[Navagear has made no secret of the fact that we’re impressed with the Torqeedo line; we’ve written about several Torqeedo products. So despite the fact that I know very, very little about fishing, I thought I would share this press release with our readers. —Tim]

When it comes to kayak fishing, every advantage counts. That’s why professionals such as Chad Hoover, pair their kayak with an outboard designed specifically for fishing. With a total weight of 15 lbs., including the battery, Torqeedo’s Ultralight 402 can be easily mounted onto most rigid kayaks. It’s IP67-rated and can operate when temporarily submersed.

As a pro staff member and owner of www.kayakbassfishing.com, Hoover is an extensively experienced and enthusiastic angler. He also doesn’t recommend a product to anyone without trying it out firsthand.

"I’ve taken this motor over cypress knees, shale rock and dense vegetation, including lily pads," said Hoover. "I beat this motor up and it just keeps going. It even performs well in shallow water."

"I’d recommend this motor to other anglers," continued Hoover. "It frees my hands up to fish. The Ultralight is also quiet, fast, lightweight, efficient, smooth and easily adjusted. The speed and presentation can be dialed in to match your technique and not the other way around."

With propulsive power equivalent to a 1 hp gas outboard, it can reach a max speed between 5.0-6.0 mph for about half an hour, depending on the type of kayak. At slow speed, it provides a range of 12-15 miles. An integrated board computer combines information from the motor, batteries and a built-in GPS, enabling kayakers to monitor battery charge, speed and remaining range at current speed.

"The Torqeedo kayak outboard is a great addition to any beginning, intermediate or advanced paddling angler’s arsenal," continued Hoover. "It helps increase your range and the amount of water you can cover, which can ultimately increase your ability to catch fish."

The Ultralight’s impressive efficiency is due to its drivetrain, which converts 50% of stored battery power into propulsive power, measured after all losses, including propeller losses. In comparison, the equivalent value for trolling motors amounts to some 20% while internal combustion outboards have even smaller overall efficiencies.

Enabling trolling, providing additional range and giving support against local currents, this electric outboard is also helpful when kayaking with friends and family, who may prefer the convenience of an outboard. "It ushers in people who may steer away from paddling to fish and requires no permanent installation to your kayak," said Hoover.

Torqeedo’s new Ultralight 402 has a suggested retail price of $1,799.

Combining lithium batteries with leading-edge motor technology and propeller design, Torqeedo’s high-tech outboards have won numerous awards. Environmentally-sound, they offer unrivalled strength and efficiency for superior range.

Chad Hoover’s book, Kayak Bass Fishing, is now available for pre-sale at www.helipress.com and will be officially released November 1.

OK, I’ll admit I haven’t been keeping up with this technology like Ben Ellison has, but this just looks cool. Being a certifiable geek, I’m interested in learning more about this.

In fact, this week I’ve been spending a lot of time at Deception Pass in Washington State, and I find myself really wishing I could view a virtual “contour map” of the seafloor here. I wonder if the new Lowrance sonar imaging system could generate the sort of thing I have in mind?

Let’s read the press release…

Lowrance, a world-leading brand in marine electronics, announced today the premier of its next-generation sonar technology, the LSS-1 StructureScan™ sonar imaging module for Lowrance High Definition Systems (HDS), at ICAST 2009 in Orlando, Florida. Raising the bar in fish-finding technology, the sonar-imaging module is the world’s first to offer anglers a new dimension in underwater picture-like displays — side-to-side plus straight down, full panoramic viewing.

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[Hobie unveiled the new Mirage Pro Angler at the Bassmaster Classic in Shreveport, LA last weekend. It's a new boat designed around the innovative Hobie Mirage Drive. There is a video to help introduce the boat, but I can't embed it here, so you'll have to click this link to see it.

Regular readers will recall that Navagear has long been fascinated by the Mirage drive system, and the boats designed for it. Perhaps you remember such classic Navagear posts as
And One Roto-Molded Kayak to Rule Them All and Hobie’s Inflatable Mirage-Drive Kayaks. The rest of the content below comes from Hobie. —Tim]

Oceanside, California – Long known for their expertise in building watercraft, Hobie Cat® introduces the Hobie Mirage Pro Angler fishing boat. Hobie has taken the defining feature used in their kayak line, the patented MirageDrive™ pedal system, and combined it with their proven boat-designing capabilities to build a first-in-class, no-gas required, 100-percent fishing machine… all at the affordable price of $2199, suggested retail. “The Pro Angler is small enough to let you access your favorite skinny water with unbelievable stability,” commented Hobie spokesperson and legendary bass fisherman, Hank Parker, “plus… it is large enough to provide plenty of room for multiple rods and tackle.”

The 13’ 8” Pro Angler is designed to facilitate the fishing experience for those who want the amenities of a large boat including stability and spacious storage combined with the user-friendly benefits of a smaller fishing boat such as light weight, maneuverability, and economic advantage. Anglers will be comfortable in all bodies of water, from narrow inland waterways to ocean coastlines. It also offers an affordable, human-powered, environmentally-friendly alternative to fishing from the shore. The Pro Angler boasts a weight capacity of over 600 pounds despite weighing in at only 138 pounds, fully rigged. The high quality, ergonomically-designed Cool Ride seat is wide, ventilated, and easily adjustable. The boat is both wide enough to allow ample freedom of movement and stable enough for anglers to stand up and cast, giving them the advantage of a better view of the water.

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More folding crab traps! As always, Navagear strives to be your #1 source of information on folding crab traps.

Jolly Good Trap Company is based in British Columbia, and though I haven’t written about them before, they aren’t new kids on this particular block. They’ve been around for years. The only reason I neglected them is that I’d never seen one of their traps in person, and the website looks like it might be a little bit out of date.

