Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | The only thing I'd add to the conversation is that bay boats aren't for everyone. Trollers come to mind. Most bay boats have only basic seating, if any at all. My boat doesn't seats, but I'm not a troller or a jigger. The other thing they don't have are full windshields as was mentioned earlier. Mine has a pretty tall windshield on the console, but zero protection on the sides, or for anyone not standing behind the wheel. Sometimes I feel bad when I get to a spot and I'm dry as a bone but my boat partner is soaked on their outboard side....sometimes. LOL But in the fall, it's no joke.
Another thing is length. Unless you're in a boat from a boatmaker that knows how to design and then build a hull that will carry hp and be quiet, you'll find yourself underpowered compared to a similar length bass or muskie boat. And when you do find that, you'll pay for it. Yellowfin and Pathfinder come to mind. A "proper" bay boat is chined to fish shallow and have minimal hull or chine slap and that's often at the expense of hp rating. You'll see alot of 22' bay boats with 150's or 200's on them.
And one last thing I'll mention is that all center consoles are not for muskie fishing. "Center console" only denotes...well...a console in the center. That could be a 36' boat with a coffin box and three outboards. And you can't just go by length. You'll see 20' center consoles with bow rails and bow pulpits...not at all ideal for muskie fishing. They're meant to be offshore boats; no trolling motors, super deep V's drawing 24"-30", waist deep gunwhales, etc. When shopping or looking for a "center console" for muskie fishing, look for a bay boat. Bay boats are meant to mount a trolling motor, meant to cast from, meant to run into 12" of water, and meant to trailer.
A guy here on LSC bought a 20' "center console" and didn't think it out beforehand; just made the impulse purchase and he got a center console alright, but he couldn't mount a trolling motor, couldn't revive or unhook a fish over the gunwhales and couldn't get the boat through less than 20" of water. He's got it down in Florida now jigging wrecks like it was designed for.
Edited by esoxfly 3/28/2011 12:53 AM
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