Our boat no sooner reached the end of the Niagara River at Lake Ontario when it became quickly evident we were in over our heads. The strong meeting of the river and lake currents plus the winds converging at “The Bar,” waves built high enough that we were falling in and out of troughs and losing the horizon. To make things worse, nothing was quite one directional, the choppy waters were discombobulated and awkward to navigate. Our boat Captain struggled to find the right timing to eventually spin his boat 180 degrees between waves and get the Hell out of there back to some safety inside the river.

Meanwhile our friend Patty, in his 16 foot Lund Classic tiller braved this angry sea, keeping two of his guests hostage, nauseated, and at times vomiting over the gunnels. Jigging for lake trout just after Christmas, icy flows, cold blows, cheeks a rose and stuffy nose, no one else would manage out there except him. Come end of the day when all other boats in our group would meet at the launch, his guests came ashore green and wobbly legged. I’d ask him if he was not scared out there? His answer, “they make boats to float, only people sink ‘em, and I got all the control in the world with the tiller.”

Patty is a natural on the water and just the same as an angler. His boat, his confidence, I remember vividly how it all greatly impressed me. That first introduction to the Lund Classic tiller convinced me this was the ultimate fishing boat, suited for anything. Small enough to launch into a pool, big enough to play on the Great Lakes, and always marvelous handling and control. Patty and I would eventually start fishing and tripping together more, to water like Lake Ontario and camping on Lake Nipigon, and he’d prove to me time and again that his Lund was the right boat for the job.

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And so it was a decade ago I bought my first Lund. Having owned a large freighter canoe powered by a 20hp motor, tillers and boating were not totally foreign to me. The Classic was no longer available in 2010, albeit a few marinas had some left to sell. Instead, the boat with the same specs at the time was the Rebel XL, a 16 foot tiller which could take up to a 60hp motor. I was over the moon when signing the papers and picking up that boat to bring home, and for the next eight years it would serve me amazingly on waters of every size all across Ontario.

NorWest Freighter Canoe 20

Lund Rebel XL 16

Lund Rebel XL 16

Lund Rebel XL 16

Lund Rebel XL 16

Lund Rebel XL 16

During the years dozens and dozens of different anglers, friends and family have come aboard “The Bomber,” my Lund Rebel. For what could be considered a small boat, being a tiller so much more room is freed up within that it fishes bigger than it is. Easy comfort for three, space enough for four, no one has ever felt crammed in, and the only obstacles that could ever get in any one’s way would be another person who could simply move aside. All that dance floor came with such a space benefit that any consoled boat of the same size would lose. A trip for two or three for week long fish and camp outs, the Rebel and now my newer ProGuide have always given enough space to pack everyone up with all our gear and gas. Again, the tiller like my old freighter canoe, like a barge, ready to load all essentials for our outings. When the boat was empty all that space helped with the fishing too. Less clutter and with ease to roam more safely.

Lund ProGuide 18

Lund ProGuide 18

Lund Rebel XL 16

Lund ProGuide 18

Lund ProGuide 18

But the tiller itself, meaning the motor, I also found to be an advantage. Die hard console guys might argue, some could say with todays electric motors and so on that anything a tiller can do, so can it be done in a consoled boat, but my answer to them would be that they’re fooling themselves. That their console “comforts” have softened them. Besides back-trolling which is an obvious tiller trademark, there have been countless times I have considered my Lund or any tiller, the best tool for the job. Friends aboard have been witness.

We were on a trip up north and wanted to go from one lake into another through a shallow, rocky chute. Our friends in their consoled boat, had fun challenged my buddy and I to a day long brook trout derby. The three of them had about 80 years of experience fishing on the lake, it was my fourth trip and my buddy’s first. But we knew the waters we were on had been pounded and the fishing slow. Talking with the other guys we became curious about navigating through the chute, crossing this lake and entering into another river and lake section. Their boat, same size as ours had never attempted the feat, and all of them cautioned us not to try it ourselves, especially with the lower than usual water levels for the season. Stubborn and wanting to both explore and win bragging rights, when we reached the chute we were forced to fall into fast current sweeping us down river. My MinnKota would not have the power to hold us at any point, I don’t think any trolling motor would? Nose into the chute without first being able to see rocks and shoals could prove costly. My answer to this, was to drop in backwards, prop forward, shallow drive, standing over the motor, watching for danger below and picking my lines slowly. When a worry approached, I had the chance to goose the throttle, move back up current, reposition and try again. It could have proved fatal to the lower end if my motor as to hit anything, but the same could have been said smashing the hull if having boated through normally. My friend in the boat was impressed. We managed our way through flawlessly and for the remainder had a trail back and forth we knew we could trust. By the end of our week we were zipping up and down through that chute and surely a consoled boat could do the same. Except that their first run would have to have been done differently, the tiller again could pick it’s way through much more easily. We won the derby that day.

