center console aluminum boat recommendations

i fish primarily palestine, naconiche, and several other small to mid size east texas lakes. im looking at getting one at least 20' that i and the family can comfortably bass fish and crappie fish out of. is a semi-V adequate you think? brands you have experience with?

There is a ton of them out there, some good, some not so good. A semi V will be rough riding in medium chop. Boatright, Sea Ark, and Scandy make the best ones, and Crestliner makes a few decent ones. I cant count the number of Lowe, Express, Tracker, and Alumaweld boats that I have repaired for people over the years with cracked welds and cracks in other places. Look for one with at least 1/8" thick aluminum on the whole boat. There are many out there that are merely beer cans floating on the lake.

Ranger RB190 CC series is a good boat but is a little shorter than what you are looking for. It will fish bigger than it is due to it's width and stability.

I looked at a few different ones and went with the Xpress. They have a Ranger aluminum one at cabelas and a Fiber one at Bass Pro. The xpress seemed like more boat for my money. It's my first boat so I couldn't tell if I did good or not.

Likes- it's stable. My FIL had a similar bass boat setup that would rock side to side when people went to one or the other side. My CC doesn't.

I picked the one up with the 115hp motor. It's quiet and with just me on it I have been to 55 which scared the [censored] out of me. With myself and 2 of my fat friends we can hit 40-45 no problem. I'm still working on operating the trim. I went a little cheaper at $24k because I didn't know if a Jackplate or a 150 was really worth the extra $8000. There are things I am changing on it though. The more expensive model probably had a few more features but I think this one should serve me well till I get it all fingered out.

It runs really shallow.

Dislikes- Hand trolling motor. That's whatever but it's fixable



The welds look like some of Jerry's kids did them in some places. I've honestly thought about pulling it in the shop and getting them to looking like someone took pride in it.

The coating that looks like Berliner. When it's dry it has some traction. When it's wet it's slicker than owl snot.



No shade- Ordered a Dolphin T Top for it to cure that. It should come out looking like this.




It came with a Helix 5 basic. I found a great deal on a 899SI HD to replace it with. It was $350 NIB and I couldn't find a helix with similar options for close to that. The Helix 7 DI was the closest.

A jack plate will be invaluable for shallow fishing and maneuvering in and out of stump fields. Check on what xpress recommends for maximum setback. My Seaark was 6". Xpress is likely the same
$8000 for a jack plate is a rip-off. You can get a Bob's Hydraulic(the best) for $1000. A shop should be able to do the mechanical installation in an hour and you can do the electrical yourself. It's easy, a battery connection and a control cable run to the up/down switch on the console.
Mounting a T-top is another matter. Do not simply screw it down to the aluminum floor. it will rip out in rough water. Use 3/8" aluminum bar stock along the side of the console. Drill and tap into at least two of the floor ribs, attach the bar stock with 1/4-20 machine bolts, then drill and tap into the bar stock to attach the feet of the T-top. I'll try to find a photo of the way I did mine and post it.

I have a SeaArk Baymaster. Pretty good entry level boat. I don't have many complaints, as it does what I bought it to do. Biggest complaint is the fact that the live well gets SUPER hot in the summer. I basically use my bait well for a livewell, but it is plenty large so generally not a problem. The T-Top is an issue with fishing with multiple people, unless everyone is comfortable casting over both shoulders and sidearm. Also, there isn't a lot of lockable storage, especially for rods. It does run pretty shallow, and would go even shallower if I could get my motor higher on the jack plate. It is a salt water motor so it is a little longer than normal. We are in Kilgore, and may be going to Palestine this weekend. If you want to look at it to help you figure out what you want, let me know.

I am waiting on it to get here and a reply back from Express about the flooring rib locations. I was planning on using nutserts to hold it down.

The 8,000 was for motor, electric jackplate, hydro steering and a little nicer console. I couldnt justify it but I dont know what I am really looking at so who knows. I know I did some Google fu on adding a jackplate and the hydro steering if needed and it would leave around $6300 to the cost of the different motor and console.

Gator Trax - Check out these. Great people to deal with and you get what you want.

Boatright boats makes some pretty slick rigs.

http://www.boatrightmarine.com