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Posts: 16
| curious if anyone owns or has fished at some point in saltwater style skiffs etc for their muskie fishing? |
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Posts: 409
Location: Almond, WI | I've been in Jerry Sondag's Pathfinder a few times. The center console is nice, no carpeting is an advantage too, and there is an outrigger setup he uses for trolling. Now the bow does ride high in the water, making a 9' rod and a max thrust trolling motor a must, and there is an open bilge which can result in some slick/icy floor at the back. Jerry loves his, with his saltwater experience it is well suited to his fishing style. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | my first was a boston whaler then i had the ranger 200C (now owned by esoxfly) … you can find lots of cool pics of that boat on the site here if you do some searching with the search function. this subject has been discussed with some nice pictures.
upside - 1. big water the best of the best not even a question handling big water vs. anything else, 2. skinny water no problem and 3. visibility - loved mine
downsides - 1. dry lockable storage (on mine) and 2. when you're tired it's nice to sit down to drive home
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Posts: 1000
| Fished a Pathfinder with Steve Genson this summer. I absolutely loved it. No carpeting, very open layout, and very stable. I can see how it could be a problem in icy conditions, but I was really, really impressed with that rig.
Looks great on a trailer with 10 rods sticking up from the console too |
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Posts: 409
Location: Almond, WI | tolle141 - 9/29/2014 1:37 PM
Looks great on a trailer with 10 rods sticking up from the console too
Until you go under a low bridge...  |
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Posts: 299
| Skiff's, bay boats and center consoles are all different boats. I've been and fished out of all of them. Skiff's are made for shallow water sight fishing where you can use the poling platform to spot fish in skinny water. Center consoles are more offshore type boat made for big water trolling/jigging and deeper fishing. Bay boats in my opinion are the perfect fishing boat for most inshore species, Great Lakes, big water, shallow water. It's really the perfect Muskie platform too. I'm soon looking to get rid of my 620 and get into a bay boat for freshwater/saltwater fishing. It's a whole other world crushing through waves standing up!! You get the right bay boat and it'll handle big water with ease as well as get you into some really skinny water. No need for a skiff up here unless your sight fishing and poling along. |
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Posts: 19
| Could not be happier with my 2007 22' shearwater , sets low in the water for figure eights and set up high on the leaning post to spot debris while moving . It attracts a lot attention every time I take it out and get asked if it for sale all the time. |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | Here's the 200C Sled was talking about. She's mine now and I don't think I'll ever let her go! He really summed it up well. This boat excels in big water and does well in skinny stuff too. No seats, but I don't troll so I'm always standing. But in heavy seas, I really prefer to stand and even in a "normal" type boat it feels weird for me to sit down and drive or ride now.
She is a tug though and someday when I'm done moving every few years, I'd like to get another, smaller flats boat for smaller water and smaller boat ramps.
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 200 in AK.jpg (78KB - 215 downloads)
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Location: Green Bay, WI | I had a Key West 1900CC (center console) that we purchased in 2004, when we lived in Florida. Loved it down there, and brought it back to Wisconsin in 2006. I trolled for muskies a couple times with it in 2006, but the boss wanted a full windshield here...so we got a Lund Tyee. I will say it was not the easiest rig to troll from, but I got the hang of it. It was nice to have the built-in rod holders though--I will say that. That unit did not have carpet either which was very nice in the summer, but would definitely be treacherous come late October or into November. But as for big water, it would have no problem I'm sure. I didn't try it on Green Bay in anything over 1-2 feet, because I wasn't that much into trolling out there at that point. But there were guys with them in Florida that would routinely run them 20-50 miles offshore.
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Posts: 299
| I've fished out of Jeff's (Esoxfly) 200CC. It's fantastic and handles water amazing. It's all you want in a fishing boat. I look back now and kinda regret buying my 620 when I could have bought a bay boat for big water. |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | Why not just throw some rubber mats down for the cold season? |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Never tried that, but I suppose it might have worked. I'd almost think that any water in the floor would "lubricate" under the mats, and they'd slide. A guy could also have a fiberglass shop spray a textured fiberglass product onto the floor as well. That might be a better way to go.
