Dave the SoCal lurker here.  The good news is that I have saved ALMOST enough in my special account to buy my first kayak which will be a hobie mirage sport.  I'm considering how to best transport this boat with my 2010 Prius.

I went by Extremeline Sports today because I was told you could fit a Hobie Sport inside a Prius.   I tried it, and it works (see quick cell-phone photos below) but I don't think I'm going to do it.   I got it to fit in and all the doors and hatch closed properly and there was plenty of room in the driver's seat to drive.  But visibility and safety for driving is a BIG ISSUE.  You can't see out the right side of the vehicle at all. There's no way to see right side rear view mirror, and the "regular" rear view mirror is mostly blocked.  The only way to see behind the vehicle is the driver's side rear view mirror.   I'm not sure I would even want try this to drive the short distance (3 miles) from my house to Cabrillo Beach where I would most often go.

But in a pinch you could lock the boat up inside the car and I think it would be relatively secure.

So I've ruled out the notion of transporting the boat in the car.   Instead, I think I am going to use this cartop carrying solution - the XSL Quickrack

http://www.xstreamline.com/kayak/accessories/rack.html

I believe this is something that "Greg" at Xstreamline makes and sells from this shop.  It is certainly something I could copy but my time/patience for such is limited and he's had opportunity to "tweak" this into what looks like a good option.

HERE IS MY QUESTION TO THE GREATER WISDOM (madness?) OF THIS GROUP

* What is your opinion of that XLS Quickrack system above? 
* Do you have any other better advice for transporting a hobie mirage sport with a 2010 Prius?

One other point -- I have daughters up in Eureka and will likely want to transport this boat up there [will try to find Hawk and Abking!] so ultimately I'd want something that would be secure enough for the long highway trek up.  I eventually want to relocate [retire] up there.

Opinions??

Dave the SoCal lurker

I know this isn't in northern california kayak fishing but this is so wild, I had to share it.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/22/beachcomber-grabs-bluefins-stormy-surf/

From the San Diego Union Tribune last Friday.

I’ve been reading & lurking on this board for months now, after my first time in a kayak on a Humboldt Bay on a tour with “Hawk” Martin.   I live in LA but have Humboldt in my blood.

I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on, and have demoed a few boats down here with an outfit called www.xstreamline.com that’s near my home in San Pedro.

I went fishing today in a kayak for the first time and I'm just stoked!

For reasons too difficult to explain, I’ve been unable to buy a kayak but on Saturday mornings Extremeline demo’s or rent’s them in LA Harbor at Cabrillo Beach.  I’ve demoed a few different boats, and liked the Hobie Sport.  They contacted me this week, saying they would be there today, so I decided to rent a Hobie for 2 hours to “play around,” in the harbor, this time with fishing gear! 

I decided to take my junk gear (a Target $20 no-name rod with 8lb test) and some miscellaneous small lures, some spinners, small “crappie jigs” and one green scampi that I often use for Calico Bass on the party boats.  I have an old but usable net, so I was legal.  My thought was to piddle around with the light tackle and maybe find some spotted bay bass around the kelp and the rocks, or possibly mackerel, bonito, or short barracuda – if they were around.

It was great fun, just being in the boat, seeing how to use it to set up a drift so I could fish the kelp line or rocks.  I stayed "on the inside" at Cabrillo Beach. It was great just being out. I saw some schooling bait fish and birds here and there but had no action for about the first hour as I fished the jetties and kelp.  So I decided to switch to the green scampi and bounce it along the bottom around the jetties – I hadn’t been doing that for a minute when BAM!  I caught my first fish – a short halibut.  Now that’s nothing to get excited about except I really wasn’t planning to catch fish – just play, and it was really light tackle .. so it was cool.  Then – Bam – lost another – What FUN! In the end, I caught two short halibut in my last hour, lost a few more, and had a total blast.

I am totally stoked on this – what fun!  I have to figure out how to buy a boat!