I love my Fishhawk 1850 as it's very wide and very stable. I was also open to buying a lund or alumicraft as have heard great things about both of them. If I had the option, I would probably go with a tiller myself as the extra room and storage seems really nice to me. I also like the idea of having a 'command center' in the back of the boat and not having to move from console to back casting deck. Consoles are really nice for comfort (not having to hold onto the tiller handle and having windshield protection from rain or big waves), but I very rarely fish big waters anymore and don't run the big motor that much on thorn, campau, murray, etc.

I have a center-console and, though there are tradeoffs, the benefits are real. In addition to having ideal gunwales for muskie casting and figure-eight-ing, the improvement in visibility and safety while underway are terrific. I feel (and I believe that I am) far more secure standing up behind the helm and better able to identify logs, swimmers, rocks, waves, etc.

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Prior to this year, every boat I had ever owned was a river boat. I have rowed drift boats and rafts as well as ran jet drive river boats all over the country. I also used to work for a river boat company and have driven and fished out of a ton of different boat configurations as well as sold a ton of boats for that company and thus spent a lot of hours discussing with folks about their needs, preferences and their thoughts on the boat they ended up going with after they took possession of the boat.

I have always preferred tiller boats for a variety of reasons, for starters, I have never had a desire for a boat much over 18'. A tiller boat in that length has more useable space than a 20' boat with a console. Obviously space is a good thing for a slew of reasons. Tiller steer boats put you in direct contact with the throttle and steering, which when it comes to a jet drive outboard on a tight shallow river, it is a huge advantage.

Selling boats throughout Covid was a nightmare to say the least, lots of buyers, a serious lack of components to build boats for buyers which meant lots of phone calls from angry customers wanting their boats, not to mention a lack of employees to build the boats, I was just over it. After over 25 years of mostly river fishing and working in the boating industry off and on, I threw up my hands, got rid of my river boats and bought my first Deep V boat.

While composite or glass boats have some real advantages as far as hull design, etc… Good luck finding a Tiller Steer Deep V in the 18' range that is glass, more so I wanted something that was going to be available sometime sooner than later and would cost less than 40-50k fully equipped.

I really wanted a Lund Pro Guide 1875, but none were in stock within 300 miles that I liked, however there was a Lund Pro Guide 1775 in stock 10 miles from my house that I did like and I ended up buying. Initially I bought it with the ideology that in a year or two I would order an 1875 just the way I wanted it and sell the 1775. Now having owned this boat for a few months and having 75 days or so on the water with it, I don't think I will be going to an 1875. Lund revamped this 1775 model for the 2020 model year which is what I have, I do not know the exact specs of the previous versions, but they made it smaller "narrower" and thus allowed it to run well with a Command Thrust Mercury 60HP outboard. I was not very excited about the smaller motor, my last river boat was an 18'x54" flat bottom boat with a tiller steer 115/80 jet drive in comparison. KInda like Tim Allen, I like more horsepower lol That being said I have sold a TON of the Mercury 60/40 jet drives and spent a lot of hours running them and they are without a doubt the most powerful 60hp outboard on the market as well as super reliable. You can put a 75HP on the Pro Guide 1775, but it comes with a hundred pounds of extra weight as it's the same motor as the 115HP and 90HP outboards, just electronically detuned. A gain of probably only 10hp, but adding a 100 pounds to the extreme rear of the boat is probably a wash in terms of real World performance and obviously a big disadvantage in terms of shallow water fishing capabilities when not on step.

It does 31mph with a passenger no problem and about 32mph with just me in the boat. You can get about 26 MPH at half throttle cruising speed. Frankly, in Michigan there isn't really any "need" to go faster, I guess for Tournament fishing, but I have a good Friend who fishes the highest echelon of pro bass tours and on the waters I fish, I wouldn't catch anymore fish with his boat that does over 70mph than I would this one. I also use a fraction of the fuel a large outboard would.

I fish alone, a lot… being just a couple inches shy of 18' and in a very light weight package, this boat is super easy to put on/off the trailer, the Ulterra trolling motor makes launching crazy easy, just dump it, deploy, spot lock and go park the truck. I haven't tied this boat to the dock once for loading or unloading LOL.

Granted, going from flat bottom boats on bumpy rivers "even composite ones" to a Deep V of any kind is like comparing a Mack truck to a Corvette, but man is this boat smooth "and quiet despite being aluminum", I have driven quite a few Deep V's in my day and this boat is very impressive, been out on Lake Michigan a bunch with it and it's ability to push water/spray way off to the sides is pretty crazy, it handles anything I would ever want to fish even in a 20' boat, at some point you just reach a point where if you don't have a boat nearing the 30' mark, it's just too bumpy to have any fun while fishing. It's crazy stable, even in comparison to the flat bottom boats I am used to. I mostly fly fish so all my fishing is done standing and I have been out in some pretty windy conditions and fished in legit 2'rs or larger and it was fine. The winds shifted on me one day on Grand Traverse Bay and I had a long run into the wind that was rapidly building white capped waves the whole way back to the launch and I was amazed at how well it handled them, just ran full throttle and skipped along the tops of them.

What I like is I can fish a 50 acre lake with a crappy launch just fine or go out on bigger water just fine as well. It drafts a foot or less of water when not on step so I can even go fish a lot of sections of rivers too. Being a tiller, it's still very roomy inside, etc…

Anyway, nothing to gain by any of this, just been really impressed/happy with this boat. I really think it's the perfect "do it all" purely fishing boat for Michigan if there is such a thing. In a perfect World we would all have 10 boats and a huge heated garage to store them in, but I doubt I will ever reach that level of wealth lol

If you are considering a new boat, I strongly suggest getting one sooner than later, the average rise in cost in boats from 2021 to 2022 model years is 6% or more, some pontoon boat companies have raised the price of their boats as much as 29%! For the exact same boat, just built a year later.