Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | ran out of bass boats for 7 years, all out of 2 different Ranger platforms ( R83 and 185vs models)
Upsides
- great for figure 8's being low to the water
- great for casting and netting/releasing of fish
- you can generally get your boat into less then desirable shallow accesses that some Deep V's will struggle to get into
- lower profile boat generally will catch a lot less wind when casting
Downsides
- your boat will become an "obstacle course" as I called it. You can put a lot of lures in the front storage compartments, but there simply is not a great place for a big Musky net. Wherever you choose to put it will get in the way. You will do a lot of climbing over rods/ nets/ leftover tackle/etc...
- can be pretty cramped under the consoles when you are driving the boat. Very little leg room and getting in and out of position can get a little tiresome. Not an issue for a younger guy but the older you get the harder it becomes.
- you can and will get wet on big enough water. Can get real bad when driving and even semi bad when idling around at the right angle
- I have found the bench seats to be a bad match for musky gear. There simply comes a time when somehow a hook finds it's way into the seats. A couple small holes paired up with constantly you or your passengers stepping on the seats to move around the boat and you can have a pretty ugly looking bench with holes and tears.
In summary, once you get into position of one guy casting up front and back everything is just fine. It's just the moving around the boat and sometimes traveling around that gets very tiresome. |