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Among several specific reasons, brook trout fishing was certainly in mind when choosing to own a tiller. Oftentimes for trolling I am very shallow along rocky shorelines, when the days are windy it can be a constant battle not to run ashore and into the rocks. The tiller takes all the control and handles any maneuvering with ease. Having only once tripped for speckled trout with friends in a consoled boat, I remember a number of times the frustration for one driver having to constantly work the wheel and throttle to correct during rougher conditions. While he was tested to do this, the boat also required a specific speed entirely necessary for tempting trout to bite as well, and his struggles often pushed us off that perfect pace. A passenger with the knowledge of how to best catch the fish, I had to frequently urge the driver closer to the shallows and often remind him of boat speed. Temper tantrums and quitting early for the day were at times his result, and in hindsight, I get that! Either he, his boat, or both weren’t up to the challenge and upon returning the following year, he and his two new boat mates managed just two trout for their entire week. A friend and I on the same water caught 44 with the tiller advantage. It takes precise control and that is easy on a nice, calm day, but add any turbulence and the tillers quick maneuverability in and out of trouble keep it best in the fish zone.

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Fall musky fishing is another passion. Big water trolling on the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers, the tiller excels at working weed lines, structures and depth changes. On the water many days each season, I often watch most of the other consoled boats keep their troll lines off the edge within deeper waters. Makes sense, they’re running lures to depth and don’t want to get hung up on weeds or bottom. I thank those guys for leaving the deep weed edges, the clumps below, the tough stuff and any fish they miss, to me. The tiller plays clean as easily as any consoled boat but it plays well in the real dirty too. Certain times of year I’m almost always trolling with one rod in hand, and one hand on the tiller. Working the lure’s depth curves, setting it to troll where exactly it needs to be in the water column, a diving bait can be manipulated up and over rocks and weeds, twitched and paused, and even detected if not running properly the second that happens. An obstacle approaching fast, a hard turn, slowed throttle, and the rod tip raised high usually means for a crisis averted, all of this is done in unison, instantly. The consoled driver with his rod in a holder to his backside, not a chance! The tiller allows more lure time in the water, working structures on the troll both horizontally and vertically, and with variations you won’t have while standard trolling with the rod in a holder. Ever see a guy driving a consoled boat pulling a big, hard diving muskie crank with his rod in hand? What about running a surface lure in the propwash and being able to tease that lure while driving. No, neither happens! At 3 to 6 mph the torque can be enough that after an 8 to 10 hour day of doing it myself, butt of the rod braced under an arm holding on tight to the stick, I’m in need of shoulder surgery. But it’s worth it for muskies and it works! Local guides in the same places running many rods to my one, there are days I’m picking up the fringe fish that they’re not wanting or able to work for in their consoled boat. It’s a tillers advantage to have the ability to fish all the same waters as they do, but effectively have more options as well. Heck, even the casters on small, shallow spots aren’t safe from the tiller, a tiller can blow tight donuts and figure 8’s driving over their same waters.

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I have often gone on long trips and used the tiller much like an electric trolling motor. Idling for hours and hours isn’t ideal for carbon build up but end of the day taking a fast run can burn things out. Without any way while camping to charge up an electric motor, their have been trips the MinnKota has long gone through its batteries and I am left with just the tiller for the week. No problem! The extended tiller handles nowadays, the room to stand at the rear of the boat, buddies can have the deck up front to cast from, I’ll take the back porch and control to myself. Over the years, I’ve learned to steer with my knees when need be, freeing up both hands for the rod and reel. I had also built for the Rebel XL and now the new and bigger ProGuide, a sturdier and wider flooring option, with some extra add ons too…

Fitted carpeted ply insert for added durability and surface area plus splash guard attachment.

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Hours of casting, moving about in the bays, and even sometimes playing in current areas without ever having to anchor, the tiller is a second electric trolling motor that will just never quit, at least not until the gas gauge says so. And times too when others have been aboard and we’re out trolling for the day for say walleye, lake trout, specks or muskies, I have always appreciated that my eyes are forward to my friends and the direction we’re going. In between us all are the rods in their holders, at an arms length for anyone to grab, and the day is spent socializing while facing one another. Everything I need to be able to see and do, is right there in front of me.

