I took advantage of the Catcher Craft Labor Day sale. They had most of their watercraft 50% off. My old faithful 2014 Outcast Commander finally has a leak in the urethane bladder. Outcast customer service was awesome and gave me great advice on how to find the leak, but I still haven't found it. I wasn't interested in buying a new bladder for my old boat so the 50% off was a no brainer. The Commander will still get some use, but it was time to try something new. I bought the Commander used, but in great shape, for $600 in February of 2017 and have used the hell out of it. Definitely got my money out of it!
I bought the Wigeon for $400. It's the same boat as the Maxxon XPW-239 (now also called the Wigeon) that's been around for a while. Which, is essentially a knock-off Watermaster Grizzly.
Exact same dimensions as the Grizzly- 7'10"L x 4'W. No rocker with built-in oars.
Btw, GR8 Outdoors owns Catcher Craft and Maxxon. So Maxxon boats with Catcher Craft frames. Mine has no frame so it's essentially a Maxxon.
At $400 I had to pull the trigger. I got the Storm Grey-
When I saw the seat I had some buyer's remorse, but now that I've had on the river and the lake it's not too bad. Nothing like a Watermaster, but almost as comfortable as my Commander. Long days watching bobbers might not be great, but initial testing with a cheap stadium foam pad under the seat had nice results.
It's easy to row and super responsive. A bit slow on the lake, but not as slow as I thought it would be. Really nice on the river. And the best part is no water ballast like the Commander. So if it's 38 lbs dry (feels lighter) it's barely over 38 lbs wet. The Commander is all of 38 lbs dry and pushing 50 with all the water in the ballast. This also makes the Wigeon lighter pulling on your legs when you stand up to wade in the river. Way nicer than the old Commander. All the Watermaster guys are saying "duh" right now.
I cannot speak on the newer Commander, but from the pictures it appears to still have a water ballast.
Speaking of pictures...here is where things are a bit weird.
Here is the pic from the Catcher Craft website-
See any differences compared to my boat?
The main difference I noticed right away was my boat doesn't have the 2 D-rings in the cockpit. This is for the mesh bag guys like to have in the cockpit. Like this pic on the Catcher Craft website-
I just assumed I had a mesh gear bag in the package. Nope. So I went back and looked at what is included and it's not. Which makes sense if no D-rings. Oh well, one less thing to snag line on.
The 2nd thing I noticed was no swivel bolt-snaps for the seat. The pics showed having them. My Commander seat has them. Watermaster has them. The Maxxon Wigeon/XPW-239 has them. Pretty standard right? Guess not.
The 3rd thing I noticed was a pack of small, but nice carabiners. Ok, so the seat will use 4 of those and the leftovers can be used for the cargo net. Ok, that's not terrible and actually an improvement on the goofy hooks I'd seen on Maxxons. And better than a video I saw where they were literally tying the cargo net to the cargo grommet hole thingies. Ok, whatever.
The 4th thing was the oars are different color. That appears to be the only thing different about the oars. They appear to be the same oars. They're not too bad. And given how light and easy the boat is they seem beefy enough to me. However, I prefer the feel of the Commander oar handles. And besides having smaller blades, they fit great. They're definitely beefier than the ones from Catcher Craft. I also know they're proven. I should probably use the stock ones when on a lake since they have more bite and there's no worry of breaking the blades on rocks.
Last thing I noticed that was different was the foot strap. Instead of the Watermaster copy like the one shown, mine had D-shaped carabiners. I could see this possibly being an improvement in design, but they seem too light. And the strap is not long enough. Not sure what most Watermaster guys do, but I want my feet actually on it like a raft foot bar, not just holding my legs up. So that strap became the bow handle. More on the foot strap later.
So while small these are small differences, I did get a product that is different than the pics. They show this as "What's in the box"-
The pump is a basic pump with a 2-way option. And the hose screws into the valves so pretty nice overall.
The backpack is actually quite nice. It will get used for this boat, but also for other adventures. First thing that came to mind was duck decoys. Haha!
About the foot strap. I made this with a NRS strap and piece of schedule 40 PVC-
It works great!
And bigger carabiners make for easier work for the cargo net.
I didn't worry about an anchor on the river, but for bobber fishing on the lakes, this looks like an easy solution-
That's the front lean bar and anchor stem from my raft. I'll just strap or zip tie it to the integrated cargo grommet thingies.
So overall, very happy with it for $400. If I paid $799, like is advertised now, I would be more concerned about the differences.
