I'd look for a Maverick master angler.

Depending on where in the bay you may need a tunnel. I bought a Blue Wave with a standard hull and and can't get to a lot of places I'd like to fish. Anything under ~15" I can't run in. It does handle open water well and can get out to the close rigs or fish the jetties.

On the other hand, I've been extremely happy bass fishing on it. I'm surprised that the center console bass boat didn't take off. I prefer a lot of things about my CC to a bass boat for bass fishing.

I'd be careful what lakes you're fishing though. From what I understand most bass boats have a thicker/stronger hull for submerged structure that a CC isn't built to handle. This may not be 100% accurate so maybe someone from the gallery can elaborate.

20' is a minimum length I'd look for unless you frequently fish alone

One more thing. I'm running a 150 on a 22' boat and 95% of the time I'm running slower than WOT. A 225 would be nice for that other 5%, but, I'd rather have a better boat and better gas mileage for the extra cost of more horsepower.

I have a buddy that I fish with frequently that has a 21' Texas Fisherman with a 140 Suzuki. He has owned this boat for 5 years and has yet to have any problems with it. He takes it out probably once a week during this time of the year. He finally had to replace the batteries in it last month.

It is a good solid boat. It holds 70 gallons of fuel. I have been in some extremely rough water in it on Lake Lewisville and it feels solid as a rock. The Suzuki has never missed a beat. I have always been a Yamaha outboard guy but now I would consider a Suzuki for my next purchase.

Look at Xpress. I have been guiding on Lake Fork for the past five years in an Xpress HD20CC Center console. Prior to that I was on the Skeeter Pro Staff for 13 years and was running several different models of their 20 foot Bass boats.

I much prefer the center console. Easier to move around in, drier ride and standing up means less pounding on the lower back in rough water. Plus the aluminum takes the hard hits better than any fiberglass boat I have owned and you get more boat for the money.




http://www.xpressboats.com/view/145

I'd look at a GulfCoast. It's a tunnel hull, and with a jack-plate, you can handle the bays. It makes a great lake boat as well.

Get the following:

Center Consol
Tunnel Hull
Jackplate
Tilt & Trim
Four Blade Prop

Get rid of the following:

Windshield
VRO

I'm in the 15" or deeper crowd, though I have considered building a pocket and sponsons on my boat and getting an extra 3-4 inches at the cost of some speed.

I consider navigation skills to be underrated. There are a lot of places you can get to if you learn your boat well and know what the tides are and know the area. Sometimes all it takes is to stop, pole through some 6" water, and hit the channel on the other side and resume your trip.

I think bass boats are stuck on the side by side paradigm simply because they evolved with side consoles MANY years ago, and typically you had 2 fisherman, and as tournaments developed, they simply amped them up for speed. The amateurs simply copy what the pros do, and buy the same types of layouts without thinking about versatility (or the absolute beating your back takes when running through rough conditions while sitting vs standing). FWIW, the bass types aren't so often worried about reading the water as a bay boater is, as lakes are FAR more reliable about holding the same bottom features year after year.

Bass boats these days are 50-70mph boats, top.

Most bay boats are more like 30-50mph. Frankly, I'm not in a hurry.

Bay hulls are designed to take rougher conditions in open water, generally. That completely goes out the window if you get a cat type hull or a run-shallow hull, though. You'll get the beating of your life running a trans-cat across a shallow choppy bay.

All in all, there are several center console hulls out there by several mfgs that have pockets or partial tunnels that will run in maybe a foot of water, and still have an appropriate hull shape for running open water. There's no need to max out the HP of your boat unless you plan on taking half a dozen people with you regularly, but don't necessarily get an outboard near the low end of the recommended range, as you will have more issues getting on plane loaded, and you will be running closer to WOT more of the time, which negates your fuel savings. Best fuel/speed balance is usally around 2/3 max rpms, but your absolute best fuel efficiency is almost always something more like 6-8mph, not even on plane.

Used isn't a bad way to go. Just inspect it well.

I was going to suggest Xpress but 87Flyfisher beat me to it.

I've looked at them but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

87Flyfisher- what are your thoughts on the Xpress H20CC "Silver Series?"

[This message has been edited by Finn Maccumhail (edited 6/7/2011 10:19a).]

