Cobra Kayak

[Russell]

I have been fishing fresh and salt water from a Old town Loon 138 for awhile now and I am looking at buying a Cobra Marauder XF or a Fish'n Dive XF. I have seen the help this site has given to many in search for the best kayak so any pros cons would be appreciated. I am set on Cobra at this time but just dont know which one. Thanks......

[notso]

check out the reviews of each on kayakfishingstuff. They have reviews of nearly every kayak that you could think of for fishing.
I was considerign the FND also, but ended up going w/ a Malibu X-factor instead. The thing that turned me away from the FND was the reports that it was one of the slowest yaks on the water.
As most folks will probably attest, the best advise is probably to try paddling them both before you make a decision. JMHO

[Russell]

Thanks notso...Do you like the X-factor? Where can I demo one? I mainly fish in FL. panhandle.

[YakandSurf]

The Malibu site has a dealer locater. Not many Malibu dealers on the east coast.
I love my X-factor. It's not the fastest yak on the water but it is a very stable kayak.
www.malibukayaks.com

Robert

[Russell]

Thanks for the link.....I think I will look further into the x-factor....It looks like it could meet all of my fishing needs........

[notso]

Russel,
Yes I like my X alot, it's increadably stable. I've done a few surf launches w/ about a 75% success rate. The last couple times, I even took fishing rods for the adventure. I still don't really have mine rigged to speak of. I just use the 4 flush mount holders that came with it. But if I had it to do over again, I'd have gotten it without the flush mounts & waited until I had paddled it. Then front ones from the factory interfere with taking a full paddle stroke.
Since I got the yak, I really haven't had much time to fish out of it. It's been on a couple trips to the OBX and I've fished it in a couple lakes up here in Va.
The only drawbacks I've found with it are that it doesn't like really skinny water (<6-8") and it takes some work to turn it. The flip side of this is that it tracks really well. I have not put a rudder on mine and really don't have any plans to do so. It's a big heavy Yak so it takes some work to get it moving, but once your going, I think it's pretty easy to keep it moving at a pretty brisk pace. All of the wide/stable yaks sacrafice speed to some extent but I think the X doesn't lose too much. The huge front hatch doesn't seem to seal real well so it does get a little water inside during surf launches but not much. Even after getting rolled in the surf it didn't have too much inside.

[Russell]

Thanks again notso....I found a dealer in mobile and plan on checking it out at the first of the year......Waiting on a warm spell to start my fishing assault.....

[firstmatefluff]

I heard the marauder were fairly fast, esp. compared to the fnd and x-factor.

Check out the texas kayak fishermen site and ask parrothead a few questions if you like; he's on the Cobra team and has a fnd and a marauder prototype.

I'm looking at the marauder, but not sure how I feel about Cobra right now--their website is a tomb and their responsiveness to some questions was a bit underwhelming, leaving me wondering what happens AFTER I"ve already paid for the boat....

[SeaSalt]

check out the Hobie website. They have a great customer sevice and their new Adventure kayak is the the bomb...