New member and Hobie owner

G'day to all, I've yakked with a couple of you guys on fishnet before and the last few months have enjoyed the standard of discussion on akff, albeit sitting in the background. I live in Essendon, Victoria and predominantly fish for natives in the Murray and Gunbower creek around the Cohuna/Echuca area.

I have a Bass boat which I had also hoped to use in the Bay and particularly on the Maribyrnong river, however the nearest place to launch is Williamstown or Altona which is a half an hour drive and can be a one to two hour saga to launch because of ramp traffic. Living a few hundred metres from the rowing club I thought it would be ideal to launch a canoe or kayak in probably ten minutes or less.

At last years fishing show I saw the Hobie kayaks for the first time and have wanted one ever since. A mate at work and his brother have also become interested. A few weeks ago I commenced discussions with Scott Lovig (HobieVic), who has been an absolute pleasure to deal with, and have ordered two Hobie Sport fisherman for my mate and his brother and two 2007 Outbacks for myself and my wife/kids/mates. We've also ordered the sail kit.

My mate and his brother have ordered "sand" and I've ordered "Khaki" (the new sand color) and am still deciding between another Khaki or the new "Moss" for the second one. I hope to pick them up this Friday otherwise it will be next week.

I'm now looking forward to the fit-out or should I say conversion to fishing battleship. "Of course I'll post some pics as I go"

Now for my first question. I want to fit a rear seat for my 5 & 2 year old to sit. I'm thinking of checking out the Gator hatch for size to see if it will fit on the very rear of the outbacks. Has anyone else got any ideas?

Cheers, Robbo