Yes, I would want one to fish in casually, but I wouldn't use one in a tourney, unless everyone had them.

In the America's Cup Sailing race, they brought in a catamaran and whooped up on the mono hull's. Then they banned them, because it was an unfair advantage.

Changing the propulsion system makes it a completely different vessel. Adding an outboard would make it a powered boat, right?

The entire point of fishing from a kayak is managing the tasks that your arms must undertake. Yes, that means you have to reel in and take your hands off your fishing pole for a while to mitigate the wind and other factors. Taking the paddle out of the equation changes the game.

I believe you are dead wrong I own a Hobie Quest so you have to paddle last year at Purtiss Creek I took second place and on prefishing the day before I had a Hobie PA fish beside me most of the afternoon I can promise you I caught more fish than he did.

I believe there is certainly an advantage... whether unfair or not?... that's where I stand neutral.

I'll simply tell you what I tell all of the other people that ask me what it's like in my Hobie, "it sure beats paddling!" I did my share of paddling in my SINK but when you add the ease of pedaling to the ability to use your hands for fishing there is nothing better.

Has pedals.

Has paddles

I've looked at the Outback but the seat just doesn't look very comfortable to me!
I would love to own one, but this is what I see as a deal breaker for me. It just seems for as much as they charge for an outback, and they aren't cheap, why in the world would you have to worry about a possible seat upgrade? It doesn't take a lot of imagination if you've ever spent any time in a kayak, that the seat is lacking in a lot of ways!

perhaps, but the PA seats are wonderful

They arnt "Kayaks"

THEY ARE YAKS!!!

concerning propulsion... just cause it works for some doesnt make it works for all.
Hobie does put out a Nice Product IMO and they arnt all peddlers either
i personally prefer to paddle.

ever try to paddle & peddle at the same time????

different strokes for different folks.
looking forward to future "Yak" innovations

Something tells me that would be equivalent to patting the head and rubbing the belly simultaneously....

When getting through the surf at Port A last summer I had to use my paddle and peddle at the same time. Coming back in the paddle is a must.

Yup. Takes some getting use to 4 sure

No question that some guys with mirage drives have dominated the tourneys so far (last year Robbie, this year, Matt). Of course hands free fishing is an advantage, and that advantage is amplified by big wind on big lakes. It doesn't help that we choose big windy lakes during the windiest 12 weeks of the year to do our tourneys. But to drastically re-imagine the tourney season around here would take a lot of convincing (start in late summer into fall). That might help, but I know the status quo will never want to go in that direction.

Still, though, while pedaling gives an advantage, it doesn't go into the realm of being 'unfair' IMO. If all advantages are unfair, then we all have to use the exact same boat, same fish finder, same paddle etc... Remember that the windiest tourney of the year was Joe Poole, a day when a mirage drive REALLY should've made the difference. Yet Guillermo in a somewhat higher profile diablo whipped the field. Joe did well that day too in a paddle yak I think...

Matt and Robbie are both really smart tourney fishermen whose strengths IMO dovetail perfectly into the tournament format. That's the main reason they've been the dominant guys in tourneys. If they were in paddle yaks, they'd still be at or at the very least, very near, the top. I'm no expert on KATS but I know that many of the most dominant fishermen down there aren't pedaling... Steve Garcia is pretty much always at or near the top in a paddle yak...

When looking at kayaks, making the decision to pay 300-400 percent more for the Pro Angler than the Wildy Ride does show that you're maybe a little more committed... (Personally I need more versatility. I like rivers and cartopping one of those is not something I want to do... I'm totally uninterested in a boat that needs a trailer, even if the mirage drive gives me the edge on tourney day.). But if you're also a tournament fisherman, that commitment comes through in how you approach the competition itself. You're willing to pay 2000+ more for your yak, several hundred or even a thousand more for your FF, all your gear. It also might translate to your preparation. That's another reason those guys do so well. They're preparing a lot more than you might think...

Point is, pedal yaks are here to stay, and no ones going to exclude them from tourneys. Maybe some day we'll have enough participation to have different divisions. I could see that. But we're a long way from that. In the meantime, we should be trying to figure out how those guys are fishing on t day, not how they're getting to the spot. IMO That's the real reason they're doing so well...

That was my main concern with the Outback also, but I think you should demo one before you knock it too much. It's not your typical strap-in seat. The air valve lumbar support system is pretty sweet. Is it a ProAngler seat? Definitely not. Is it a Pescador seat? Definitely not.

I'm making more of an observation rather than knocking the seat, and just demoing a kayak really isn't going to be enough to determine how you are going to feel after several hours in that seat which you will only know after using the kayak for a day or so. That is why I would have to rent one to know for sure, but just judging from past experience on several kayak seats, tells me that additional padding is going to be needed.
Of course you can always spend another grand or so and get the Pro Angler which I've considered also.