I have a 2019 Solera 189 and love it. I have the 150 on it. When I bought it I was between the Solera and WX1910. The main deciding factor was the max # of people. The 189 was 6, but the 1910 was only 5. I spend a lot of time fishing with my kids and nieces/nephews, so I end up with 6 fairly often. I switched from a 17 foot Crestliner. There is no comparison as far as how smooth and dry the ride is. I can’t see myself ever going back to aluminum.

It’s got a 100 inch beam, so it’s steady while fishing.

I top out around 44 mph. I rarely run wide open, so maxing out HP wasn’t a concern for me. I fish big lakes for the most part. When I put on 30 miles in a day, it takes about 12 gallons of gas at 2/3-3/4 throttle (30ish mph), so the fuel efficiency is hard to beat. The hole shot is great.

They did a great job on the trailer. It comes with a beefed up single axel trailer that is pretty easy to maneuver.

Getting 2 10s on the dash will be a challenge. The Boat Center may have some creative solutions for that. I think the flush mount in the dash maxes out at 7″. I have a 10″ Humminbird on the dash, but it’s tight.

It comes with an 80 lb Terrova, which is a little under powered. With lithium batteries, I would think it would be doable to upgrade to something bigger.

The step you referenced is easy to remove, but I leave it in. The rod storage is decent. I pulled out the rod tubes that come in the center rod locker. As long as you use rod sleeves (to avoid rubbing on the fiberglass) I can get about 18 rods in there. Not the most convenient, but as good as I would expect out of a 19 foot boat. I don’t really use the side rod locker, but I think it accommodates up to 9 foot rods.

Sorry 10klakes and the others that messaged me! I somehow have two accounts on here, and I was logged into the wrong account on my phone. So I didn’t see the messages until now.

You’ll have a blast! I would definitely agree with needing rain gear and rain boots. The Homer Spit is a big tourist trap, but still kind of fun to check out. The Homer Brewing Co is pretty solid. Hopefully the place you’re staying has a grill. Fresh caught salmon is probably the best meal I’ve ever had (just don’t over cook it, around 120-125 degrees is perfect for me).

As far as getting fish home, I typically check one bag on the way up, then buy a fish box while I’m up there and check it as a second bag on the way home. But call ahead ask one of your guides, when I was up last summer they were hard to find. If the fish are frozen solid before you leave they should stay frozen all the way home.

Seward is beautiful and worth the drive over.

Thanks for the input! I’ll check out the Genesis bows.

We did ok. I took my kids out for a few hours Saturday afternoon/evening. We caught a few fish in the north sand, but navigating around all those boats while trying to keep an eye on a 4 and 5 year old made me pretty nervous, so we didn’t stay out long. We tried the southeast part of the lake Sunday morning. No where near as many boats, but I didn’t mark any fish either. I’m hoping to be back up there this weekend!

Make sure you get a chance to test drive the boat. I ran a 1650 Fish Hawk with a 90 for about 5 years. There was a lot to love about the boat, especially the amount of storage/layout and price (in 2013). The three downsides were 1. It was a really wet ride (applicable to all aluminum boats at this size) 2. It didn’t track very well when trolling (also applicable to most aluminum boats this size) and 3. I thought the boat was much less stable than it should be for the size. I weigh under 200 pounds and if I was in the boat by myself there was a noticeable lean to whichever side I was on. I have run two older Alumacrafts (1990 and 2002) of about the same size and didn’t notice this nearly as much in those boats. Not saying it should be a deal killer because I really enjoyed my Fish Hawk, but something to consider.

We also stayed at Woodland Resort. It’s a great place. We stayed at the suites, which is a relatively new building. The rooms were great with a nice balcony overlooking the lake.

I got out there just as Michael C. Winther was getting ready to head home. It was great to grab a beer and catch up! We had a similar experience. Lots of fish, just small. The old shorelines (17-20 feet of water) were good. We caught fish anywhere from 10-22 feet, with most coming in 17-22. We had two days with no clouds and no wind. The fishing slowed down a lot by late morning those days. So we came in for the afternoon, then headed back out for the evening and the fish seemed to be biting again. Gold, green, pink, and orange were our best colors.

Joe Scegura wrote:

Sorry your post turned into a debate Brewer

Just goes to show you can’t post anything about Mille Lacs without it ending in an argument But in all honesty, I found the information on zebra mussels interesting. I have picked some up fishing in the sand, but it’s never just one like it is sometimes when fishing rocks. It’s always a clump of them attached to something else – usually fishing line or sticks, which makes sense given the comments above.

