Posts: 433
Location: Cedarburg, Wisconsin | I've fished out of an assortment of boats over the years, 14' aluminum with becnch seats, 16' glass with tiller and swivel seats, 18.' aluminum deep V, bass boats, and multi species glass boats. Each one did something better than all the rest of them and to get the best boat for you, first you need to know how you fish the majority of the time. Every time you want to cover more options you compromise what the boat does best to make it more versatile. The more compromises you have the less happy you'll be most of the time.
Right now my most important fishing is on Canadian shield lakes. Bigger water, but not open water so I don't expect to be out fishing in big waves most of the time. Traveling 15 miles from the dock to get to where you want to fish is nothing out of the ordinary. Covering 50 to 60 miles in a day is very possible. I looked at lots of boats when I decided to get out of my deep V I used for salmon/trout in addition to muskies. The one that stood out far far above the rest was the one I run now, a Tuffy X-190. Huge front deck, you can sit tight to the kicker for trolling with the tiller, and it loafs along at 45 mph at the most economical cruising rpms. It fit what I was looking to accomplish exactly. I fished 14 days on the same amount of gas I had used in 10 days with the deep V, only I covered more water and trolled longer too. It's easier for me to control with the bow mount as it doesn't catch the wind as much. It doesn't handle the rough water as well as the deep V did, but why have a boat that's great in conditions you rarely fish and only does OK at conditions you fish typically? That's the big selling point of a boat. How does it handle the conditions you fish in most of the time? |