But the Jolly Good crab and prawn traps can be seen at the Seattle Boat Show, at the Popeye’s Marine display (Concourse 2101, upstairs). Jolly good offers a variety of sizes for both crab and shrimp, including very small traps for kayakers.

If you look at the crab traps in person, the first thing you’ll probably notice is the unconventional entry gate. In fact, there’s no gate at all. The crabs climb up onto the top of the trap, and then fall down through the red ring, and they can’t get out.

I know a lot of you curmudgeons out there are skeptical, but Ray Surette, owner of Jolly Good, assures me that it works, and that it may even be more reliable than the conventional swing-up gate, since there are no moving parts to get jammed in the “open” position. If you prefer, they also sell traps with a more familiar swinging gate.

This trap is by far the easiest to fold and unfold of any I’ve tried. It folds into a flat rectangle, and stays closed with a little clip, To deploy it, unclip the retainer and the bungee cord pulls it open and holds it there. It’s also the least expensive of the folding traps we’ve covered.

But how does it catch crabs? I don’t know, and as usual, I’m eager to hear anecdotes and fish stories from owners. Tell us your experiences with the Jolly Good traps!

In case you want to catch up, here are some earlier folding crab traps we’ve written about:

• Coil-Away Flexible Crab Ring Trap
• Flex Fold Crab Trap Stowage
• Folding Crab Trap Great for Small Boats
• Another Clever Folding Crab Trap
• Building a Better Crab Trap

While tied up in Reid Harbor on Stuart Island, we met a fellow named James Life; he works over at CSR Marine, one of the big boatyards in these parts. He spotted my AIS antenna right off the bat, which was noteworthy in and of itself.

Anyway, his family had some crab, which they were willing to share. Even better, they had enough Zyliss Seafood Crackers to go around.

This is a VERY handy tool for cracking crab, friendlier on the fingers than any other crab cracking tool I know.

Of course, a pair of rusty pliers from the tool box will do in a pinch, but the Zyliss Seafood Crackers are less than $7 each. Anybody who catches crab or lobster regularly should have at least a couple on hand.

By the way, James & family: Thanks for the crab!

We love clever folding crab traps. We’ve written in the past about the Flex Fold (here and here) and the Stow-B-Low (here). By the way, I saw the redesigned Stow-B-Low a few weeks ago, and I think it deserves another treatment here…stay tuned.

So anyway, here’s another folding crab trap…a simple ring-type trap that collapses to 1/3 the diameter of the large ring, using a flexible hoop material. It’s called the Coil-Away Flexible Crab Ring, by Crab King Inc.

And they’ve got a video proving that it can catch crab! The folding demonstration isn’t until the end.

Saturday was the big Seattle Yacht Club “Opening Day” celebration. It isn’t as if we don’t boat in the winter, but opening day marks a kind of boundary between cold winter boating and warm summer boating around here.

I was out on opening day. But it was a different kind of opening day…the first day of Puget Sound shrimp season! I bought my license online Friday evening, went out on the Sound, and came home with 60 shrimp! To be honest, I had a LOT of help catching them, from my friends Tom and Susan.

They supplied the gear and did all the work; I mostly took pictures and played with Rose Point Coastal Explorer 2.0 beta while my dad drove my boat around.

There were a lot of boats out, including plenty of C-Dories, of course. Seems like the C-Dories congregate anytime more than one is out on the water.

Does this happen with other makes? Do the owners of other distinctive boats with loyal followings—Boston Whalers, Grady Whites, Parkers, or Sea Sports—alter course to intercept when they spot a sister ship?

By the way, if it doesn’t look to much like “summertime boating” to you, it’s because it was cold and rainy all day! Sunday was beautiful, though; I worked in the garden at home.

Remember my too-clever downrigger mount for the Magma grill on my C-Dory? I’m pretty pleased with the solution I’ve got, but I can’t help but wonder if I might have done it all differently, had I known about Burnewiin’s robust and attractive line of universal gunnel mounts.I got to look at the Burnewiin hardware on a couple of boats today, an Ocean Sport at Islands Marine Center’s display (West 41), and an Everglades sport fisher (East 1020). I tell you, these are some of the nicest fishing rod holders you’ve ever seen! Set phasers on stun…
But really, rod holders are only one of the components you can plug into these deck sockets. They’ve got fender cleats, sheaths for fishing knives, and sockets for battens you might use to support a cockpit cover.

Plus, if you contact them directly, you can buy the raw socket hardware all by itself and…

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Let me first admit that I know very very little about fishing. Really.

Still, my daughters wanted fishing gear for Christmas, so Santa did his best, and they got fishing gear. Here’s Arwen fishing down in Ballard. It was cold that day, can you tell?

We’re going to learn more about fishing, I promise. In case you’re wondering, we didn’t catch anything this day. Are there any fish in the ship canal? I assume so. Salmon swim through there regularly, I know that. Did I mention I don’t know anything about fishing?

Personal Locater Beacons (PLBs) are intended to help authorities locate people needing rescue. But sometimes they can help rescue plain old stuff, too…as in the press release below, from ACR. There is also an online discussion about this incident at Florida Sportsman.

BOCA RATON, FL—NOVEMBER 12, 2007—According to government statistics, satellite detectable emergency beacons—EPIRBs and PLBs—have resulted in 291 rescues to date this year in the U.S.

The story starts early in the morning of October 19th when recreational fisherman Eric Pierce of Boca Raton returned to the dock after a night of swordfishing. While trailering his 31-foot sport fisherman, a fishing buddy grabbed Pierce’s fishing gear and set it on the dock—some $6,000-plus in gear, including a recently purchased ACR PLB.
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