....so I caved in and will give it a good home.




Carey and Sons Marine in Granbury. Good people, made me a fair deal (or I thought it was), and bent over backwards to see the deal through.

Xpress makes a great rig!

Nice. Very similar to my boat. Enjoy.

Nice!

Do they handel big water well

Congrats!

Romney Carey is a great guy there to deal with even after the sale. I bought my rig there.

very nice, a friend just bought basically the same rig, I haven't been in it but I like the way it's laid out, he says it runs great and fishes even better, good luck with it...........

Well, I took it out today in less than stellar conditions. I went to Tawakoni in a 10-15mph NNW wind (the worst direction for that lake). I could see right away it was going to be a good test.

I noticed as it came off the trailer that it was certainly a different boat than my old pro craft 15' bass boat. It's definitely not as responsive to steering input at idle. I expected this with it being 3' longer, and a bit wider.

So I rounded the dock and got into the chop right away. It wasn't a horrible day on the Gulf of Tawakoni, some good white capping with a roller when the boat wakes coupled correctly with the waves. I goosed it up on top and was surprised at how loud the hull was banging against the chop compared to my old glass boat.

Since it was the boat's first time on the water, i had to be mindful of the dreaded break-in on the 4 stroke Yammy. Throttle response is unlike any 2 stroke outboard I've ever piloted. I'm used to having the old 2 stroke power band, and the 4 four stroke's power curve seems to be a straight diagonal line on a graph. I found out real quick that I really needed more than the max 3,500rpm to put the boat on top of the chop, and took a pretty good beating getting across the lake to a calmer cove.

I ran the boat for a while varying the rpm as suggested, and just getting a feel for how she'd react to various commands. It's going to take some getting used to, but I like it already. I can tell the 70hp Yammy is barely breathing at 3,500rpm, and wanted to GO. But I kept my head and didn't air it out. I wanted so bad to see how she'll top out.

Throughout the afternoon I had her in the chop, and in sets of moderate rollers, conditions I would have taken a real beating to fish in my small glass boat. The Xpress took it all in stride. Much nicer to operate the boat standing up so I can absorb the movement with my legs. I would get a little wet if I got angled into the waves just right, something that would happen on just about any boat that size.

As far as the center console vs the Bass Boat, there is no comparison. I am in heaven. I fish alone a LOT, in the evenings during the week, and I absolutely love being able to fish and run the boat at the same time. I caught my fish in under 5' of water, in waves being blown onto rocks, and haven't gotten the upgraded TM yet. So it was just the outboard today. It would have been a PITA to catch fish and run my old boat at the same time in the conditions I fished today. In this boat it's very easy.

I never had the engine off for more than a few minutes all afternoon. After the 3hr, 3,500rpm max, break-in, I took it for a run at 4,000rpm (the recommended max for the next 3hrs). It went from 19mph@3,500, to about 23-24mph@4,000 (gps speeds). I can tell this boat is going to run pretty good for what it is because it's still not fully up on plane and there's a lot of throttle left, plus trim.

I ran the engine for a total of 5.5hrs, ran all over the dam end of Tawakoni and used an estimated 3-4 gallons of fuel. The Yammy F70 is so quiet at idle that the water peeing out of the motor is louder than the motor itself; a world of difference from my old choppy idling 4cyl 2stroke 85hp Johnny. I only hope the Yammy will give me 30+ yrs of faithful service, like the Johnny has given.

I am very happy with the boat so far. It's going to take some getting used to in choppy conditions. It's just loud banging against the water. But I think getting to use more throttle combined with the proper trim will smooth the ride out a bit. It just slams into the rollers, nothing is going to help that. It's a Jon boat.

Fishing with a partner will be the other thing to re-learn. With the bass boat their places in the boat are clearly defined. While this boat is bigger, I can see where a routine will need to be established with a passenger along in order to avoid dancing around with one another in the boat. Small stuff.

I'm hoping to get this dang break-in completed on the next trip out so I can open her up and see how she really runs. I also made some good mental notes about how I want to accessorize her to get the most out of the usable space.

Sorry about the long post, but I figure y'all can relate to my enthusiasm.