Thanks for the welcome folks.

Awesome pics!

Nice work and Welcome to the forum. Nice release on that sail. That was an awesome read

You officially made me homesick for the deep blue sea.

Welcome Home ! Really Great introduction to the sport.

A VERY long time ago I went to a laser scanning conference at Sanabel Island in Florida. I traveled a day early to relax, but then an outbreak of food poisoning postponed the conference for a week. I had been wanting to try a plastic kayak for a long time. I rented a Tarpon 140 and bought some basic fishing tackle and took some advice from the rental place. WOW, what a week and beginning of an addiction. Two weeks after getting home I still had a grin on my face and bought a Hobie Outback. I spent the next year doing scans in oil refineries along the Texas and Louisiana coast from Brownsville to New Orleans. I worked about 1-2 days a week and carried my Outback with me everywhere. At that time ( under 1000 members then )TexasKayakfisherman was the only website and I learned a lot from a small but very kind community of kayak fishermen.

I am headed to Seattle in October and hope to score my first Halibut.

Thanks for sharing and do Keep us posted.
Phill

That takes me back Carver. I started kayak fishing south Florida in 2003. I had been down there since 87 but saw my first sit on top kayak while driving back up the keys when I was bumper to bumper in traffic next to a car with a Cobra Fish & Dive. Must have been next to it for half an hour wondering about all the possibilities. Stopped at Florida Bay Outfitters in Key Largo on the way back, checked out every kayak they had which was the best selection on the east coast back then and maybe still is, bought the book that had recently come out, Kayak Fishing the Revolution, got on the computer when I got home that day, found Kayak Fishing Stuff website and Texas Kayak Fisherman. Found out there was a new national kayak tournament trail starting up, Extreme Edge sponsored by Humminbird, gave up golf cold turkey, rented a kayak from the local dealer and entered my first tournament a couple of weeks later. Became a big fan of a lot of the guys from Texas that traveled to Florida for that first tournament and TexasKayakFishermen. Became friends with SlowRide, LetsGo, Tom Stubblefield (owner of KFS), Vincent, PA Hillbilly and a few others. What an experience! We had 5 tournaments, 3 in Florida, 2 in Texas. Almost got blown away at the one in Rockport, Texas.

Good luck on the Washington halibut. I'll be in Alaska next week fishing for salmon and halibut although not in a kayak.