Show season a good time to shop for boats

Published 9:42 am Sunday, January 10, 2016

If you are thinking of buying your first bass boat or upgrading from your current rig now is the time to be shopping.

It is boat show time and that is always the best time of year to buy because there are so many show specials and incentives being offered.

Boat manufacturers are like car manufacturers. They gear up production in summer and fall for a fall introduction of new models. Everything lines up right now because everyone wants to move boats, whether it is some 2015s remaining or the 2016s they are getting in.

Even the engine manufacturers like Yamaha will have some type of an incentive like an extended warranty.

When looking at new bass boats there is no such thing as too much boat. Sometimes you have to see what is in your budget, but you want to get the best thing for your buck. There is some economical stuff you can get with bigger boats to lower the cost, and there is some not-so-economical stuff on smaller boats that make them more expensive.

You may not want to or be able to pull a 21-foot boot, but there is so much difference between an 18-foot boat and a 21-foot boat. The length is nothing. It is about the length of your arm, but it is amazing the difference when you get in there.

I have run a 17-foot and I have run a 21. I have never run a 22-foot boat, but they are out there.

People ask me what is the best boat out there. I tell them to get out there and ride in them. I have been lucky to have been sponsored by Skeeter since the beginning of my career, and they make a really good, smooth riding boat.

When it comes to engines big engines sure are nice. There are two places where power is most important and one is when you want to go real fast. That is a part of having a boat, going real fast.

The other place where power is useful is when you are in a storm or a rough spot. Power helps run in rough water because it gets the nose to come up when you need it.

A bigger engine really is not that more expensive. Yeah it is more, but percentage wise not that much more.

And get over it and go with a four-stroke engine. That is the future and the future is now.

A lot of people have been slow to come along to four strokes. One of the knocks is that it is too heavy, but a Yamaha 250 V Max SHO is comparable in weight to other 250s on the market.

An add-on you want to look at is power poles. If you have never fished out of a boat with power poles you don’t know what you are missing. They make launching alone easier and you can do things like spring sight fishing quieter than using a trolling motor.

When you are looking at trolling motors, get the biggest you can that fits your boat and that you have space for the batteries. The trade of is the difference in weight of the batteries, but you can get a 36 volt and run it on 50 all day without using up your batteries.

You should also look into a hydraulic jack plate. It is an option on Skeeter boats. I have one and will never have a boat again without one. It helps so many ways in optimizing the operation of your boat.

Where it really shines is when it gets rough and you get stuck in big waves or it is a windy day and you have to get around.

Boats are bigger and more expensive these days, but the bottomline is that when you get to go fishing they are more comfortable and more dependable. It is more enjoyable when you go fishing. I look at it as these are not luxuries, but that the manufacturers have fine-tuned the boats.