I have been looking for a used boat for some time, and I have pretty much settled in on ~20ft as an ideal length for me, although I have been open to the idea of shorter (19.5ft) and I am letting the idea of longer creep-in as well (21ft). I like the idea of a large/stable front deck, and I am looking primarily at 2010+ Skeeter FX20, Zx20, or Zx225 (and Zx200, and Rager z119/z519 ) and had been considering the Ranger z520. This led me to the idea that if I am willing to go with a ~21ft z520, why not a FX21 which I had been ignoring in favor of the FX20, and which there seem to be more of on the market.

My overall question is whether there is really any significant difference that justifies excluding a 21ft boat? That is, in the used boat market, if I find a nice FX21 should I have any hesitation?

As background (relevant or not), it has been a while since I had a boat (17ft Skeeter), and I thought an 18.5 would work for me based on my memory of the "old" days when 20ft boats were massive and I would have been happy with a 18.5 footer. But after some time in a zx190 (18.5ft) and a z520 (~21ft), I feel like I needed something on the larger side, but I am not sure if 21 is "too" large. I think a lot of my internal questions go back to when 21 was simply huge.

With regard to the type of fishing, I have a place on Lake Travis (on the Pedernales), and I plan to fish from there 90% of the time (likely with my wife or friends joining me 50% of the time), hitting the other Central Texas lakes (within 2 hours of Austin), and making occasional trips around the state (most likely to East or South Texas, 1-2 times per year). Given this, I presume I won't be in the trees the majority of the time. I like the idea of joining a club and fishing some small local events, but nothing serious. I am not a speed junky. I do like the idea of my wife being able to fish on the front deck with me, and fishing 3 (including myself) several times per year.

Let me know if you have any thoughts. I know there is no one answer, but I have found that you can learn a lot listening to others to see if there is a consensus, or to uncover something not considered.

Thanks in advance!

On lake travis some days it feels like a 30' boat wouldn't be big enough.

Thanks. That is kind if what I was thinking, but I was not sure. I have only been kayak fishing the river thus far, and I have not had a chance to run and fish the lake. My thought is fishing early/late in the days, which could be reasonable, but any midday runs would be rough with boat traffic, regardless of weather.

For the lakes you fish go as big as you can afford. That is unless parking or towing are limiting factors.

Go as big as you can afford on the boat and that goes for electronics also! Bigger is always better on both!!