In general, when I write a story for the What's Hot Freshwater or Hot Saltwater columns in the Fish Sniffer, I'm writing about one of my hard-core, dawn to dusk, fish until you're exhausted fishing adventures. This article is a little different.

Now before anyone gets the wrong idea, I did go fishing last week. After all, a week without fishing is like a birthday party without cake!

On Wednesday, August 20 I headed down to Lake Pardee with Fish Sniffer Advertising Director Paul Kneeland, Project Kokanee President Gary Coe, North River Marine of California's General Manager Tim Jacobs and Joe Aksamit of Joe Fish Guide Service.

While our plan for the day called for us to nail a bunch of fat feisty kokanee salmon, that wasn't our central focus. The real purpose of the trip was to get out on the water and compare the performance of a couple very different North River Seahawk boats.

Joe arrived at the lake at around 6 a.m and got his boat and gear ready for action. Paul and I arrived right on time at a.m. Gary Coe, the leading kokanee tournament money winner over the past six years and all around good guy, took a leisurely approach to the day's festivities and didn't roll up to the launch ramp until 8:15!

Gary takes his fishing very seriously, so I seldom pass up an opportunity to pick on him. After I gave Gary the requisite ribbing about being late, Gary, Tim and Paul dropped Gary's Seahawk into the water, I jumped into Joe's North River and we all got down to the serious business of catching some sockeyes. Paul, Tim and I certainly know our way around a fishing rod, Gary would be in the Kokanee Fishing Hall of Fame if there were such a thing and Joe is a professional Mother Lode kokanee and trout guide with 8 years of competitive kokanee fishing experience under his belt.

With these credentials, you'd think that catching a mess of fish would be a slam-dunk. Unfortunately, the kokanee didn't know how skilled the five of us are at catching them! The kokanee played hard to get and we struggled big time. Sure, we picked up the occasional fish, but we had to work exceptionally hard for them. By the end of the day, Joe and I had put 3 salmon to 15 inches in the box while Gary, Tim and Paul boated 4 quality landlocked sockeyes and 1 fat rainbow.

All things considered, perhaps the slow bite was for the best since it gave us plenty of time for boat comparisons and taking photos. To the casual observer, Gary's and Joe's North Rivers look very similar. Joe's boat is a Seahawk with a 22-foot long hull, a 102-inch transom and 35-inch gunwales. Gary's Seahawk has the same exact dimensions as Joe's and the same 250 horse Yamaha outboard, but that is where the similarities end.

Joe's boat is basically a standard issue Seahawk with its 250 horse Yamaha motor mounted on an offshore bracket and a fold down canvas top, if you can really call one of the West Coast's most popular heavy aluminum boats "standard issue."

"The Seahawk is North River's workhorse big water boat," related Tim. "It is our do all boat that is at home on reservoirs, rivers, the bay and the ocean. The standard Seahawk, like Joe's with its offshore plate is actually 24 feet long, while Gary's boat is a true 22 feet long."

"We call Gary's boat 'the splash well transom' model," Tim disclosed. "It was a custom boat for 2008, but it will be a standard production model for 2009. Gary is one of the best lake trollers on the West Coast, so it is only natural that he would be the guy we'd turn to when it came to designing the ultimate lake trolling boat."

Tim said the offshore bracket on the standard Seahawk is designed to give the boat great stability and performance in really challenging water situations, such as when trolling ocean waters for salmon and other fish.

"The problem with the bracket is that you have to work around it when you are fighting a fish. Gary, being a competitive kokanee fisherman, can't afford having any obstructions when it comes to landing fish, so that was a large part of his motivation in eliminating the offshore plate," said Tim.

"On paper, Joe's Seahawk should outperform Gary's boat in terms of speed and maneuverability as a result of the leverage the bracket provides, but as you saw out on the water Cal, when we were running both boats at full throttle side by side, there was very little difference in speed or ride between the standard and modified version of the Seahawk. Clearly both models provide great performance," added Tim.

"All Seahawks are fine boats, but I feel my modified Seahawk is the ultimate platform for the troller," said Gary. "The transom mount means the motor is out of the way. Not only does it make it easy to land fish, but it also gives you lots of room to fish multiple rods from multiple downriggers. It is also equipped with the latest Volvo-Penta retractable trim tabs. The state of the art non-obtrusive trim tabs along with the elimination of the offshore bracket, means that there is an absolute minimum of gear in the water to snag your line on."

"I'm a kokanee guy, but my modified Seahawk is a great boat for multiple applications. It is fast, with a top speed of about 50 mph. The rigid canvas top can stay up while towing. The 80 gallon fuel tank gives you the range to go after albacore if you have the desire and the inside of the boat is wide open with ample fishing space and tons of locked storage spaces and that is just scratching the surface in terms of the features my boat offers," boasted Gary.

"I love my Seahawk!" exclaimed Joe. "It handles great, it's fast and it can take on big rough water. Some guys feel the offshore bracket is in the way when fighting fish. It is something you get accustomed to and you learn to work around it. I don't even notice it anymore."

"Having said that, every boat owner is always thinking about their next boat and my next boat may well be a modified Seahawk like Gary's. Realistically, North River makes some of the finest heavy aluminum boats on the water, so I don't think you could go wrong with either model. I'm sure I'll be out on the water with Gary and I'll get to check out the performance of his boat first hand. Heck he might even let me drive it and then I'll really have a feel for the difference in performance between my standard Seahawk and Gary's custom model," quipped Joe.