The Outcast Commander fits the adage: Jack of all trades, master of none. It’s suitable for rivers and lake fishing, but it’s not the best option for either.

When launched on lakes, the Commander’s rocked design makes it a bit squirrely and the 10-foot length makes it more susceptible to wind, but the open-floor design in the front half of the boat allows for the use of fins for propulsion and steering corrections when not using the oars. 

On rivers, that same step-through design makes stopping to fish easy—just standup and body-anchor the boat in the shallows near a hole you want to cast to. The rockered design helps with maneuverability on the river. The boat is nimble and quick to respond when moving through currents. That said, some taller testers found that the seat position they had to use put their weight so far back in the boat that the bow tended to ride too high for ideal boat control in faster water.  

The Commander uses Outcast’s two-layer construction, putting a urethane air bladder inside an PVC-coated 500-denier shell. This creates a nice, durable boat, but if the boat does develop a leak—even a small pinhole from a sharp branch or thorn—the two-layer design makes in-field patching problematic.