow perch hit as well but flopped off right next to the boat. Overall, I really enjoyed Mariner Point and thought it provided access to a diverse array of fishing opportunities. I'm looking forward to going back when the water level and clarity is more normal.
I'd done a ton of research through SnaggedLine members, Instagram folks, review videos, and review articles, and the Sea Ghost 130 seemed to be the perfect fit. After my first trip out on it last night I couldn't be happier with my initial findings. It took some practice getting it on and off my RAV4, but YouTube had some videos on how easy that can be once you get it down. I decided to hit Mariner Point Park, mainly because it looked protected from wind, based on Google Maps views. I wanted somewhere I could ease into using the biggest and most versatile kayak I've ever owned. Despite kayak fishing for 16 years, I've only ever owned 2 kayaks, and both were cheap sit-ins. So this was quite an eye-opener. As soon as I pushed off from the shore I felt like I'd gone from a go-kart to a Cadillac! Just being in a raised, lawn-chair style seat was incredible. All of that stability, all of the foot space, all of the storage. Man, it was awesome. I don't know how I spent 8 hours on the water in my sit-in before!
One part of the Sea Ghost that was paritcularly impressive was the tracking and the responsiveness of the rudder. Even with the rudder up, it tracked really well. And with the rudder down, it took only a handful of strong paddle strokes to get it cruising. The foot pedal rudder controls were really nice, and I could immediately turn one way or another with only a small movement of the pedal controls.
Vibe promotes this boat as one that will get you where you want to go quickly and let you stand when you get there. I was able to stand quite easily, but even at 5' 10" 165lbs I'm not sure I've got strong enough sea legs to do much more than look around while standing. I took a few casts, and it was certainly cool to be fishing from a bass boat type of angle while in a kayak, but I found myself worried that I was going to have to set the hook, resulting in losing my balance and doing some sort of back flip barrel roll into the drink. I'll keep working at this and perhaps will get used to it, but to be honest I was more comfortable sitting and felt that provided enough of a vantage point. Overall, so far I feel that it's a great kayak for the price, and I'm excited to spend a whole day on the water with it rather than a quick after work session.
Mariner Point Park was a really great place to go, despite the chocolatey water and stronger than usual current. There is a boat ramp area where I read that kayaks are forbidden from launching, but the regular soft-launch was flooded, and since it was gloomy there was only one trailer in the parking lot, so I used one of the boat ramps instead. On a busy day I can see why they want to restrict those ramps to trailered boats, but today it was no big deal for me to launch there as well. I worked my way out towards the bay and went around the first big corner I came to, using a black and blue Chatterbait with a small black paddle-tail on it. There was way more diversity of structure and vegetation than I anticipated- reeds, logs, trees, a couple of docks, submerged aquatic vegetation, etc. It provided a lot of targets. I worked around some of the reed beds and vegetation and ended up christening the new kayak with a small largemouth that hit the Chatterbait. A couple of small yellow perch hit as well but flopped off right next to the boat. Overall, I really enjoyed Mariner Point and thought it provided access to a diverse array of fishing opportunities. I'm looking forward to going back when the water level and clarity is more normal.
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