Heritage Fisherman Pro, thoughts, pricing

[influx99]

Anyone have any experience with a Heritage Fisherman Pro? Looks like a good boat, but I'm not an experienced kayaker so other than length, beam width, tracking, weight, and capacities, not really sure what else I need to worry about. I will use it primarily for fishing on the cape.

There's a place I found in CT called Defender that has what they call "grade 2" kayaks, which they claim is factory blemished, etc., but still has the same warranty. List on a new one is $850, but they have them for $500. That's about has much as I'd like to spend on an OK quality boat, if possilbe. I've seen retailers in other states too far away that have new ones for just over $500 new. Any other local ones you can recommend?

Any experience with Defender or buying a "grade 2" kayak? I bought a grade 2 canoe that's OK... I couldn't even tell why it was considered a grade 2 other than a scratch on the bottom... big deal.

On the web:
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|215570|217799|295575|295577&id=343734

[Nelly]

I would say that's a great deal. I have the Heritage Sea Dart, which is the same hull. I have modified it with the rod-holders behind the seat and overall I find it a great boat. The one thing I miss is having a spot to put a milk crate behind the seat like you see with a lot of the other kayaks. But for that kind of price I think you're getting an excellent deal. I would jump on that in a heartbeat!

[notime]

Looks like a good deal to me. Why can't you put a milk crate on the back?

[Nelly]

There's probably some way to rig a milk crate back there, the boat just doesn't have the molded-in indentation behind the seat you'll see on a lot of other boats (Heritage Redfish for example).

[notime]

What I did to solve the problem was attach a milkcrate to a flat board that is as long as the kayak is wide in the back. The board is roughly 8" wide and 1.5" thick. At each end of the board I screwed a 2x4 that was 8" long. This allows the 2x4s to rest on the sides of the kayak and the flat board clears the hatch that is in the way. It looks like this: The crate setup is then held on by two bungee cords, one in front and one in back. At some point I'll put fastners on the side so I can secure it on both sides, but the two cords hold it up fine. The wood I used was scrap and not pressure treated. Obviously the pressure treated will last longer, but it seems to be holding up fine.

Overall, this is a simple setup but it works fine. I'll fine tune it when I have more time.

[Wes]

If you can find one nearby to take for a test drive I would. A friend of mine has one. He's a bit too heavy for it at abt 225, aft deck awash all the time and the hatch leaks. If you're a big guy you probably should look at something else. It looks like a great deal, they're nice kayaks to paddle, pretty quick. Not quite enough initial stability for many people for a fishing yak. Better for someone who wants a kayak on the faster side and doesn't need to carry a huge amount of equipment in a milk crate. Although the "beam" at 28" may look similar to other kayaks a sea dart is about 21/22 inches at the water line with sponsons that add several more inches above the water line. This gives you plenty of secondary stability but only after the hull is leaned.

Defender is a first class outfit, usually very good prices.

[influx99]

Hey guys, thanks for the input. I'm 6', 180, so I don't think I'm too big for that boat based on the comments.

I saw somewhere online that a guy rigged up "igloo cooler brackets" to hold a basket on the back because of the lack of a recess/storage.

I try to fish as light as possible, so hopefully storage won't be too much an issue.

If I get the kayak from Defender, I'll let you guys know how it works out.

[Nelly]

Hey notime - do you have a picture of that? I'm having a hard time visualizing.

I have a soft tackle bag which holds my plano boxes, that I just bungee behind the seat and it works okay for me.

Influx, I'm 6' 200lbs so you should be fine with this boat.

[WeeHooker]

I have a heritage Sea Dart 14 with the older (betterIMHO) hatch's and a dealer installed rudder that I just posted on RI CL if interested. Just about the same boat. Great paddler!

[influx99]

I actually wound up buying 1.5 of the 14' Fisherman Pros a while back. I bought one, my buddy bought one, and then we split the 3rd when it dropped from $350 to $300. These are usually $800 kayaks, so we spent a total of $1000 for 3 kayaks from Defender. They were "factory seconds" (i.e. a scratch on the hull, but full warranty) and on sale, which is why they were so cheap. I've had them since '06 and they are great boats, very fast, and I beat the heck out of them using them a lot.

My only complaint, and if I were to do it all over again, I'd try to get one that had a tray in the back as opposed to a hatch, more similar to the Heritage Redfish. I don't need 2 hatches (front and rear), just one.

Also, I had to put in my own, thicker minicell foam seals on the hatches... the ones that came with the boat didn't do the job.