My main annoyance with the differences in boats, at my price range, is actually for the company's sake. I want them to make it. I want them to get great reviews. When you sell something that is different than all the great pics you have on your website and Instagram, it's just setting you up for bad reviews. Or, at best, awkward customer interactions after doing extra work.
I actually reached out to their Instagram account to ask why my boat was different than the Catcher Craft & Maxxon websites and Instagrams. I did this on October 6th. "Great question. I will ask our raft design team and see what they say. I do know we are constantly refining our rafts and you may have a new iteration."
On the morning of October 14th I followed up. That evening they said "Our design team just confirmed that you received the new model. Apologies for the confusion."
I said thanks and gave them feedback on how I thought it odd (and a bit cringe) that they were shipping boats that were different than the pics. And while I know they probably spent pretty good $$ getting all those nice pics for the website and the gram, they should try and get some updated pics.
I see they finally saw my comment this morning.
Also a bit odd, they have "Orders may take 8-12 weeks to ship due to high order volume." I assumed that was for the Labor Day sale, but it's still on there. To be fair, I guess we're still within that time frame of the sale.
They actually shipped mine fairly quickly. I ordered on 8/28 and had the boat by 9/19.
I contacted them on 9/8 just asking if I would get notified of the shipment and hopefully a tracking number. They got back to me the next day and told me the boat was scheduled to ship the next day and for my troubles they sent me a Maxxon Stone Fly 5wt combo outfit for free. So that was great!
I hadn't complained, but rather just asked how it was going to work. I thought it a bit excessive to send the combo, but definitely sweetened the deal. The rod is nice. The reel....already in the garbage. Haha! It's a cast reel and must have got bonked pretty hard. I'm guessing before assembly because when I opened the nice rod & reel case the friggin reel fell out!
I inspected it and thought I had broken it until I discovered the broken off piece of the reel foot was still in the reel seat...in the case. Very strange. Anyway, the reel would still lock into the reel seat and I fished it on the Yakima for a couple hours with no trouble from the foot, but the drag was crap. The line was pretty nice so I kept it and the backing and then trashed the reel.
All this to say...sort of a weird customer experience. I'm happy with what I got, for sure. I mean, who doesn't like a free rod, line and nice case? And a new boat for only $400?
Had I paid full price I might be singing a different tune.
Can't wait to abuse it!
I bought the Wigeon for $400. It's the same boat as the Maxxon XPW-239 (now also called the Wigeon) that's been around for a while. Which, is essentially a knock-off Watermaster Grizzly.
Exact same dimensions as the Grizzly- 7'10"L x 4'W. No rocker with built-in oars.
Btw, GR8 Outdoors owns Catcher Craft and Maxxon. So Maxxon boats with Catcher Craft frames. Mine has no frame so it's essentially a Maxxon.
At $400 I had to pull the trigger. I got the Storm Grey-
When I saw the seat I had some buyer's remorse, but now that I've had on the river and the lake it's not too bad. Nothing like a Watermaster, but almost as comfortable as my Commander. Long days watching bobbers might not be great, but initial testing with a cheap stadium foam pad under the seat had nice results.
It's easy to row and super responsive. A bit slow on the lake, but not as slow as I thought it would be. Really nice on the river. And the best part is no water ballast like the Commander. So if it's 38 lbs dry (feels lighter) it's barely over 38 lbs wet. The Commander is all of 38 lbs dry and pushing 50 with all the water in the ballast. This also makes the Wigeon lighter pulling on your legs when you stand up to wade in the river. Way nicer than the old Commander. All the Watermaster guys are saying "duh" right now.
I cannot speak on the newer Commander, but from the pictures it appears to still have a water ballast.Speaking of pictures...here is where things are a bit weird.
Here is the pic from the Catcher Craft website-
See any differences compared to my boat?
The main difference I noticed right away was my boat doesn't have the 2 D-rings in the cockpit. This is for the mesh bag guys like to have in the cockpit. Like this pic on the Catcher Craft website-
I just assumed I had a mesh gear bag in the package. Nope. So I went back and looked at what is included and it's not. Which makes sense if no D-rings. Oh well, one less thing to snag line on.
The 2nd thing I noticed was no swivel bolt-snaps for the seat. The pics showed having them. My Commander seat has them. Watermaster has them. The Maxxon Wigeon/XPW-239 has them. Pretty standard right? Guess not.