The Key West I had had a "self-bailing" cockpit, with scuppers in the back. When you put any significant amount of weight in the back, a little water would make it in. So there was always a little water that would slosh around...maybe a cup or two at most. When you'd run, it would all flow out. Down in the salt water where it was warm, it was a non-issue. Here in Green Bay, in November, it might get to be a PITA.
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Posts: 1247
Location: Walker, MN | I just sold my center console and I kind of miss it. I went to a full windshield boat and it feels cramped. The center console may be the ultimate multi-species boat imo. My problem is that I couldn't find one with the right depth and freeboard to handle big water yet be compatible with a 60" shaft bow mount (and sold within a hundred miles or so). I would have bought a Skeeter 200SX but It was a bit too shallow for the bigger water that I fish. The Pathfinders and Rangers are nice boats but I wanted to deal locally.
I always thought that my center console was an awesome trolling boat... |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | How did you rig the rod holders? I just used the built-in ones in the gunwale areas, but never really did too much trolling with the rig, so I can't say that was the optimal way to go...
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Posts: 1247
Location: Walker, MN | I had 6 Folbe's mounted on the rails.
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Very nice. I had short rails on my CC boat, and was intending to install Down East holders on them. Sold the boat before I got that far though.
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | I did try the rubber mat thing in the winter, but at the end of the day just quit using them because it never got bad enough that it warranted using them and I just got lazy and quit using them. And the scuppers and drains in the back never did freeze and that was through December on LSC with frozen water on the lake. The only time the boat built any ice was in a heavy freezing rain, it would ice up.
My boat has rails on it and it came with rod holders on it from Sled. I took them off because I don't troll. But a guy could troll in my boat just fine, just no seats so you'd have to lean on the console. But nothing says you couldn't troll it. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI | Sled trolled ? GASP !!!
esoxfly - 10/7/2014 12:33 AM
My boat has rails on it and it came with rod holders on it from Sled. I took them off because I don't troll. But a guy could troll in my boat just fine, just no seats so you'd have to lean on the console. But nothing says you couldn't troll it. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | esoxfly - 10/7/2014 12:33 AM
I did try the rubber mat thing in the winter, but at the end of the day just quit using them because it never got bad enough that it warranted using them and I just got lazy and quit using them. And the scuppers and drains in the back never did freeze and that was through December on LSC with frozen water on the lake. The only time the boat built any ice was in a heavy freezing rain, it would ice up.
My boat has rails on it and it came with rod holders on it from Sled. I took them off because I don't troll. But a guy could troll in my boat just fine, just no seats so you'd have to lean on the console. But nothing says you couldn't troll it.
Yup, sure. That's pretty much what the offshore guys do anyway...stand and troll. Sure there's the little seat in front of the console and I know the bigger Ranger boats have that seat in the stern, but most of the guys I've seen offshore are standing and trolling. I never saw many Ranger boats in Florida by the way, other than a few bass boats here and there. Yamaha engines were HUGE down there, and they apparently bought up several boat companies, so everyone running a Yamaha motor seemed to be driving one of the Yamaha-owned hulls for the most part.
I never thought of the scuppers actually freezing though--that's a good thought. I am surprised that yours didn't freeze, but I suppose there was enough water moving through them that they wouldn't freeze. I didn't fish at all with my CC boat here in the fall, so that wasn't even an issue. It wasn't until the next year (2007) that I got the Tyee and started fall trolling.
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | Never had a serious problem freezing. Between water constantly splashing through there and I always kinda wondered about how much heat that hull would hold. I stored it in a heated garage and Ranger hulls being solid with foam, I always wondered how long it would take the hull to cold soak and become ambient air temp. Either way, it never froze up.
Can't wait to get a garage again...it's just temporary.... |
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