“I got the box and opened it and was blown away with the quality of this boat, and the accessories you get for the price, I set it all up which was very easy to do and checked everything was working as it should, it did not disappoint, the boat is bigger than expected and this is a plus point for any oversea trips, so far I can only give this a massive”
“Having never owned a bait boat before i was a little bit in the dark of what to go for. With technology taking over these days, having a GPS function seemed like a good idea for future proofing on a purchase. When seeing some of the prices of other GPS units on the market i was a little put off. That was until the Catch X bait boat flashed up on my Instagram feed. Instantly it looked like not only functionality had been covered but a futuristic appearance made it stand out from the rest. Instantly i was on You Tube looking at reviews, which unfortunately because its a new product we’re very limited. I then turned to Rippton to get any questions i had answered. Frank@Rippton was a pleasure to deal with and answered all of my queries and the communication from order point to delivery was spot on. Once the bait bait arrived you could tell with the quality of the packaging that the quality of the bait boat would not be compromised. The bait boat was very easy to setup with some very straight forward instructions. The Rippton App is easy to use and connection to the bait boat is a doddle. Overall i am chuffed to bits with the purchase and would highly recommend the Catch X. Not sure if Rippton are planning on bringing out a carry bag for the bait boat, but for anyone looking for a decent bag the Trakker NXG Medium bait boat bag fits like a glove and offers great protection. A spare pair of batteries would also be handy when on them longer sessions.”
“Ordering my catch x bait boat I was very sceptical as I knew very little about the boat or the company. But I must say I’m extremely impressed the customer services was 2nd to none and when the boat arrived I was very impressed it’s extremely user-friendly and the GPRS System does exactly what it says and the app is really easy to use. For the money this boat is the best pound for pound boat out there absolutely blows it’s rival market competition straight out the lake.”
“What a great boat! Had it a for a couple of sessions now and I like it more each time. For a boat, it is robust, speedy and looks slick in the water. Having four hoppers is really handy.
The controller being one handed is excellent and the dashboard that tells you distance from the bank and which direction the boat is facing really helps, and that’s before using the GPS.
The GPS is good with a home point which can be accessed anytime and 4 other waypoints plus auto return etc when the battery gets low. One negative is on the controller, once you upload the waypoints you want as a task, it always goes along that set route unless you access the app and select one specific waypoint, so there is a work around.
Not had any problems so far and boat looks well made. If you buy extra batteries, buy two as it takes two. Boat bag really should come with the product as well.
For the money and in comparison to other boats on the market, I’d give this 8/10 and put it up there with some of the more expensive ones.
Customer service has been great with queries welcomed and so in general a happy chap and recommend”
“What can I say apart from the boat is brilliant for the money you pay GPS autopilot. Return to home. Its great for getting your rigs back on the same spot in darkness of night and return to home makes it easy to set your bobbins while the boat makes its way back on its own then hovers over the home point till you're ready to bring it in. And the one handed remote is a god send. You can have your rod in one had and remote in the other so you can feather the line off the reel. You can also put your rigs in the hopper with tubing on the line without any problems. The boat is really fast too. All in all its a bargain for what you pay compared to other boats that can cost twice as much.”
“Bought this boat to compare it with similar priced units.
Overall its not a bad boat. It drives well, the controller is alright and can carry a lot of bait.
However... I haven't been able to test the gps, which is this boats main selling point due to bad interference where I fish.
The hoppers are poorly designed with very narrow and slim trapdoors. This means a heavy spod mix will not drop from them, unless you water it down. A solid bag will not fit through either. A dry mix of pellet and boilie works perfectly.
As for reaching the two front hoppers, I hope you've got a long thin spoon, or your gonna make a mess! Then there's the residual mess left in the boat due to the way the trapdoors open. Just poor design. Laying your rig inside the hoppers is easy enough, just pull it through underneath. You will definitely have to protect your hook with a bit of foam to prevent it from snagging on the poorly designed hopper doors though.
Then there's the hopper guard/splash shield which has very sharp plastic edges. I cut myself pretty bad when I was washing all my mix off it! It also severely limits the opening space into the hoppers. Again, poor design.