The 3rd thing I noticed was a pack of small, but nice carabiners. Ok, so the seat will use 4 of those and the leftovers can be used for the cargo net. Ok, that's not terrible and actually an improvement on the goofy hooks I'd seen on Maxxons. And better than a video I saw where they were literally tying the cargo net to the cargo grommet hole thingies. Ok, whatever.
The 4th thing was the oars are different color. That appears to be the only thing different about the oars. They appear to be the same oars. They're not too bad. And given how light and easy the boat is they seem beefy enough to me. However, I prefer the feel of the Commander oar handles. And besides having smaller blades, they fit great. They're definitely beefier than the ones from Catcher Craft. I also know they're proven. I should probably use the stock ones when on a lake since they have more bite and there's no worry of breaking the blades on rocks.
Last thing I noticed that was different was the foot strap. Instead of the Watermaster copy like the one shown, mine had D-shaped carabiners. I could see this possibly being an improvement in design, but they seem too light. And the strap is not long enough. Not sure what most Watermaster guys do, but I want my feet actually on it like a raft foot bar, not just holding my legs up. So that strap became the bow handle.
More on the foot strap later.So while small these are small differences, I did get a product that is different than the pics. They show this as "What's in the box"-
- 1- Wigeon Pack-Raft
- 2- 2pcs Oars
- 1- Seat
- 1- Stretch Cord Cargo Web
- 1- Foot Strap
- 1- Roll-Top Backpack
- 1- Foot Pump
- 1- Emergency Repair Kit
The pump is a basic pump with a 2-way option. And the hose screws into the valves so pretty nice overall.
The backpack is actually quite nice. It will get used for this boat, but also for other adventures. First thing that came to mind was duck decoys. Haha!
About the foot strap. I made this with a NRS strap and piece of schedule 40 PVC-
It works great!
And bigger carabiners make for easier work for the cargo net.
I didn't worry about an anchor on the river, but for bobber fishing on the lakes, this looks like an easy solution-
That's the front lean bar and anchor stem from my raft. I'll just strap or zip tie it to the integrated cargo grommet thingies.
So overall, very happy with it for $400. If I paid $799, like is advertised now, I would be more concerned about the differences.
My main annoyance with the differences in boats, at my price range, is actually for the company's sake. I want them to make it. I want them to get great reviews. When you sell something that is different than all the great pics you have on your website and Instagram, it's just setting you up for bad reviews. Or, at best, awkward customer interactions after doing extra work.
I actually reached out to their Instagram account to ask why my boat was different than the Catcher Craft & Maxxon websites and Instagrams. I did this on October 6th. "Great question. I will ask our raft design team and see what they say. I do know we are constantly refining our rafts and you may have a new iteration."
On the morning of October 14th I followed up. That evening they said "Our design team just confirmed that you received the new model. Apologies for the confusion."
I said thanks and gave them feedback on how I thought it odd (and a bit cringe) that they were shipping boats that were different than the pics. And while I know they probably spent pretty good $$ getting all those nice pics for the website and the gram, they should try and get some updated pics.
I see they finally saw my comment this morning.
Also a bit odd, they have "Orders may take 8-12 weeks to ship due to high order volume." I assumed that was for the Labor Day sale, but it's still on there. To be fair, I guess we're still within that time frame of the sale.
They actually shipped mine fairly quickly. I ordered on 8/28 and had the boat by 9/19.
I contacted them on 9/8 just asking if I would get notified of the shipment and hopefully a tracking number. They got back to me the next day and told me the boat was scheduled to ship the next day and for my troubles they sent me a Maxxon Stone Fly 5wt combo outfit for free. So that was great!
I hadn't complained, but rather just asked how it was going to work. I thought it a bit excessive to send the combo, but definitely sweetened the deal. The rod is nice. The reel....already in the garbage. Haha! It's a cast reel and must have got bonked pretty hard. I'm guessing before assembly because when I opened the nice rod & reel case the friggin reel fell out!
I inspected it and thought I had broken it until I discovered the broken off piece of the reel foot was still in the reel seat...in the case. Very strange. Anyway, the reel would still lock into the reel seat and I fished it on the Yakima for a couple hours with no trouble from the foot, but the drag was crap. The line was pretty nice so I kept it and the backing and then trashed the reel.All this to say...sort of a weird customer experience. I'm happy with what I got, for sure. I mean, who doesn't like a free rod, line and nice case? And a new boat for only $400?
Had I paid full price I might be singing a different tune.
Can't wait to abuse it!
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