Had a great day on the lake. We had to change plans as the wind was blowing much harder than originally forecast. The kids weren’t having much fun getting tossed around out on the mud flats. So we found ourselves up on the north shore, where sand was easy to find. We wore water shoes and were zebra mussel free.

The fishing was a little slower than I had hoped, but that was partially due to trying to control the boat in the wind while entertaining a 3 and 4 year old. Did anyone else have any luck over the weekend? We picked up two on the flats and two more in the sand. 3 on crawlers, 1 on a leech.

Hopefully next weekend we’ll be out on the west side of the lake and can try swimming over there.

Thanks everyone!

Thanks for the heads up! I’m sure we’ll pull up plenty of zebs while fishing, I wouldn’t have thought of that while swimming.

Thanks! That’s very helpful.

I’ll be interested to see how busy it is too. I’ll be back up there on Sunday. I’m hoping it’s not as busy as it was in June. With the Canadian border still closed I have a hunch the lake will still be plenty busy, especially if the bite picks up where it left off in June.

Amazing video!

Karry Kyllo wrote:

You’ll have a great time. Let us know how you do.

Will do!

I’ll be up there August 14-18th. Unfortunately we won’t overlap much, but I’m always up for grabbing a beer and talking fishing.

Thanks for all the info! We decided to head to Devils Lake and booked a room at Woodland Resort. The other two guys coming with me would much rather pull spinners than cranks, so Devils Lake sounds like the better choice.

I agree with trumar. I just switched to Folbe from Ram. The Folbe rod holders are very solid. It is virtually impossible to accidentally bump a rod out of the rod holders, which is great when fishing with kids. I have 6 in the boat. I went with 4 of the Jrs and 2 of the Advantage. Some of my bait casters don’t fit in the Jrs, but most do.

We had a pretty good trip. The first two days we fished deeper (18-30 feet) and found lots of small fish. Had to work pretty hard to find fish 14-15 inches to keep. Then on our last day we fished much shallower and had more success. We caught quite a few 16-18 inch walleye in 12-14 feet and 6-8 feet. Our best fishing was with spinners. Both crawlers and leeches worked about equally well.

Thanks to everyone who provided some info!

Thanks for the info. I’ll let you know how it goes!

I quit chewing a few years ago. The were two things that helped me. The first was to write down why I was quitting. And I’d look at that piece of paper whenever I had the urge. The second was focusing on one goal at a time. Quitting takes a tremendous amount of will power. So give yourself a break in other aspects of your life.

The only time it was really hard not to go back was when fishing, so I switched to sunflower seeds for a while. Now I don’t even think about it when I’m on the water.

I’ve had a Traeger for about 4 years now and love it! I use it all the time for grilling and smoking. I haven’t had any problems and it makes some amazing food. They are easy to use – turn the knob to your desired heat and make sure the pellet hopper is full.

I had 47-48 degrees yesterday. I would love to be back out there today, but the weather doesn’t seem too inviting.

@Joe-winter great pics! Looms like a great time on the water!

I was up on the northeast side of the lake.

Had a great day on the water. There were lots of boats out and it looked like everyone was catching fish. I picked up about 20 walleye today. All came in 15 FOW. Leeches worked best early, then minnows were best in the afternoon.

Just realized I forgot to post about how the weekend went. I saw the same temp range, 43-47. That was in Walker Bay and the north side of the main lake. I struggled to find fish. I hardly even marked anything. I scouted a lot of wind swept shoreline (and there was plenty of wind). So my best guess is that the fish were up really shallow. I was mostly looking in the 10-20 foot range. As I was driving home I was wondering if I should have spent more time in 3-5 feet of water. I guess I’ll try again another time. It was still fun to be on the water.

Thanks all for the info. Thanks Zooks for posting the Jason Mitchell video. I agree, there was lots of good info there. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I used to swear by Smart Wool until I bought my first pair of Darn Tough. I just ordered two more pairs of DTs yesterday. They keep they shape and comfort extremely well.

Thanks for the advice!

We got blown off the water pretty early yesterday. Today we started trolling cranks and came up with only a couple sauger. After switching to spinners with crawlers we started doing much better. 30-34 feet of water. Purple and perch were our best colors. We’ll try again tomorrow.