Don't know if these have been discussed here or not but I know we're all probably familiar with Xpress boats. I've fished out of their bay boats several times and found them to be great boats and probably the best made aluminum boats. And I've always wondered why somebody didn't make an aluminum poling skiff and I was given several reasons why not- generally they had to do with sound, weight, and the difficulty of forming the aluminum into the needed hull design.

I don't know if these will be worth a **** but given all the oysters here in Texas I think they're worth checking out.

Oysters hate fiberglass.

Finn, do you have the link to the 10k boat you posted a while back?

That is a sharp boat, the one express I have fished out of was a nice boat.

I don't have a clue which skiff you're talking about. Sorry.

It wasn't the Soloskiff he's asking about - but another one I can't remember the name. Let me check, it was featured somewhere, skiff life or somewhere.

Speaking of - does anyone else follow SkiffLife on FB and see that nice snook Brandie caught yesterday?? I'd say bye bye snook Hellooooo Brandie.

Guy on 2cool has been trying to sell a 16' El pescador, beautiful boat.

The Sandpiper

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It wasn't the Soloskiff he's asking about - but another one I can't remember the name. Let me check, it was featured somewhere, skiff life or somewhere.

Speaking of - does anyone else follow SkiffLife on FB and see that nice snook Brandie caught yesterday?? I'd say bye bye snook Hellooooo Brandie.

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rule 1 ?

Ive seen a number of g3 and express boats with poling platforms and I think the allure of poling skiffs is catching on more and more so this seems like a natural product evolution.

I'm curious since this is a specialty hull how much express will charge. There are now more and more inexpensive fiberglass options out there.

Ive always thought of how effective poling for bass would be. Seems like you could get up in weed beds that would normally choke a trolling motor or in creeks that would bottom out a basd boat

FB linky no work.

I love my 18ft Xpress. Had it going on 7 years now (bought it 5 years old) and it has been tough as nails.

I would absolutely take a look at this, especially if it is substantially lighter than comparable fiberglass models.

I love not having to worry about banging my boat like fiberglass, worrying about oyster reefs, and even the ability to get it unstuck a bit easier due to the lighter weight. You could even get away with a bigger boat possibly, and still be able to pole.

Obviously, the trade off not having as smooth a ride in rough water and getting blown around in the wind, but you give that up for pretty much any skiff you can pole as is.

By the way, make one of those in camo and put a mud motor tiller on the back, take out the center console and throw in a layout blind and you would have a pretty darn sweet duck killing machine and poling skiff for chasing redfish in the flats. This would be perfect in Louisiana.

Do you have any specs on it? Cost, Length, weight, HP rating, etc?

I've never liked boats that require the riders to sit down while moving. Kills your back when you hit the rough stuff. I know those boats aren't made to handle anything rough, but eventually you will encounter it. Not convinced the advantages of that low profile console are worth it

When you have 40-50' of fly line in the air trying to grab onto anything it can - you want everything as low profile as possible.

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When you have 40-50' of fly line in the air trying to grab onto anything it can - you want everything as low profile as possible.

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Which is why my modified craft with a tiller and no center console would be awesome!

Here you go, Centerpole

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Which is why my modified craft with a tiller and no center console would be awesome!

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Yes, it would be. When I found my skiff I had overlooked several NICE tiller steer skiffs for a couple reasons - First, I have no experience with them and I really want CPjr to take the helm - I didn't want stick him back there wheeling something I didn't have any experience with myself. Secondly - I had more than one Fla angler tell me that getting up shallow with their tiller boats was a challenge at times because of the lean left, steer left, tiller handle is WAY right. You've done it and I'm sure there's nothing to it - but again, I didn't know and took their remarks under advisement. However, I agree that the design and setup is ideal for fly fishing.

To me that's where the Florida style flats skiff has its roots - fly fishing. That's why the consoles are low, so many are tiller steer, the side console, the sunken cockpit - it's all built around keeping making things as snag free as possible. Obviously more of them are finding homes with sight-fishing conventional tackle anglers and as they do many of the conveniences of traditional conventional tackle boats get introduced: the scooter top, elevated consoles, and things like that. Not that those aren't good fly fishing boats too - but they are variations or hybrids of two different boats.

When you look at a Hells Bay Whipray or even an HPX or Caimen (for examples) you have to KNOW those are purpose built boats to accomplish a goal - and the comfort of the angler is one of the lowest priorities when the layout is designed. So yes, sitting down on a paper this foam cushion with your knees in your chin, your teeth rattling around in your mouth, and being wet as sh*t - all in slight chop - is not very comfortable. However, that is what it takes to float in a coke can, pole straight while not being blown around in a breeze, turn on a fish, hold a position, and give the angler the opportunity to get his fly in the air and in front of the fish while spinning the boat as little as possible, and do it all with the stealth of a tomcat.

Good info CP. I have fly fished a bit out of my Xpress and definitely have snagged on my console a time or two in the wind.

As goofy as you would look flyfishing out of an aluminum skiff with a mud motor on the back, you could get back into places most would only dream of fishing and you could get back into any duck hole with the aluminum hull and not have to worry as much about scraping up the fiberglass. It also looks to be just big enough to hunt two hunters with a dog and a couple bags of decoys.

I really think this might hit the sweet spot for what I was looking for when I lived in NOLA, depending on the specs and the price. I just wonder how heavy that thing is. Too many of these skiffs are too heavy for poling effectively, and a basic jon boat style boat with a poling platform just welded on the back like you occasionally see is likely unstable and hard to track straight.

You don't have to leave Texas to catch trophy snook, BTW. Caught by a buddy...

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The Sandpiper

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Thats the on CP, thanks.

Sorry Finn, I thought it was you that posted it initially.

He did. But he has so many rolling around up there he forgot.

Jon boats are plenty stable to have a poling platform on the back but you're right about them tracking straight. They are heavier than a comparable fiberglass skiff but not so much that it makes a huge difference.

Regular jon boats with the squared off bow are best poled backwards, standing on the bow.

I don't have a single clue as to whether this Xpress skiff will be worth a crap or not but it's an interesting idea.

Finn, where did you get those pics and see the prototype? I couldn't find anything on their website. I'm definitely going to be watching the reviews closely on this. I would love to see the specs.

Why would an aluminum skiff of comparable size weigh more than a fiberglass boat? I would think the reduced weight (if you could get the weight distributed to track) would be a major advantage of an aluminum skiff. Maybe you have to add weight to achieve this?

I've never tried poling from a jon boat, but i can imagine that isn't alot of fun to try to keep straight.

Has anyone heard anything good or bad about these? They look pretty intriguing as well in a similar category of a more durable hull like the aluminum:

www.saltmarshskiffs.com/

I heard about it on the MicroSkiff forums and the pics were on the Xpress Facebook feed, not their website. It was sort of a teaser on FB.

As for weight, the aluminum skiffs are lighter than a comparable bay boat but the bare hull of an Xpress 16 v-hull jon is 550 pounds with a 57" beam. The fiberglass Ankona Shadowcast 16 is 16' long with a 55" beam and weighs 225 for the bare hull. I'd imagine that's simply a matter of how dense aluminum is vs. fiberglass & resin.

Those Salt Marsh skiffs are pretty cool. They're really new but there's a couple guys on MicroSkiff.com running those hulls and they really like them. IIRC the owner/designer of that company is Tom Mitzlaff who designed and owned the original Mitzi Skiffs which are great little boats.