Alpakas are an amazing tool for the AK adventurer—been using them for races/personal use since 2001. Sheri is an amazing person.
My racing years are pretty much done but I still use my gen 1-2 packraft occasionally for the backcountry travel trips but hands down take it in plane for hunt trips and have used it every year—even if it’s just to portage the animal 80 yards across a beaver pond.
The abuse it can withstand is incredible....
BUT, unlike a zodiac type boat, one hole deflates the entire boat if a lure snags it etc—I have thousands of river miles in my boat and have only slit the floor—took a few hours in the field to patch....the air chamber does have a super slow leak in it now but nothing big enough for me to deal with...
my older boat is unlike the new ones in that it does not have the pointed bow/stern and I opt for no spray skirt—just gets in the way for general purpose uses but my old boat packs super tight and is very light-approx 5lbs—when rolled up it will fit at the bottom of a 2000 cui pack (as small or smaller than a 20 degree sleeping bag in compression bag)
i now out of laziness bring an air mattress battery operated pump to inflate (works too for my massive exped sleeping pad) and the other 3 packrafts we use on the hunt....Her inflatable bag works great though-I’m just over it
I think for just fishing on a lake I wouldn’t spend that kind of money and maybe just buy a cheaper type of boat
—unsure of the name but you can build your own packraft type of boat with zippered pockets etc for approx $400–you have to do all ironing/assembly etc....if I get the name of the company I’ll edit the post.