Looking for advice on a new boat
 

Looking at purchasing a new boat and was looking for some advice as what to get. Will be fishing inshore and offshore on fair weather days. Looking at getting at least a 22ft.. Thanks in advance

Do yourself a favor and go check out the Blue Wave boats @ Lake Area Marine. Blue Wave makes a great 22' and 24' boat and Lake Area Marine's are very hard to beat both on price and service. Make sure you tell them you're a member of SaltyCajun.

I fished out of a 22' blue wave the other day and I was extremely impressed!

There are a lot of tradeoffs between various priorities. You should consider the following:

How fast do you want to go?
How important is a smooth ride in choppy conditions?
How far offshore are you going?
How much shallow water do you want to fish and how much smoother ride in choppy water/offshore are you willing to sacrifice to fish skinny water?
How important is fuel economy?
What is your price range?
Do you prefer to spend most of the money on the basic (boat and motor) or do you plan to spend a lot on feature/performance enhancing accessories?
Will you be storing the boat under a shed or outside?
How important is a low maintenance boat? How much time and money do you plan to budget for keeping it up?
Will children be fishing from the boat? I prefer a boat with higher gunwales for fishing with children.

Lots of other questions will come up also regarding various features: casting deck, live well, rod storage, other storage, trolling motor, sonar, etc., etc., etc.

If you don't spend enough time thinking about what you really want and the cost-benefit trade-offs in how it will be used, then you have a risk of salesmen pushing you toward what they think you need, or even worse, the boats that have been sitting around for a while that they are eager to move. When you think things through, you might find your preferences and anticipated usage lead you to a different configuration than the most popular bay boats on today's market, or you might just determine which of the popular bay boats best suits your needs.

You might go sit at Calc Pt or another area launch and talk to some boaters. Most boaters are more than happy to tell you about what they like and don't like about their boat for how they are using it.

I am going to the boat show in Houston Saturday. Do yal know if they knock off the prices of boats a decent amount

Ride b4 u buy!!
And if possible on a windy day.

pm Jlincicum. He went yesterday

Ok Mr. Jude I am wanting to talk to you about that blackjack you use to have.

I agree with Paul Myers ---- Go see Lake Area Marine!

Talk to Henry Boy, He's an expert!

Take a look at Twin Vee or other CatBoats. they can handle offshore chop well and dry, and get pretty skinny also. Smoothest, driest ride out there. They just don't go super fast.

UM

Check out blue wave, blazer bay, and nautic star. All solid boats in the same price range.

Blackjack.

Haynie ...Fast, Custom ,beast in rough water, made for fishing, drifts quite and shallow , runs in 9inchs of water, dry

Majek 25+ extreme! Runs skinny, fast, and it's a very dry and smooth riding boat. Can't ask for a better fishing boat!

I have a blackjack 224 w/250 4-stroke Yamamma presently. Best boat for (for me) skinny water capability and can run offshore on calmer days. Smooth, dry, stable and fast ride, 3'-4' sea is not a problem. There are so many great boats available to everyone now, you really just need to go out and 'test drive' preferrably on a choppy day. Good Luck!!

establish a budget......stick to it.
Function over looks.

pick your top five fishing places and the likely hood of really fishing where, and pick a boat for that.

There are really no "bad" boats these days.....some better, and some REALLY better for particular functions, like skinny water, poling ability, offshore......

Every boat mentioned above is a good to great boat.

I have a Majek 25+ and a sea fox 240xt. I absolutely love both boats. They are two totally different boats with different rides and different capabilities. I am running the Yamaha 250 SHO on both. It will get the heavier seafox up in a boat length and it will make the majek fly. I believe there is a boat show in Houston this weekend. Let me know if you are going, I can call someone up for u.

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Thanks guys, was planning on going to the boat show in Houston but went to lake charles marine and Kyle hooked us up with a nice Frontier 210 without breaking the bank.