Looking for opinions on the best one man mobile setup regarding flip-over one man shacks.
I keep going round and round between Otter XT Hideout, Eskimo Wide 1, and Clam Kenai pro. Also eyeing an otter xover cottage, but worried about the weight.
Aside from the price differences, which is the best option for portability and usability for walking out and hole hopping?
Looking for opinions
Thanks
Tight lines
So ive narrowed down to either the XT hideout or the XT XOVER cottage. The only reason im considering the cottage is because I currently have a pro otter sled that i rig to a smitty sled. With that setup Ill have the sled, two folding chairs, heater, flasher, rod case, eskimo 949i, and auger. I figure the weight of the two chairs and eskimo is 60lbs by itself. So currently im used to pulling about 114lbs of gear on my smitty. I figure if I go with the cottage im pulling the same weight, but have increased room and the option to squeeze another person in if needed, not to mention my setup time will be cut in half. The XT would cut out some weight indeed, but limits my options. The sled sizes between the hideout and cottage do not vary much either, the hideout being 38x60 collapsed, and the cottage 34x54.
Im still pondering and plan to pull the trigger on something soon. Any experience/input on fishing with a cottage would be a great help.
Thanks again to all those who provided feedback.
Tight Lines
I have the Eskimo wide 1, awesome shanty. Tons of room, really warm, Seems well built, and I like the seat. Only cons is windows are a little low for checking tip ups, autos, etc. Other thing is I’m 5’11” and the interior height of it doesn’t bother me but taller people might not be as comfortable.
Laker117, get to a retailer that has them all on display so that you can compare them all side by side. The Eskimo Wide 1 Inferno I believe has the most amount of fishable space. It achieves this by using a spreader bar on the front bar giving you more floor space. No it is not the lightest 1 man house on the market, but a good part of that weight is coming from the swivel versa seat. The house is completely insulated. With grey interior, you can make the house as light or as dark as you wish. Retail on this house is $379, but you should be able to find it cheaper.
This one $300 for everything you see can be reached [email protected]
Fishnhunt did the same thing as I did. Picture yourself lifting or sliding whatever unit you choose into your vehicle by yourself and you start to see how heavy these things can get. I happened to look at a catalog that had the weights of the various sleds listed and went to the store and bought the lightest one.
I just pulled the trigger on the Otter XT hideout after a few months of debating. I was primarily between the hideout and the wide 1 inferno. Here's my .02:
-Are you really going to be using it for hole hopping? I debated a long time on this question because I am a 100% a run and gun type fisherman, 100+ holes is common and I typically plan to fish 3-4 different locations on a lake to find them. I knew that a shack was going to cut back on that no matter which one I went with. I initially was looking into the shappell fx100i and the frabill recon as I really believe there are the only two shacks that could be used for a run and gun technique because of their compact size and weight (there might be more out there, I'm just not familiar with them). The rest of them are too heavy and big to truly be mobile, IMO. I see frabill released a new 1 man this year that looks nice, I haven't heard good things about frabill though.
-I was surprised at the size of the hideout. I was considering the wide 1 inferno because its the biggest 1 man out there, but the hideout is more than enough for 2-3 holes, flasher and a heater which is all I need.
-Fabric on the hideout and wide 1 inferno seems pretty similar, I don't think you'd be disappointed in any of the flip over shack material wise though, they all seem pretty solid nowadays.
-I won't be using my shack until I can pull it with my ATV. I've gotten lazy since getting an ATV I guess, its doable but I used to pull my clam nanook by hand which isn't that much bigger than the hideout and I do not miss those days one bit. It isn't a shack that I would want to pull 100 yards to a new part of the basin multiple times a day once there is snow on the ice.
-I like that the poles don't need to be extended and folded up, the seat is very comfortable, I wish the windows were removable, the built in cup holders will come in handy.
All in all I think I'm going to be happy with the hideout but obviously it hasn't hit the hardwater yet. Keep us posted on what route you take, always nice to get some realtime feedback!
