I have the 1850 with a 175 Opti, my buddy has the 1850 with a F150. We’ve both spent time in each others boat, they’re both nice setups.

Like Kooty said, I’m faster out of the hole and about 3 mph faster with a heavier load in the boat. With comparable loads in each boat there’s more difference. As you get heavier loads in each boat there’s more difference.

I’m a fan of DFI motors and I prefer to max the horsepower, but there’s nothing wrong with the F150 on that boat if you don’t mind giving up a little performance. The F150 is quieter than the Opti at low and mid throttle but as you get closer to the top end they get a lot closer to each other in volume.

One thing to consider is that boat has a wide hull and Rangers don’t have the reputation of being fast boats. I think the 1850 / 1860 could easily handle 200 HP, just like the Skeeter 1880 does.

Hope this helps.

I’ve had Merc 4-strokes since 1998 and can’t say enough good things about them. I don’t have anything bad to say about T-8s either …… although Kooty borrowed a wrench from me to get his T-8 running again and it took a year for him to return the wrench. I’m not sure what that says about Kooty or what that says about T-8s

One thing I REALLY like about Merc is the twist-grip shifting. It might take a little bit to get used to, but it’s true one-handed operation and is REALLY NICE. I like having a 30″ extension handle on the motor and being able to shift without bending over or reaching back by the motor.

In mid-summer I do a lot of vertical jigging on deep mid-lake reefs and use my kicker to slip around in the wind and hold my position over the fish I graph. The twist-grip shift and extension handle is ideal for slipping in and out of gear, giving the motor a little goose to speed you up or stop you, etc. I wouldn’t want any other kind of shifting for that situation.

I don’t think you could go wrong with a Pro Kicker or a T-8.

I have an H2O and like it a lot. I’ve mostly used it hunting and ice fishing but have used it a little bit in open water too. The screen is kind of small but that’s a handheld for you.

I also have a Garmin GPS V that that I got a few years ago for about $400 — compare that to about $150 for the H2O with it’s ability to take a map chip, and that’s a heck of a lot of gps. With its internal antenna it can be a bit slower to lock onto the satellites, but it’s not bad at all, even when hunting in the woods.

I have no complaints with mine, and personally am glad I didn’t go with the color screen. Good luck.

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He’s not as tough as me, but much bigger

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I’m smarter, better looking, and can drink more beer too

I was skippering the boat with 4 guys in it Friday night. No problems, we had few (if any) tangles, and good fishing on top of it

One guy tried to catch some shut-eye in the bow for an hour or two, but was nice enough to get up whenever we needed a net man or something out of the cooler We stayed out until 4:30 and had all 4 lines in the water except when he was snoozing

We did everything we could to harrass Kooty on the radio. Two of the guys in my boat were Kooty’s buddies from SD ….. but instead of hanging out with us Kooty made an early exit from the water that night. I wonder what he was thinking

This is Kooty’s buddy Dan with a nice cookie cutter walleye, I don’t remember how big it was.

This is Kooty’s buddy Chippy with a dandy 28.5 incher. We got two 28.5’s and a 28 that night.

No pics of Kooty though, I have no idea what he was doing

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I got to drive the lousy Merc out on Erie. Not impressed….

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That’s what they mean when they say “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”. It’s especially true for big dumb SD horses

I let him drive it, not sure I’m gonna let you drive it though

Oh yeah, it was MUCH better when you were driving

“I was born a poor black child”
or any of 100 other lines from The Jerk. Like
“Now throw ’em good and hard so they stick”

– or –

There’s no way – no WAY – you could’a come from my genes. When we get home the first thing I’m gonna do is punch your mama in the mouth.

Sorry it took me so long to get my reply posted, haven’t been on-line much the last week.

I have an ’06 Reata 1850 and it is not very often I get water over the bow. It’s only happened when fishing, if I have the big motor running it’s easy to keep the bow high enough no matter how big the waves are.

I was 3 miles off-shore and it was windy and wavey. We were making very short trolling passes back and forth along a shallow reef. Going with the wind or across the wind we weren’t even getting spray in the boat, but going right into the wind the bow was bouncing and we took some spray and some waves over the bow. If we hadn’t been making such short trolling passes over that reef I wouldn’t have been trolling right into the wind and it wouldn’t have been an issue. It was more annoying than anything else.

Kooty and I are so confident in my boat that the next time we’re on the pond he’s going to go up in the bow and stay there (by the cooler)

Sounds good, don’t mess with what’s working. I either pull all leadcore or no leadcore, I’ll have to keep this info in mind and try running lead at the same time I’m pulling other lines too. Thanks for the info.

I don’t have my Precision Trolling book handy, but I’d figure the lead has you down 15 feet and the 50 foot leader with those baits has you down maybe another 12-15 feet. Does that sound right to you?

Great reports, have really enjoyed reading them.

I have a question though. Why are you running leadcore if you’re using deep taildancers and deep thundersticks — won’t those baits go deep enough on their own on flatlines? Or is there some other reason you’re using leadcore?

I don’t use leadcore very often, only when I want to get my baits down deeper. I’m wondering if I’m missing out on something? Thanks.

Nick, I would just watch to make sure the transducer won’t be in the way of the trailer bunks or the swim ladder. My transom mount transducer works great, very rarely looses the bottom even at 50 mph.

Couple photos of my transom mount transducer for you Nick

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to avoid the interference issue with two transducers (same frequency) that close but thought I would check.

I want to put a 332c at the kicker and tie it to the Lowrance network so that rules out the Raymarine unit. If I get interference I’ll turn the console graph off – but I hate the idea of having electronics turned off

Nick

I have an 1850 Reata, 1 transducer glassed into the hull (done by Ranger) and 1 transducer mounted on my transom (done by my dealer). I have the transom mount connected to a 102c and use that sonar all the time. I have the in-hull one connected to a 332 with the sonar turned off (use it as a gps only, have it as a backup sonar). But from trying out the in-hull one on the 332 for a while it seems to work fine.

Let me know if you have any questions about the transom mount transducer. It works great.