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Posts: 117
| I haven't ridden in a lot of fiberglass multi species boats, but when I was boat shopping over the last couple of years I was able to ride in a whole bunch of different bass boats. Coming from my lund, I was extremely surprised at how well some of the bass boats handle pretty big water, and I realized how much of a difference there is between individual hulls. Someone above said it, not all bass boats are created equal--a ranger, a phoenix, a basscat and a champion are COMPLETELY different boats. I really believe that while you can certainly make some generalizations, you really can't make a blanket statement without really qualifying it. I had my heart set on a glass multispcies boat, and I was so pleasantly surprised by the ride of some of the bass boats I rode in that I ended up buying one. Mine is a Basscat Pantera, which is a lighter weight 19' boat that I can tow with my 4-cylinder Tacoma, and while I would agree that it doesnt fish as well in really big waves (over legit 3') the and it's not as good at crawling up and over 3+' waves, in the normal everyday stuff I encounter on Champlain, say 2' and under, the ride is as smooth if not smoother than the center-console bay boats that are typical here up to about 50+ mph and it's worlds softer of a ride than my 17' Lund was. Above this speed and it skips a bit much on 2'+ waves and in 3'ers is liable to stuff a big wave if you arent on your game and are going too fast, although a hull like a Champion is smoother yet and better in big water in many ways. In smooth water my boat is REALLY fun and I can cover a ton of ground in no time at all--My personal rule is that I just dont run more than 15 minutes, so it pretty significantly extends my range, which I enjoy even more than I thought I would at times and gives me greater flexibility for where I launch in certain wind directions if that's a bit further from where I want to fish. Fishing out of it is awesome. I dont troll, ever, and I go out in the boat to get away from people, so the small interior layout isnt an issue for me. Others mileage obviously varies, but it'll suffice to say that I was very pleasantly surprised by how well my smaller bassboat handles pretty big water, so dont sell them short or form an opinion based only on one boat. The two things I would advise based on the smaller boats I was looking for is that:
1) if you are looking at a certain size multispecies boat, add 2' to the length to get an "equivalent size" in a bassboat layout, i.e. If you are looking at 18' multispecies boats then a 20' bassboat will feel like it's about the same size. To a large degree this offsets the cost-savings in a bass boat, but I think it gives you a better apples-to-apples comparison between the two types of boats.
2) nothing wrong with bass boats, but there is something wrong with bass boat PEOPLE. The tournament fishing mentality seems to be prevalent--i.e. don't let the engine warm up, gun it to wide-open, then come to a sudden stop and dont let the engine cool before shutting it down...do this as a rule for a couple years and then wonder why the powerhead goes. DO NOT buy a used bassboat without doing a leakdown test and having a competent mechanic check out the lower unit and other engine stuff. I tested 4 different engines before I found the first one that didnt have compromised compression from mistreatment. This is good advise for any engine I think, but bass boats seem especially prone to this by virtue of the way many of these folks fish. It doesnt mean they're all like that, but my experience is that a significant % are so buyer beware. Also have the propshaft runout tested, if its bent out of spec its likely the gears are worn and may need premature replacement.
Edited by Macintosh 3/22/2016 8:38 PM
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