OK, How Will You Use It?
Written for Suncoast Fly Fishers' newsletter
Why people choose the boats they do is a mystery. A friend recently asked me for advice about a family boat he could take his wife and little kids out in, do some water skiing, and maybe learn to fish. I suggested that he look at a Grady White 20-23 foot bow-rider with a split windshield his wife could sit behind and not muss her hair, with bow seats forward for the kids, a nice captain’s chair for the helmsman and his wife, and a couple of back-to-back seats for friends. He bought an entirely different style of boat, because, “a buddy of mine has one and I kind of like it.” It won’t work well for him.
I was a boat dealer for years, and wasn’t surprised at all by his decision. Like most boaters, he won’t use it much anyway, and it'll hang on his davits and collect bird poop.
I’ve owned all sorts. My last power boat was a 25’ Contender, specially built with a windshield and captains’ chairs. Two 150 Yamahas ran it on 15 gallons per hour at around thirty miles an hour. I chose the windshield and good chairs after years of banging around and getting everyone wet in center console boats, being worn out from a day standing. There were V-berths below, used only for safety and tackle storage. It was a fine boat for Key West, where I lived, and for Bahamas bonefish trips. Frequently I took two 9’ kayaks along, and anchored off good-looking flats and paddled in. It was a versatile boat, on a good trailer, a tough boat on a bad Gulf Stream crossing, and a pleasure to operate from under the hard-top, out of the weather.
Gas was cheaper then, back in the late nineties. It was $5.00 per gallon in Crystal River last week at a marina. I paid around $60,000 for it, and figured I’d done ok when I sold it four years later for $30,000.
At a recent fly fishing gathering at Crystal River there were specialized flats skiffs on display that run over $50,000. I noticed that most of the attendees were older guys, like me, with questionable balance and bad knees, who have no business up on a poling platform, and I wondered who’s buying fancy skiffs like that these days. I owned three poling skiffs years ago, and learned why they call ‘em that...because someone’s gotta be up there pushing the boat around on the flats, and the pusher isn’t the fisher. Poling’s fun, but it ain’t fishing, and it’s a real pain to have to jump down and get your fly rod going if you’re by yourself fishing, which I often was. And, I knew a young would-be guide in Key West who got caught in a storm in Boca Grande channel--home to monster hammerheads-- having run all the way to the Marquesas for permit fishing. His 16’ skiff filled with water in heavy seas, yet somehow didn’t turn turtle, and after a cold and terrifying night he and his girlfriend and a pal were rescued by the Coast Guard. He packed his stuff and drove to Atlanta, where he still lives. Now he doesn’t even put his pasta in salt water.
My current boat is the best for my fishing style. Check it out at Toweeboats.com. Choosing a boat is all about knowing where and how you like to fish, and accepting it’s limitations and not trying to make it more than it is.
My boat’s completely open, 16’, with no storage built in--not one thing to catch a fly line. There are built-in wells on either side for fly fishing rods or spinning gear, and oars and a push pole.(My wife and I enjoy rowing for exercise.) I can row it or pole it or use the miserly 15 hp. 4-stroke engine, or hook up my electric motor to a special bow-mounted, removable bracket. No poling platform, so I don’t have the height advantage those offer, but the boat floats in 4 inches, and I prefer to wade anyway, so I like to get close, then get out. It’s ultra-light, so it’s not the boat you want to be in if the water’s choppy, but then, neither is the $50,000 skiff at the fly fishing outing. (My boat is based on river rowing skiff lines, with high freeboard, more seaworthy than most poling skiffs on the market.) I stand to fly cast and fish only close-in spots, usually within a couple of miles of the ramp, only on good weather days. I have all my gear in containers or bags, so I can take or leave different types of tackle in the garage, and if I’m on the road they go in the truck or motel at night. My live well is a laundry tub with a circulating pump I can leave home, which I usually do.(It works really well, BTW, for greenies or freshwater shiners.) So, I choose daily what I want to do, then load my stuff.
I paid around $8,000 for the new rig-- boat, motor, trailer with a spare tire and an electric motor.
It’s the result of knowing what works for me. Next month is duck season, and I plan to pile it high with decoys and head to Lake Okeechobee where I’ll wade with the gators. That’ll work too!
No comments:
Post a Comment