Buying first boat

[Sam Martin]

So im in the market to make my first boat purchase! Right now im looking into a bay boat 22-24Ft mainly due to how versatile it is since i fish here at lakes in north texas and occasionally will go to the florida or texas coast and do some bay and offshore fishing. Any advantages that the bay boat would have over a bass boat on the lake? Any good brands to look at? Im looking to keep the cost around 60k and want to buy it new. Also why are fiberglass bass boats so d**n expensive?!?!  thanks for the help!

[fishnkamp]

First, the fiberglass boats are sooo darn expensive mostly because they are hand laid one at a time. Believe me, i have been in two bass boat factories. It is hand laid by some very talented workers who I still believe were stoned from the smell of fiberglass and resin. Maybe that is why they are so talented!! LOL   I know I was before I left the property.  A lot of people use the "Flats" style center consoles and some use bigger more traditional center consoles for a mix of  species like walleye and stripers on some of the bigger deeper southern reservoirs.  They lend themselves to multi species fishing well. Even can be setup for crappie fishing, but the larger ones you can trust out on offshore fishing will make it almost impossible to bass fish any shallow grass beds in my opinion.  Do some research on some Tn, Alabama, and other states in the south, that have professional guides for stripers and such. See what brands and models they use. I will try to do a little and give you some ideas. Most offshore guys run 22 to 30 footers with 2 or 3 outboards and you could never fish the places I fished this April when I spent 10 days on Dale Hollow Lake.

[fishnkamp]

Take a look at something like the 23 foot Carolina Skiff Ultra Elite or perhaps a better option is a Bay Ranger 2350 it might do it all for you.  I see it can go in as little water as 13 inches so it sounds like your answer. Go not know what it is going for. The one I saw had a 300 Evinrude Etec or some saltwater version of it.

[Sam Martin]

7 hours ago, fishnkamp said:

First, the fiberglass boats are sooo darn expensive mostly because they are hand laid one at a time. Believe me, i have been in two bass boat factories. It is hand laid by some very talented workers who I still believe were stoned from the smell of fiberglass and resin. Maybe that is why they are so talented!! LOL   I know I was before I left the property.  A lot of people use the "Flats" style center consoles and some use bigger more traditional center consoles for a mix of  species like walleye and stripers on some of the bigger deeper southern reservoirs.  They lend themselves to multi species fishing well. Even can be setup for crappie fishing, but the larger ones you can trust out on offshore fishing will make it almost impossible to bass fish any shallow grass beds in my opinion.  Do some research on some Tn, Alabama, and other states in the south, that have professional guides for stripers and such. See what brands and models they use. I will try to do a little and give you some ideas. Most offshore guys run 22 to 30 footers with 2 or 3 outboards and you could never fish the places I fished this April when I spent 10 days on Dale Hollow Lake.

Lol poor guys are d**n near stoned every day! but i wasnt thinking of an actual off shore boat with multiple engines. i should have been more detailed. I want a single engine platform and something that has the ablitly to go shallow with out sacrificing the ability to head into bays and a mile or so offshore. The manufactures so far that i like are the blue wave purebay2400 and the epic 23sc. mainly because those are dealers that are close to me

 

 

[fishnkamp]

Nice that is sorta what the Ranger boat looks like.  This one pictured is pretty.