Catch More With CatchX
Background…
Bait boats still to this day divide opinions but are certainly more of a mainstream tool than they were 20 years ago and with the way the world has moved over this period of time technology in hobbies or sports is at the forefront leading the way and forever evolving.
With the growing interest of remote-controlled boats, the CatchX is a new breed of bait boat to the carp angling scene. Part of the Rippton family, the Catch X offers a wide range of specifications from 4 hoppers right through to fully functional GPS all housed within the two-tone submarine grey looking shell.
A Closer Look…
Now the CatchX is described as having the perfect hydrodynamic shape which when travelling up to 800m on massive windswept pits or reservoirs at home or abroad will ensure stability even in the worst of conditions. Coupling the streamlined shape of the boat with the powerful propulsion system this will cut through the strongest of winds and waves to reach your desired destination.
First impressions of the CatchX are positive. It looks like it is certainly up to the job and the large central handle with rubberised grip makes it easy to carry without fuss, especially when the 4 hoppers can accommodate up to a whopping 3kg’s of loose feed! Enough to feed the hungriest of carp! With the aid of the rear fitted hook release you can even drop a rig amongst or just off your loose feed with just a single pull of the remote trigger. An edge in anyone’s angling as many big fish often get caught feeding away from the shoal.
Lifting and looking around the boat you can instantly tell that it is well sealed with many screw points on the underside keeping everything watertight. After all, driving the CatchX out up to 800m range in which in the right conditions the boat will achieve you wouldn’t want to witness a scene from the Titanic and wave goodbye to your investment!
Power…
The CatchX is also powered by 2 tidy shrink-wrapped finished Li-lon 18650/8000mAh batteries and have a short simple section of male to female wiring and connectors that neatly slot into a compartment, either side of the CatchX balancing the load. With tight fitting lids held firmly in place with screws, you can be sure of no water ingress giving you complete reassurance these batteries will not get damaged through use. Another great thing about these batteries is that with the included charging adapter they can be charged internally or externally from the boat whichever you prefer and have a run time of between 2.5-3.5hrs once fully charged. A glowing green light on the charger will indicate when they are good to go!
Offering such a large hopper size and depositing up to 3kg’s of bait out at any distance requires some serious effort in itself but this is made light work by the 2 High Performance Industrial Engines powering the propellers. The propulsion system is sat inside guarded frames stopping any debris from damaging those all-important pieces of the CatchX.
Operation…
Once both the CatchX and remote are charged, between 4-6hrs for the CatchX and 2-3hrs for the remote a simple calibration can be performed on the CatchX in which video instructions can be found on the Rippton YouTube Channel. Once complete the pairing of the CatchX and remote is effortless with a simple press of the power button on both and after a series of beeps and vibrations both are ready to operate.
The single-handed joystick type remote is mimicked with the submarine grey colour and a mobile phone mount is fixed and included. This spring-loaded rubber gripped mount comes in handy when either pairing the Catch X with the Rippton App or your sonar device such as my Deeper Chirp+ 2, yes that’s right, the CatchX does also come as standard with a screw in flexible sonar arm. Having the remote and your phone screen in one place keeps everything minimal, less fuss and better for navigation. The joystick feels very precise and the boat is responsive to every change in direction. The remote also has a 1” screen with easy to operate user friendly software that displays many important pieces of information such as the direction the boat is travelling, the distance from the remote to the boat, the speed of the boat, satellites, signal strength and much more. The screen also becomes a task interface menu when the joystick is pressed allowing you to manually set-up hoppers and drop points. Another built-in feature of the CatchX is the ability to set a Home Point which in case of an emergency it will automatically tell the CatchX to perform the return to home route.
As I mentioned the CatchX has 4 hoppers each offering the ability to be used independently. The hoppers are operated by the remote with a press of the corresponding hopper button and by the simple confirmation press of the enter button your bait will be dropped down into the depths. The hoppers can be used however you wish depending on how much bait you want to drop across 1,2,3 or 4 spots. Each hopper can accommodate 0.75kgs of loose feed totalling 3kgs, great for if you want to use several different types of loose feed in your mix.
Under the hours of darkness your destination can be illuminated by a simple double press of the “On” button located on the remote. The front of the CatchX has a strip of white LED light and a strip of red LED light at the rear that will allow full night-time manoeuvrability and can be seen easily seen at long distances ensuring perfect precision every single drop.
Get Downloading…
Rippton have also developed a mobile phone app that can be paired with the CatchX via its own WiFi signal. As you can imagine the app offers a similar functionality to the remote but in a much more detailed format. Obviously this is data and satellite reliant but there is so much more functionality within the app that you can explore such as setting up and saving mission management, returning to pre-saved historical spots, CatchX operation, show off your recent catches and much more. If you are fishing massive expanses of water, then I feel utilising the GPS and the Rippton mobile phone app would be much more beneficial than the manual mode with the remote
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In Safe Hands…
One last thing worth mentioning is that Rippton offer a 12-month guarantee and local After Sales Support from the date of your purchase. The guarantee covers any defects arising from the drive unit and the electrical/electronic parts of the boat, faulty materials, or workmanship. Obviously, this would not cover batteries, damage arising from improper use, breakage, or normal wear of the boat or associated equipment. The guarantee period for the rechargeable battery and the rechargeable LIION batteries is 6 months from the date of purchase. Having that re-assurance that if your prized possession became faulty you could have this replaced or repaired is one thing you wouldn’t have to worry about.
Why Is Catch X Different?
You may wonder what is different to this boat amongst many others on the market at in a similar price range and some of these features I have already touched on in the above but with my own research I have found that very few boats offer a hopper load of 3kg’s, have a less run time on a full charge and several have the larger remotes meaning both hands are required to operate. The massive 800m distance the CatchX can reach is nearly 4 times as much as some boats and along with the built in GPS which comes as standard built into the boats software this is often a extra requirement which comes at a cost. The Catch X is the complete off the shelf package with everything you would need to cover all scenarios and more. No need to upgrade, add any extras what you pay is what you get and away you go! Besides, different from traditional bait boats, CatchX can help users to save fishing spots on the Rippton app without the amount limitation. You can always find your historical spots without worrying about losing them. You can also write notes on the spots and talk with global anglers on the app. In this sense, CatchX is more than a cold tool, it shortens the distance between anglers around the world.
