I might be moving to Sinton, TX in a few months. Being that close to the bays, I gotta have a boat. I've fished primarily lakes and rivers growing up, but I have done some bay and deep sea fishing on the party boats. I plan on taking at least 4 or 5 guided trips before settling on anything. What I'm interested in is a boat that could get to the flats to wade fish or fish shallow water from the boat, but that could also take on some deeper water. I don't plan on any offshore trips or at least any further than 10 miles from shore. I'd love to be able to catch redfish, trout, and flounder, but is there anything other than bullreds and ling to catch in the deeper water?

Are there any boats that could do the flats and the deeper water or would I essentially need to "pick one"?

Deep V bay boats are compromise on every level. They handle the open waters of large bays very well but they do not run particularly shallow. They can run offshore on calmer days when seas will be about 2 ft. 3 ft maximum if you know what you're doing.

There's lots of fish to catch offshore. If you're limited to 10-20 miles then you'll most likely catch kingfish, ling, snapper occasional mahi, spanish mackerel, shark, etc. Tarpon, if you're into that.

If you're planning a dual purpose boat (bay/offshore/nearshore) then I'd forget the tunnel hulls and go as big as you can. 24' Pathfinder or Kenner 23V for example. Or go with single engine 21'-25' Striper type boat, with deep freeboards and deep V. Something like a Hydrasport or similar. Get the largest fuel tank available. It's not hard to burn 100 gallons of fuel in a day of offshore fishing.

Ok, so what about just staying in the bay? What fish species are in the bay and what are good boat options?

What's the advantages of one of the tunnel type flats boats over a kayak?

I guess with the tunnel, if you don't find any specs or redfish, you can run and try somewhere else.

Tunnels handle terrible in rough water. Dont do it. A short tunnel isnt going to get much more shallow than a well designed bay boat w/o a tunnel. Been there. If you want to go REALLY shallow, there are boats designed to run in 8-10 inches of water, but they suck in big water.

Inshore species: Redfish, speckled trout, founder are the most sought after fish.

As mentioned, something like a Kenner/Mako ( same boat), Blue Wave, Nautic Star, Pathfinder, Frontier or Blackjack ( same company), etc. is a good compromise to fish the bays and short ( close) offshore trips during calm sea times.

The old "standard" for both worlds was certainly the Kenner VX series. But since Tracker bought them out, they arent what they used to be( structurally) ...but are still good, serviceable crafts.

I'm beginning to like the Nautic Star more and more these days, as a good value.

K-2 Marine's Frontier line is built by Bill Kenner as are the Blackjacks.....with Frontier being the "working man's" no frills line. There are 100 boat builders out there so take your time. Either way, have fun shopping !

Run over to Chris's Marine in Aransas Pass and check out the Haynie's. Big boats that handle big water pretty good but still get pretty danged shallow.

The biggest obstacle in the Aransas Pass/Rockport/Port Aransas/Corpus Christi area is that you cannot disturb the beds of sea grass. They are protected areas.

Pros are that there are lots of places to fish from Rockport up to Port O'Connor and down south to the land cut and Baffin Bay and everything in between.

That's what I was trying to think of earlier.....Haynie. Thanks LP.

The other one is "Majik" ??....I forgot and am too lazy to search. ( I know....pathetic, huh ?)

I saw a couple Haynie's and a Majek this weekend was I was down there for my current job. Nice looking boats, but looks can always be deceiving.

Ok,
Here's the simple truth, don't let a lot of good stories get in the way of the facts.

Any of the decent tunnel flats boats will enable you to run in less than 5" of water, get up in a foot or less. These are not v hull craft, which you don't want..because:

You can use your eyes to navigate, if it's a dark bottom, or there's three inch waves on the water, you can go (not necessarily stop) If you see white sand or flat shoal water, you know you can't go there. Makes navigating much easier.

The V hulls (like kenners) can't do that, they take too much water to run in.

Now you're able to use 90% of the bay instead of 30%.

it's tough to find a boat that will do both really well. One that gets close is the desperado. http://www.desperadoboats.com/

dennis, one of the designer/builders used to race catamaran hulls long ago and he is a fisherman as such he really thought about it all from running shallow to being in the big open bay.

A long flats boat can take a good bit of rough water... another one is the Ibis from new water. at 22 feet it's length makes up for it's lack of deep V. really impressive shallow water boats.

If I went out today and boat a boat for fishing the coast, I would probably get a Majek. A couple of guys at work have an Illusion and they love it.

You can wade fish out of just about any boat. I have a kenner and it will float in six inches of water. It wont run in six inches, which means I use my trolling motor or a pole when I fish shallow coves. You just cant get off the beaten path way back in some shallow water. As you said, go out with some guides and decide what you like to do. If your going to stick to the bays down there. I would go with a tunnel hull. I prefer drifting deep water so my boat works great.

Also look into a welded aluminum boats. I have been out with some guys who run real shallow and run off shore with there rigs. Im not talking about a jon boat or somrthing you buy from a big dealer. One guy I went out with has a custom made 20'' flat bottom rig with a 150 on it that will make you pucker it runs so shallow. That boat will get you wet off shore though. It has high sides though so at least you feel safe when your all wet.

One of my student workers is from Port Lavaca so I asked him what he fished in growing up. The just had a modfied-V boat and a jackplate on it. He said it would run shallow and be fine so maybe I'll look into that.

"Shallow" means different things to different people.
He may mean 3 feet or so.
Pat means 10 inches....maybe less.
Personally, I define it as about 12-16 inches...and anything less is "very shallow" to me. Just be aware of what your buddy means when he says "shallow". Crossing a shallow patch while on plane is one thing. Taking off in "very shallow" water is a totally different animal and most conventional "bay boats" cant do it.

Port lavaca isn't "shallow" water until you get to Port O'Connor. Fishing Corpus and south a non-tunnel non-flats rig will be an aggravating experience.

Once you EVER go with someone with a proper setup flats boat, you'll never want to do without..why? You're able to fish 90% of the bay, you can judge water depth by wave height and know anything more than shoalwater is passable.

Even on the rare calm day, you know you can run any dark bottom. A v hulled anything can't do that.