I needed to buy a fishing kayak for fishing in the gulf, and in the Tampa Bay inter coastal waters. I went in to West Marine to get a Prowler kayak. But when I saw the Abaco, I realized that it was essentially the same size and width, but had way more room inside - I find all that space for inner hull storage to be a waste of real estate for a fishing kayak. This thing has almost the entire length of the 13.5 foot deck available for use to the fisherman. The only modifications that I had to do was add two rod holders, a seat, a paddle holder and an anchor trolley. Now it's a better fishing kayak than a prowler, or any other fishing kayak that comes with half the hull sealed off and useless. It also carries over 500 lbs of cargo! Again - beats most other fishing kayaks of this class in weight capacity alone.
I have taken this out fishing in Tampa Bay and the inter coastal waters, and find it to be really stable, moves fast enough for my liking, and can carry me (250lbs) plus all my fishing stuff comfortably. With all that weight, the water still doesn't even come up the scupper holes. My butt was completely dry and so was the deck.
I can also convert this back to a tandem kayak by moving my seat back (I sit in the middle seat in fishing mode) and adding a front seat for my kids. So it's a tandem yak, and a really awesome fishing yak for less than the price of a Prowler!
The only thing that sucks is how heavy this thing is. It feels to be about 100 lbs. I'm a big guy and can put this on top of my mini van by myself, but it's no easy feat and requires a lot of strength and balance! Also, in fresh water, this thing is the equivalent of paddling a refrigerator filled with rocks. It's SLOW. But in salt water (because of the difference in buoyancy) it floats high, and cuts through the water quickly.