Finn,

Performance wise the H20CCSilver Series and the HD20CCF are going to be the same. The Silver Series cuts the price by not having stainless steel steering wheel, windshield rail, throttle, etc. and by having one tone paint. either canbe ordered with a raised transom, tunnel hull and sponsons for running really shallow.

Not that you would take a bass boat out in the bay, but Nitro makes a dual center-console boat. I saw it at Basspro in Grapevine.

http://www.nitro.com/boat/?boat=3339

[This message has been edited by bizzy (edited 6/7/2011 12:35p).]

bizzy, that's the boat I was referring to. When I saw that hit the market I thought Ranger, Skeeter, Stratos, etc would fall in line with each manufacturer bringing in some of the features that make a CC enjoyable as a bass boat.

Honest question: does having a 300 on a 20' boat help you get or stay up in really skinny water? Otherwise, I can't imagine why you'd need that much power unless you're a pro bass/red fisherman and 30 seconds might mean catching the winning fish in time or not.

FWIW, I run a 19' Key West with a 115 Evinrude out here in NW FL and have no complaints. I catch my fair share, don't burn a ton of fuel, and can get basically wherever I want. I know that the bathymetry is much shallower out there but as an outsider it seems that a bit too much emphasis is placed on running shallow/fast. I'm probably wrong, but enlighten me.

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Boykin, you're not wrong. I don't know if it's a carry-over from bass fishing or just because people can but there tends to be a large segment of the boating population to whom everything is about being able to get their Majek or whatever running on a plane in 4" of water- God help you if you have to stop in that depth, but that's another story.

From my experience in Florida you don't see guys burning flats or running tower boats inshore, what I've seen in Florida is guys using the towers near-shore to spot tarpon or other stuff feeding a long way off.

I don't know why it's that way, it just is. In my experience people don't wade the bays or inshore like they do here either.

For that matter you can ask why baitcasters are the standard here vs. spinning reels in Florida?

Personally, I like the thought behind something Flip Pallot supposedly said when he told some guy here in Texas, "I don't know why you guys spend all that money on a boat just to get out and get wet."

We have a 150 TRP on our 20' Shallow Sport.....If we are running in the flats we are going to be up on plane and running less than 2000rpm. If you go faster you simply can not see as well.

It might run fractionally shallower at a higher speed but I don't think it's very much.

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For that matter you can ask why baitcasters are the standard here vs. spinning reels in Florida?

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....not my standard.



[This message has been edited by sunchaser (edited 6/7/2011 10:12p).]

At least carry an extra fuel line!

Finn, you're right. I could fish the bays and bayous around here all day and count the wade fisherman I'd see on one hand. We've got a decent share of yakkers, but very few waders.

Sunchaser, you make a good point I hadn't thought of. Being able to cruise a little slower while still on a good plane would be beneficial for sight fishing here too.

And I prefer a baitcaster for everything but fishing with bait (ironically?).

Fishing Fools reminds me of kind of a funny story when I was working in a small bay on the east coast in 21' CC Carolina Skiff. The oil line on the rental boat was dry rotted and split on us in the middle of the bay. I took out the Bic pen from the hotel and pulled out the innards and spliced the line together with the tube portion of the pen. Worked like a champ.

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For that matter you can ask why baitcasters are the standard here vs. spinning reels in Florida?
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....not my standard.

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Well you're the exception now then aren't you? You can't deny that baitcasters far outnumber spinning rigs on the Texas coast. In fact, there's people on here and every other fishing board who turn up their noses at spinning rigs.

Well I've put enough butt whipings on all the devot bait casting bass fisherman that have ever gone with me causing them all to switched.

The bad news is I have to build them a rod as a result.

Well I've put enough butt whipings on all the devot bait casting bass fisherman that have ever gone with me causing them all to switched.

The bad news is I have to build them a rod as a result.

....that was worth repeating.

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Well played sir. When Mouth and I went fishing this past Sunday I had my baitcaster rigged up but didn't throw it once. I used a spinning rig in the surf and both fly-rod & spinning rig in the bay.

Both have their place and are tools with specific applications. One should learn to handle both well.

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I said I never had much use for one. Never said I didn't know how to use it.

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Indeed Quigley.