A born and bred lifelong waterman and serious angler, son of an aerospace engineer, lover of great engineering, and small watercraft designer for a competing company. I must give credit where credit is due. As a designer myself, I've paddled, peddled, rowed, sailed, fished, and motored just about every kayak, boat, and SUP on the market.
I'm incredibly impressed with the 2018 Hobie Pro Angler 12 with Mirage 180° Drive Technology. Incredible performance and handling totally unexpected for its size. Relatively lightweight in comparison to its overall size and comes stock with features that every angler will truly appreciate such as 2 verticle rod holders, 4 horizontal secure rod storage areas, non-slip sound deadening padded flooring, easy to use watertight multiple stowaway tackle box and multi-use storage compartment hatches, grab rails deemed H-rails, stability, speed, ruggedness, and turn on a dime handling, just to name a few, places Hobie in a league truly of their own.
Easy down and up steering rudder and separate oversized skeg perform like a keel or leeboard providing performance and handling that's second to none. Completely impressed by the Mirage 180° Drive with turbo fins. At first look, they appear small and inefficient. Most especially when compared to the sheer size of the PA Series. However, power and efficiency come from design and incredible engineering. Plenty of power with very minimal effort. By far the best and most efficient pedal drive on the market to date and my stance is they can't and will never be topped. The only stage up is produced by Hobie and it's the 2020 MIrage 360° and I can't wait to get my feet on one! The fine details of every little piece of practical and meaningful engineering would take me hours to mention so I mean it when I say Hobie is second to none.
I could really only find one negative for me personally that prevents a 5 out of 5-star rating and it's something I suspect is remedied by the Hobie PA14 series. After owning several Hobie Revolution models of different lengths and now the PA12, I grew tired of staying wet. Most especially during the late fall, winter, and early spring months. Sure a $1000 dollar dry suit could remedy that but personally I like to remain high and dry when fishing for hours at a time and I'd like to prevent any unnecessary introduction of saltwater into my gear when possible. Let me also mention that I fish anywhere and everywhere from fresh to brackish to saltwater. From the skinny water coves to bays, harbors, inlets, ocean, and surf. To streams, ponds, and lakes. Heck, I've even fished in a fish tank and while standing on a piece of floating plywood. From calm days to Noreaster nights and hurricanes. I fish them all and although a kayak to serve me perfectly in all those variable conditions is nearly impossible. Hobie almost and may even already have that solved with the PA14. I just wish the bow/front of the PA12 sat a little higher and had more buoyancy volume from the bow through to just past the pedal drive. As I said, I think this may already be remedied by the PA14 which hopefully puts an additional 2 ft of buoyancy volume in front of the pedal drive but I've yet to get my hands on one. I believe that additional buoyancy will also result in the location of the pedal drive drafting less water. Which means I can pedal in super skinny waters and portage less.
At any rate, that's my personal experienced review of the 2018 Hobie Pro Angler 12 and I absolutely can't wait to get my hands on the 2020 Hobie Pro Angler 14 with Mirage Drive 360°. Many people say Hobie's are over price as did I until I got my hands on my very first one and now there's no turning back. If you're a serious angler who wants to increase your catch rate and fishing skills, wants to out fish everyone around you and have complete access to just about any body of water - then buy a Hobie pedal drive kayak. They are worth their weight in gold and every hard-earned dollar you spend towards one is an investment that will pay back endless dividends in satisfaction and angling success! To see the Hobie Revolution and Pro Angler in action visit TalkFishTV.com. You won't be disappointed!
