Scout Inflatables - Sophistication and Simplicty
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” – Leonardo Da Vinci
Last weekend was my second time out on the Scout and it was the first time on my own boat. Throughout the previous week, I spent a lot of time thinking how to best approach setting up my boat. The biggest questions on my mind were what should I bring and what should I leave behind? Part of what I love so much about the Scout is that it is designed to make the boating / angling experience simple. It's a very pure angling experience in a compact space. You have more room and freedom of movement than a kayak and less of those elements than you would in a fiberglass boat. As I realized on Sunday, it's easy to clutter up the experience with extra fishing gear, camera equipment and provisions. It was clear that I still think that I’m pulling from my experience on my last boat. It's a Lesson learned and experience that has become wisdom. Looking forward, I have already started to plan out my storage for future trips by using the space on the bow or under the seats and making sure to tidy up the deck and put everything away before I fire up the motor and move to the next spot. This experience also made me think back to my first trip on the scout 365 where all it took to have fun was the boat, a motor a seat and my fly rod.
Here are some things I will consider before I hit the water this coming weekend:
- Revise my packing list. What do I NEED to take with me to fish for 6 hours? I know it is a lot less than I think it is.
- Reconfigure storage beneath the shield on the bow and make better use of space beneath the rear seat. Since it's just me, I’ll leave the middle seat at home.
- Fly Line management – Use a stripping basket to help keep the deck free for movement and access to the front of the boat.
- If what I bring doesn’t fit on the bow, below the seats or it can’t be mounted to the stability bar, I will leave it at home.
- Bring Wheels! A boat trolley wasn’t part of my original plan but will allow me to completely rig my boat next to the car and easily pull it across the sand to my launch point. The only other option would have been for me to carry 100lbs of boat motor and gear all the way to the water and set up there. It's do-able but not very convenient. Moving forward, I won’t ever leave home without one.
In my personal experience as a boat owner throughout my life, I can’t think of an easier way to launch, and chase fish on my home waters in Southern California. With the Scout, I’ve already realized that it is easy to build a huge experience with much less material than you think you need.
As a member of the Scout Inflatables pro staff, Graham P Day is a and passionate angler who uses his Scout inflatables to access new fishing adventures in both fresh and salt water in Southern California. You can follow Graham's scout adventures by subscribing to this blog or follow him @driftwood_caravan_outdoors on both Instagram and Facebook.