Thread: RCC question for you.

Originally Posted by dko

gzrglide, I have been thinking hard on getting a stick steer. How do you like your stick steer. I really like the war eagle 1754. Whats your opinion. Thanks.

Honestly, if it wasn't for wanting to fish 3 somewhat comfortably from my boat, I would get another Stick Steer and it would most likely be a 1754 with a side livewell. Love being able to fish and run the boat from the same location. My crappie magnum has been and really still is an excellent boat, just it has a lot of wear on it and not a lot of it tender loving. As RCC knows, I love the St. Francis River, and I like running fast, so needless to say I still find a stump that I forgot about every now and then. I have an E-rude 40 on it running a Michigan Wheel 17 pitch ballistic prop and the boat will run in the low to mid 30's. The 1754 with a 60 on it should run mid 30's easy. They are not the best boats for rough water as you will get wet, but if you fish small waters and rivers, they can't be beat. I mention the side livewell above because my boat had a center livewell and found that my Dad had problems getting around it to get to the back seat as he got older and more stumble footed. It also ate up a lot of floor space sitting there in the middle of the boat. I removed it and just use a cooler now. Will pull the plate I put over the hole and re-install the livewell when and if I decide to get rid of it. With the stick steer and me sitting up front when I am by myself, I can trim the boat up enough to run some pretty shallow water, shallow enough that all the paint is missing from the skeg and the lower part of my lower unit on my E-rude due to flying across sand bars. Hope that helps.

Randall, does your boat have a bow trim switch? I couldn't tell from the pictures you posted, or maybe I just over looked it. Based on what you said above, I decided to put a spread sheet together listing the specs on all the boats I have considered and a list of everything I want in the boat and see which one meets the majority of my requirements. As you know, I like fast, so will probably go with the smallest boat that meets my requirements with the biggest engine I can find. Small to make it easier to fish the river, biggest engine to go faster. I guess I just miss the Stratos Tunnel Hull with 150 Mariner Magnum, hydraulic jack plate and 30" chopper prop that I had in South Carolina and Florida in the late 80's and early 90's. Just something about running flat out, trimmed up, and feeling that nice slow chine walk and knowing there ain't much running pad in the water that appeals to me.

Yes it does have a bow trim switch. I wish it had a bow switch for the aerator in the live well. If you get one custom made, be sure to have the seat pedestals moved forward. The stock position is too far back. I wouldn't want to take my Excel on the St Francis. I'll break out the War Eagle for that.

The spread sheet is a great idea. I looked for months before things all came together. The crazy thing is that just a few weeks ago there was a War Eagle Predator in the sale forum. The owner kept coming down on the price. I'll try to find the post.

Thanks, gonna have to think hard about a river boat, do I keep my Magnum or sale it and get a tiller steer mod v in the 1542 range. Got the spread sheet together and looked at all the sites on line, read a bunch of the threads on here and came up with 25 criteria to judge the boats against, evaluated 20 boats against my criteria, the 1860CRSC and the 1754CRSC came up number 1 and 2, with the SeaArk CRX190 coming in number three. Lowe ST175 finished mid pack and the G3's brought up the rear. Think I will keep my list up and see what other criteria come along and continue rating the boats until around March and then decide which one to get.

You will have the best of both worlds by keeping the stick steer. "G" the moderator down on the MS forum runs a Seark and I'm sure he could give you some feed back on his. They are a nice looking boat. Half the fun of owning is the shopping around before you buy.

Originally Posted by Cmj

I think he has a Meatgetter edition War Eagle.

Man was I wrong!!!

Yea, but it's all good. I still want to know what a meatgetter edition entails though.

Originally Posted by gzrglide

Yea, but it's all good. I still want to know what a meatgetter edition entails though.

Jerry aka Meatgetter bought an Excel VSC and rigged it for crappie fishing and it became known as the Meatgetter edition. Many have tried to duplicate this setup, but none have succeeded. Jerry's runs faster catches more fish and is purtier than all the other knockoff Meatgetter editions. I love my boat, but at the end of the day, it's just another knockoff. Here's another "knockoff" Meatgetter edition

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/arkan...-new-demo.html