Introduction and question

Hi all, newbie to this forum and to kayak fishing. I have kayaked to abalone dive, but not fishing. I have a 2021 Hobie outback with a Hook Reveal 5 Lowrance fish finder. I spent me career (retired) rescuing folks along the coast with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Helicopter Unit (H-1). I am starting off plying the waters of Tomales Bay for halibut. This is a new experience for me. Here is my question:

What hand held Marin VHF radio do folks here recommend? Is there a channel where fishermen chat about what is happening on the water?

Any tips, suggestion are welcomed. Hope to meet some of you someday on the water.

Welcome to NCKA!
I’ve been using Standard Horizon and I think it’s a pretty common choice. I got one of the newer models.
It floats and has a light that flashes when submerged.
It has FM radio for music when things are boring.
It has a special emergency button that would broadcast my identity and GPS position to compatible devices (and CG stations). You need to register with BoatUS to make this feature work.
And many more features I hardly use.

Channel wise, we’re on 69. Boats use 68 and 19 I think, so I sometimes check those too. 16 is for CG emergency only. I recommend watching YouTube videos on this. Very helpful

Welcome, RV.

As the orca man says, Standard Horizon is a popular choice, and is what I use. If you search, you'll find a couple of other brands are in common usage too. Some people also carry a personal locator beacon (PLB), which is pricey, but could be a life saver in a dire emergency.

Be sure to read the "safety first" section of this forum...

Welcome to NCKA RudeView.  I use a Standard Horizon HX870 radio.   

Hey Rudeview, Welcome to NCKA, Horizon HX890, cell phone ,and PLB should do it.

Hi RudeView, welcome 
iCom is another popular brand of VHF.

Welcome, RV! Here is a screenshot list of radio channels:

Love Tomales, welcome, I found the SH hx40 to be compact and reliable.  See ya’ on da wattah’…

Welcome to the madness RV 

A few more useful things:
- good to have a spare battery
- illegal to use on inland (only at sea)
- range is 5-10 miles (in reality less; as the folks you communicate with may have an older/bad radio)
- range to USCG station is 20 miles
- do a radio check on channel 69 prior to launching

ICOM M-72 has been bulletproof for me. Nothing fancy but bought it 10+ years or so ago and still ticking and full charge after a days use.

Welcome to the madness RV 

Welcome, RV! Here is a screenshot list of radio channels:

thanks for this info fisherman X.  i dont recall seeing it at the safety section but its helpful.  id been curious about this for a while but havent really followed up on finding out more.

Welcome aboard RV