Hi Schiff
Do you have the Assault XX or The previous Assault? I am trying to decide between the two.
Thanks
New to the forum from Maine.
I have the Assault...not the XX.
I think I may have gotten the XX if I knew how much I would have liked it. I plan on taking my new dog on some trips and doing some overnight river trips, so the XX would give me some extra room for stuff. But, I plan to add a few D rings up front to add a platform to store camping stuff...not sure what I will make the platform out of yet. Maybe just a netting or heavy plastic.
When I was doing my searching and reading reviews of various boats of this type, I saw posts about the customer service at NFO. This almost had me worried until I noticed the same people posting over and over about the same thing...always a friend. Not saying the issue in this thread doesn't have merit, but when added up, all the posts I read were about only a couple people's experiences and not a trend or reoccurring issue with quality or customer service. I got the impression that someone had an axe to grind.
I have been in customer service all my life and know you can't please everyone and when someone tells their story, it is always how they see it and not always what really happened. I can't imagine they would still be in business if their service was less than not notch. This is too small of a niche product with reviews all over the web. I equate it to lets say St Croix had a reputation for rods breaking...they would be gone. And if some broke and they refused to to help...they would be gone. There wouldn't be a big debate about it with rumors.
Someone asked about durability...I float the Delaware, Susquehanna and Lehigh rivers. Last year they were all low and did a lot of rock and gravel bouncing, scraping and dragging. I have seen no issues at all. I was surprised at the quality of the material when I saw one first hand. I was not expecting to see how heavy duty it really was.
Lastly the seat is inflatable and not a wood plank. You can adjust it to fit your comfort as opposed to adding cushions to the wood.
These are the things that I considered when I bought mine. I can't see why you would not enjoy the WM if you got one, but when I bought my kayak and my canoe, I picked what I considered the best design for me. Same with the Kick-Boat. You may have different criteria that you want in a boat.
I say if this type of boat fits your needs, get either one of them and get out on the water, as fishing from one is just fun.
CW