The handset has a lot of issues too. It's very easy to double click the direction pad as you're steering the boat, this changes it into hopper mode and you can no longer steer! Push up on the d pad and you're back in control but it's scary to loose control and an unnecessary function on the handset.
When you choose to drop the hoppers it's easy enough, just press the button for the hopper then hold enter.
However!...the hopper layout is counter intuitive and so I've put numbers on the hoppers so I know which is which. When you press the hopper number on the handset there's a tiny green light that back-lights it. Great at night, useless in the day unless you shield it and squint! Why can't it vibrate once so you know you've selected it? Or even show up on that pretty useless screen?
The lights are fantastic and bright and easy to turn on and off with a double click of the power button on the handset.
The included deeper mount is the best one I've used
Finally there's the batteries.
The handset is fine, if you need to recharge it you can via a power bank and usb-c. The boat has lasted several hours on the water, running all 3 of my friends and my own rigs out several times a weekend with additional baiting runs on top.
However!.... Battery life for the handset is clearly displayed on the little screen on the handset. Battery life for the boat is unnecessarily complicated. It indicates on the handset when fully charged that the boat is at 12v, each time you use the boat the voltage drops a little. No where does it tell you when it might run out!? Unless you're a mathematician or an electrician you've just got to carry on until it stops. Thankfully, when it decides its had enough, it will come back to the handset. This, as I eventually learnt, was at around 10v. Which is great, it lasted ages, and now I know, its fine. But still, maybe somewhere in the manual? Or how about just a normal battery indicator like 99% of everything!!??
So overall its not a bad boat, just not a great one. But with a few tweeks it could be a great one. I look forward to V2!”
“Bought this boat to compare it with similar priced units.
Overall its not a bad boat. It drives well, the controller is alright and can carry a lot of bait.
However... I haven't been able to test the gps, which is this boats main selling point due to bad interference where I fish.
The hoppers are poorly designed with very narrow and slim trapdoors. This means a heavy spod mix will not drop from them, unless you water it down. A solid bag will not fit through either. A dry mix of pellet and boilie works perfectly.
As for reaching the two front hoppers, I hope you've got a long thin spoon, or your gonna make a mess! Then there's the residual mess left in the boat due to the way the trapdoors open. Just poor design. Laying your rig inside the hoppers is easy enough, just pull it through underneath. You will definitely have to protect your hook with a bit of foam to prevent it from snagging on the poorly designed hopper doors though.
Then there's the hopper guard/splash shield which has very sharp plastic edges. I cut myself pretty bad when I was washing all my mix off it! It also severely limits the opening space into the hoppers. Again, poor design.
The handset has a lot of issues too. It's very easy to double click the direction pad as you're steering the boat, this changes it into hopper mode and you can no longer steer! Push up on the d pad and you're back in control but it's scary to loose control and an unnecessary function on the handset.
When you choose to drop the hoppers it's easy enough, just press the button for the hopper then hold enter.
However!...the hopper layout is counter intuitive and so I've put numbers on the hoppers so I know which is which. When you press the hopper number on the handset there's a tiny green light that back-lights it. Great at night, useless in the day unless you shield it and squint! Why can't it vibrate once so you know you've selected it? Or even show up on that pretty useless screen?
The lights are fantastic and bright and easy to turn on and off with a double click of the power button on the handset.
The included deeper mount is the best one I've used yet!
Finally there's the batteries.
The handset is fine, if you need to recharge it you can via a power bank and usb-c. The boat has lasted several hours on the water, running all 3 of my friends and my own rigs out several times a weekend with additional baiting runs on top.
However!.... Battery life for the handset is clearly displayed on the little screen on the handset. Battery life for the boat is unnecessarily complicated. It indicates on the handset when fully charged that the boat is at 12v, each time you use the boat the voltage drops a little. No where does it tell you when it might run out!? Unless you're a mathematician or an electrician you've just got to carry on until it stops. Thankfully, when it decides its had enough, it will come back to the handset. This, as I eventually learnt, was at around 10v. Which is great, it lasted ages, and now I know, its fine. But still, maybe somewhere in the manual? Or how about just a normal battery indicator like 99% of everything!!??
So overall its not a bad boat, just not a great one. But with a few tweeks it could be a great one. I look forward to V2!”
