Got the New Otter!

Picked up the new 650 Lodge yesterday up here in park rapids. I had been on the lookout for the 1200 but after chatting with some of the members I felt pretty good about the 650. When I got to L&M here they did have a 1200 Lodge for $799! Great price but I stuck with the plan. Set up took a bit but no issues with the canvas that I’ve heard other stories about (maybe just the 1200 canvas?) I wasn’t sure how I’d like the bench but I really enjoyed the room, seems like I was always setting stuff down on it. It would be easy to take the bench off the support bars and put swivel boat seats on.
Got it out on the lake today and did pretty well on the eyes. The bite was a little different than normal for our lake. We did pretty well on UV Colored spoons and jigs two hours before dark (early for here) and after the sun went down we just got them on fatheads on deadsticks, nothing on jigs and I tried about ten different colors.

All n all a great weekend at the cabin!
And really glad I finally got the new fishhouse!

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Sorry about the pics. Don’t get it!

The shack looks a lot bigger inside than at the store!

Setting it up right in the living room!! Nice!

Congrats on the new shack, and congrats on breaking it in properly with a little fish slime!!

First pic looks like you didn’t need to go far to get on fish!

Glad to hear you like it Scott!

I wish I would I have put on the Hyfax runners on the sled before I put it all together but I assume it’s not that tough to do it after the fact. Any tips on making it go easier?

Nice looking shack….and fish!!

belletaine wrote:

I wish I would I have put on the Hyfax runners on the sled before I put it all together but I assume it’s not that tough to do it after the fact. Any tips on making it go easier?

Nice shack Scott! I did the hyfax after assembly too. It was a pain because I didn’t have a helper, so I had to rely on my impressive wing span to reach the inside and the outside to tighten the nuts. It wasn’t too bad, and would have been real easy with a helper.

Make sure you wrangle some of those walleyes for me. I’ll be up at my folks over Christmas and looking to do some fishing!

to_setter wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>belletaine wrote:</div>
I wish I would I have put on the Hyfax runners on the sled before I put it all together but I assume it’s not that tough to do it after the fact. Any tips on making it go easier?

Nice shack Scott! I did the hyfax after assembly too. It was a pain because I didn’t have a helper, so I had to rely on my impressive wing span to reach the inside and the outside to tighten the nuts. It wasn’t too bad, and would have been real easy with a helper.

Make sure you wrangle some of those walleyes for me. I’ll be up at my folks over Christmas and looking to do some fishing!

Can’t think of a better place for Christmas Todd! The ice should be great, no snow and temps dropping this week.

Good luck and Merry Christmas!

I added mine after the fact also and did it by myself.

The trick that helped me a lot was to use a drill bit slightly smaller than the screw/bolt diameter to drill the pilot holes with (it was also smaller than the diameter that the instructions recomed). This way the screws threaded themselves into the sled. The screws even held as you bend the hyfax around the radius of the sled. Then after all the screws are in flip the house over and put all the locknuts on. This simplified my instal quite a bit. I did have to reach both sides for final tightening but that was really simple because everything is already in place.

Good luck.

Looks like you had a great weekend! The shack looks great and you broke in right with a nice walleye. I am going back up for the long New Years weekend, Take Care.

Nice looking rig!

elk_addict wrote:

Looks like you had a great weekend! The shack looks great and you broke in right with a nice walleye. I am going back up for the long New Years weekend, Take Care.

Thanks Elk! Have a great New Years up there, It’s beautiful up there during the winter.

can’t lay down and look anymore LOL

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Thanks Geerdes!