Caracal questions from a soon-to-be owner...

[Somata]

Welp, it looks like I'm upgrading to a Caracal. Found a good deal on a 2019 and am meeting up next weekend to tow it home. Coming out of a 2011 Sabre FTD, which has been an awesome boat, I'd just like a bit more room and the ability to get on to some bigger water.

Having said all of that, I have a few questions as I prep for its arrival:

1. What tips does anyone have about running it? It has the 225 Mercury 4 stroke and a hydraulic jackplate. The JP will be the biggest adjustment as I've only had manual. I've watched some videos and I know that seat time will be the best teacher, but any tips and advice to get me up and running would be appreciated.

2. How are people approaching tackle storage? Right now, I'm mostly using 3600 size boxes, not sure if they'll work in the caracal or just get swallowed up.


I'll probably think of more, but those are the two immediate things on my mind...thanks!

[clguide9x]

I have a new Caracal, been running it for about a month almost daily.

I got mine with a hydraulic jackplate also, though I mainly just wanted it for getting out of jams in shallow water. My best holeshot experience so far has been launching with the jackplate between 3-4 and I can pretty much leave it there and I have good water pressure/RPM settings up to 70. I have been lowering it a bit in the rough stuff just for more bite, other than that I try not fiddle with it too much. Mine came with a 23P Fury btw.

Tackle storage - I can honestly ask the same question, I'm still figuring it out myself. Currently I have 3700s (mostly hard baits/terminal) in the aft-most center box, and 3600s, swimbaits and soft plastics in the bow-most center box (there's a little ledge that fits 3600s nicely in this box). In both of these boxes I'm trying to find some trays to put on top of everything to take advantage of the vertical space. I don't want to "stack" my boxes because they slide around. Let me know what you come up with

[Bkp2609]

If you can drive a sabre you can drive the caracal with ease. The caracal has so much storage you will have to buy more baits to fill them up. Put all your tools,spare prop, troller prop, jumper cables where the 2stroke oil tank used to be in the back. You will love the caracal.

[06 SB]

I went from a Sabre to a Caracal myself. You feel like you are moving into an aircraft carrier. It may only be 9" longer but it is waaaay wider. Driving is not all that different. I have a 22P Fury 4 and it runs great. I need to send it to Ronnie to get it tuned to make it perfect. Most think they need more from all the years running 2 strokes.

Lay out is different but is awesome. I have the center rod locker with only casting rods. My spinning rigs go in the port rod locker but sit on all my plastics that are in bins. Emergency equipment, extra vests, towels, TP etc are all in the starboard locker. Hard baits, are mostly in the rear tackle storage compartment on the bow, but a few are in the forward. I keep my raingear, spinnerbait box and buzz baits in the front tackle compartment also. Day box is just that. In the back, I keep my life vest, extra fishing line and spare parts in the compartment behind my seat. My tools go under the passenger seat to offset my weight. I use the "oil tank" compartment for my weigh bag, spare bilge pump and other things that can get wet. The storage under the passenger rod locker is all my extra crank boats, hooks, plastics etc. Under the drivers seat are the dock ropes, Ultrex remote and a gloves.

YOU WILL LOVE the Caracal. Mine has the rear twin 26g tanks. Still plenty of room back there.

[Louie]

I would really recommend a 4 blade prop on that boat for the lift, its a wider boat and I personally felt like it was one of the harder boats to eek out the last bit of speed. With that being said the boat runs upper 60's with ease. I had a hydraulic plate on mine with a belly fuel tank config. Boat had great hole shot with a fury 4 and didn't matter a whole lot on that hull where it was placed. I usually ran the boat around with the plate most of the way down and didn't adjust it much less for idling shallow water, or in very rough water you can walk that plate down and really get the boat to plop on 2' waves and it rides well. Tackle storage lol plan on buying lots more stuff, you'll literally lose rods/ boxes etc in that boat and accidentally buy doubles of things that's what I did .. .

Your biggest transition between those two hulls will be loading/ unloading the boat, run that plate up half way and punch the hot foot... The trailer can be tricky too with water depth but mostly just keep the front bunks out enough to get your nose over that roller.

[SethRstein]

Loading it on the trailer is a big adjustment. What I find is on most ramps, the outer bunk boards you only want about an inch on the board exposed. On steeper ramps you want more exposed. There is definitely a sweet spot. Mine is a 2015 with the belly tank and a 2 stroke optimax and I love it. I have no complaints about it. I run a Fury 4 24 pitch and If I push it I can get right at 70. but I rarely run that fast. It has tons of storage and currently I have a mix of 3700 and 3600 boxes, Casting rods in the center rod locker, spinning rods in the port rod locker, life jackets and rain suits in the starboard rod locker, and soft plastics in the storage box behind the port passenger seat. It rides really good in rough water but is a bit to handle in confused water (During tournament blast offs). I absolutely love the layout of the boxes and because of this I cant move on to a different boat.

[Somata]

This is all really helpful…thank you! Really looking forward to the upgrade.

[drainplug]

I believe that is 19” longer than Sabre, not 9” (probably just a typo above)

[06 SB]

I believe that is 19” longer than Sabre, not 9” (probably just a typo above)

YES! Thank you for the correction.

[Hollada]

Send me a PM with your mobile and I’ll text you pics of how I load mine. I run 2-3 days a week on St clair. Boat handles it great. Trailer sucks - especially when you can’t powerload like the we can’t on the Michigan ramps.