Northwest Fishing Reports

Thanks for everyone's input on the my last post about boat suggestions. I'm leaning towards the River Hawk Pro v 18 (well I really want the Super Pro V 20 but a little out of my price range and storage becomes difficult w. that size boat).

Anyhow - does anyone out there have a River Hawk Pro V 18? What motor are you running? I'll have a jet and I'm deliberating between a 60/40 and 90/65. Max HP is 70 HP and the majority of people have told me net HP is what matters but that's not a 100 percent clear with me.

Some real world advice would be helpful.

thanks,

Mick

FWIW I only know one guy on WL that has a RH he runs a 16with 25 prop and gets him and his mate around at a clip. An 18 with a 60 jet be great IMO but depends on how much weight is always in it.

Another way to approach this is weight like sickbayer said. Check with RiverHawk to see what the Coast Guard's max capacity/weight rating is for the boat. It will be on a permanent placard or sticker on the boat.

What ever that max weight is, it INCLUDES - people, fuel and any portable tanks, batteries, fishing gear, ice chests, sonar's, anchors, tackle boxes etc, etc. But most importantly it also includes your engines. That 60 horse is going to eat up a major chunk of your weight allowance.

One thing about smaller boats is that if you go with the largest allowable horsepower engine, you may have to give up other things to stay within that weight limit. Bigger motors weigh more.

There was another recent thread on here where the guy wanted to put a big(er) motor on his boat. Turns out going with the larger motor meant he didnt have the weight allowance for his kicker or any other "extras" - like fuel or fishing gear.

So I would get that weight rating, then subtract your weight, any potential passengers, fishing gear, fuel, ice chests, trolling motors, batteries, etc etc from that number. What ever is left is the max weight you can have for your engine.

Its something to think about when in the planning stage.

I'd definitely do the 90/65 and id drop down to a 8hp kicker. I was pricing up mercury which was coming up cheaper than the Yamaha and I like their big tiller handle. I also like the feature that allows you to drop kicker in water by pushing down on the handle.

Also just saw mercury does a 80/60 jet that is 30lbs less than the Yamaha 90/65 which sits at 397lbs. The yam 8hp kicker is 87lbsnfor short shaft and 89 for long shaft.

The Yamaha will have a better resale value then the mercury regardless how good the mercury is.

I have the Merc 4 stroke 8 hp kicker and like it a lot. However, I found out after we bought it that it is made by Tohatsu for Merc. You can get the Tohatsu version quite a bit cheaper. Same exact parts for both - except the Tohatsu parts are also cheaper.

New to the board.

I've got the 18' pro v RH. I have a Mercury 60hp prop, 9.9 pro-kicker. I also have a Riptide 55lb on the bow, and the battery, charger, fuse, etc. in one of the seat boxes. Also have a center console with one of the float boxes converted to storage in front of it. Long story short, I'm still not near the 1200lb weight limit. I can do 34 mph on plane.

I have a Pro V16 with a 50 HP Merc. prop., 8HP kicker. Plenty of power.

Buddy of mine has a ProV18 with a Merc 60 Hp.

No problems with either boat, plenty of power.

Not sure if you're still trying to gather info about this boat, but I recently bought a RH River Hawk Pro V 18 so I thought I'd give my 2 cents for you or anyone else who may be thinking about this combo. First off I've had the boat for a few months now and I am really loving it; it's roomy, wide and stable, and fishes 3 of us comfortably. My first boat was an older 15' Smoker Craft Alaskan with a 25HP E-TEC. That was a great little boat (and perfectly matched outboard) for 2 people, but would not safely handle 3 grown men on the Hanford Reach, thus I upgraded.

I am running an Evinrude E-TEC 60 Jet (90/60) on my RH 18' and would not go smaller. This outboard gets me up on plane quickly and easily with 3 of us and our gear in the boat. It runs 29-30 MPH WOT on a lake; on the Snake river springer fishing this year we ran about 24-25 MPH up stream and 31-32 MPH downstream. I've loaded my boat right up to the 1200# rating with the kicker, fuel, friends and gear and it handles that load with ease. I suspect that with a smaller 40HP jet that the boat would be too slow for my liking.