Choosing the Shelter
I knew I wanted this shelter to fish solo. But I didn't like any of the one man flips that were typically only 35 or so inches wide. Units like the Clam
Scout, Legend, Kenai, and X100, Eskimo's
Wide 1 Series, and Otter's
Hideout were all too small for me. Their tubs won't hold the amount of gear I bring out. Their fishable area won't allow for my electronics, and they all have a front door so you have to either flip them up to get out or trip over you're electronics. Basically, they just don't work for me. The only thing they have going for them is their weight...but I have a workaround for that.
Anyways, below are the stats for various one man shelters I made last Spring when I first became interested in a new project.
So crossing all the one man flip shelters off my list left me with the smaller two man units. There's an old saying that you should size your flip shelters one man more than you will actually need (2 man for a single person, 3 man for two), and I agree wholeheartedly with this. So starting with the dimensions on my old Yukon TC as a reference, I researched all of the offerings from Otter, Clam, and Eskimo.
Wanting to keep the weight down as I knew I would be hand bombing the shelter a lot, I quickly narrowed my choice to three shelters:
I started off almost assuming that I would get the Otter. But Otters are notoriously heavy because of their tubs. And to be honest, I think the other manufacturers are catching up to them. I started digging deeper and liked the Nanook. It's almost 25lbs lighter than the Cabin and has more headroom and fishable area. I've seen them in person though and they have *really* short tubs...I was worried stuff might fall out of it.
The last one I took a hard look at is the one I eventually went with...the Eskimo Eskape 2400. On paper it looked like a contender, with the most fishable area of the three and the largest footprint overall, the most headroom, and the widest tub to hold more gear (width over length works better for my gear). The only thing hanging me up on it was the weight...lighter than the Otter but still considerably heavier than the Nanook. But reading through lots of forums in the US, it became apparent that a lot of people don't use the seat that comes with their shelter to save weight. They'll sit on a bucket or bring a folding chair. Considering the big steel bench the Eskimo comes with, I was pretty sure it would easily be the lightest if I omitted it. Once I made that decision, there wasn't anything left to debate. The Eskimo seemed to suit me better in pretty much every regard.
There was one last detail that confirmed my decision...price. The Otter was going to have to come from
CMX Outdoors in Swift Current, at a price of around $1,600 delivered. The Clam I could pick up in Edmonton at
TFH for $1,100. The Eskimo just happened to go on sale at
Cabela's for $900 right as I was ready to buy. Sold!