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And talk about space and storage!?! Naahhh, that should be obvious. But hey, what about a dozen pics of happy walleye anglers aboard the Lund over the years…

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Why could Patty stay out on the Niagara Bar while others were turning around and heading back to safe waters? Because of confidence and control. He said it then, and over the years I have learned the same. When out that day he and his friends were vertically jigging for lake trout while getting blown around, bobbing in big surf and one fella was barfing his guts out overboard. I remember Patty actually caught the most fish that time too, all the while steering the boat and keeping them safely afloat. An experienced hand on the tiller, the motor quite innately becomes an extension of your arm, maybe just connecting right on through the nerves up to your cranium..? OK, maybe not that far, but as with experience comes the conditioning for angler and boat to act as one, instantaneously if need be, and in big waters having this quick ability to navigate troublesome waves is a benefit. So much so, that Patty could continue to actually fish with his other hand all day, jigging lake trout with his friends and keeping lure presentations vertical in wild waves. Try working a steering wheel, the throttle and jigging lakers all day in a 16 foot boat while riding in 6 to 8 footers. The tiller won that day because everyone else in a consoled boat forfeited. Over the years keeping vertical over lakers in choppy waters, there have been many a days the trolling motor just doesn’t have the juice or even quick response to play fish right and fast enough for a perfect lure drop. With a tiller, no problem! A summer spent guiding on the best jig bite lake trout fishery on the planet, Great Slave Lake, tiller control for vertical presentations was paramount to angler success.

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Not all bodies of water are created equal. Mystery lakes with limited to no hydrographic data for our modern day navigation can pose greater safety concerns. While up in northwestern Ontario on some big, remote and uncharted waters there have been days when the quick response of the tiller has potentially saved my life. Three different occasions, unmarked shoals that have come quickly to the surface from out of depths 20 to even 90 feet, have been narrowly avoided while traveling on plane. The tillers instant stop-ability, while trimming up and turning sharply to avoid sudden hazards is unequaled. Control to throttle in wrist, turn with the arm and trim at the thumb are all and always already found in hand. I remember one such shoal did rise out of thirty feet, and I came off plane at 30mph to just nose into a rocky shallow at a drift speed. The skeg momentarily tick-tick-ticked bottom while moving forward but on a trim upwards. Just high enough for it and the prop to clear, reverse came hard and fast in skinny water to protect the hull from damaging rocks only feet from the bow. That was the closest call I have ever had. At full speed hitting that shoal would have proven deadly, and being that I was twenty miles offshore, alone and isolated, survival beyond accident surely could have been difficult. In all honesty, this time and a few other close calls have all been nothing but a scare, with never even a loosened rivet, because all control for quick avoidance was there in hand, the reflexes in sync with the tiller.

Four of us in the boat casting, dancing around, moving and shaking all over, unimpeded, it was a glorious evening while my wife and our friends doubled and even tripled up repeatedly on big northerns. Sometimes two and even three fish at a time were hooked up, then coming in the boat having their picture taken. Anglers were leaning over the gunnels to release, tools, nets and rods getting passed around… Had someone recorded this and played it back later it would have appeared to be chaos. The fish were biting so fast and often; bigger pike difficult to tame, that all in the Lund became lost in the excitement. Figuring ahead of time the bite was gonna rock, I had left all but my own seat out of the boat, allowing a completely clear platform for everyone to move freely. For the first hour of this fun I didn’t even take a cast. The Lund ProGuide newer to me, when not helping the girls with their fish, taking pictures and maintaining boat control, sitting in my chair away from flying hooks I watched on as the other’s enjoyed the tillers advantage. And it was then too, that I was reminded of a time when in the smaller Rebel we had a camera man, the film and fishing gear and a T.V. host who’s job it was to fly fish pike. I remember Bill commented then, how the room and set-up was just perfect for fly fishing. “You could have a barn dance in this boat,” another gas station passerby admiring the Lund once said.

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So in review of the tiller advantages… Easy and quick motor control for safe, timely and effective fishing and boating. Overall added space for angler comfort and cargo. Finesse fishing techniques such as vertical jigging, back trolling, horizontal and vertical contour trolling and, any rod-in-hand while the other hand-is-on-motor fishing.

A decade experience in either the Lund Rebel XL 16′ with a 60hp tiller, and now the past two years in Lund’s ProGuide 18′ with the 90hp, this just can’t be stressed enough! It’s about control, control, control… and as already said, it’s about even more! For good reasons Lund markets its big tiller options with “the control freaks” in mind, for any tiller truly is a versatile boat adding proven advantages to fishing… And one has to admit, there is something quite catchy about ’em too!!?

Lund Rebel XL 16 (left) & Lund ProGuide 18 (right)

Lund ProGuide 18

Lund ProGuide 18

Lund ProGuide 18
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