im thinking of a center console bay boat with a tunnel hull **AND** with bass fishing decks/options?? does it exist? or am i delusional?

Not a bad choice except for the tunnel hull. You probably will spend a lot of your bass fishing time hung up in the stumps.

not that can do all things well

It depends on how serious you are about the boats abilities. A crazy serious bass fisherman would go nuts in a bay boat. My wife likes to fish the local lakes for whatever is biting and I like to saltwater fish so a bay boat with front deck and seat and trolling motor works great for us. We're seriously looking at trading up to a Blue Wave though. The admiral likes the looks and layout better and I want a 4 stroke motor.
Joe

i guess i really didnt describe what kind of fishing it will be used for. i want to fish the gulf for reds from time to time but my location (central texas) will mostly limit me to bass in travis and striper in buchanan. i have fished a few small bass tourneys before and as much as i enjoyed them.... my locatating the big'uns greatly affected my placing. in short, i sucked. so, bass is just a really fun hobby for me. that being said i also really like to troll/drift for striper now and then. my coastal red fishing will happen 3-4 times a year.
also, for center consoles is there a huge difference in performance when it comes to length? say between a 18/19 and a 21/22??
i do like the front deck/seat/trolling motor part.

thanks for the input.

i never heard/seen a blue wave before. im looking at the website now http://www.bluewaveboats.com/

nice boats. it may be my answer?

thx again

I have a Kenner 19VX which the wife and I fish both Buchannen and Amistad frequently, not so much Buchannen with the lake level being so low now. The only issue(s) I have are lack of storage and since we do a lot of bass fishing on Amistad, the profile acts like a sail in the wind. It really depends on your fishing "habits". The plus side of the equation is that it is a comfortable and dry ride even in pretty rough conditions which come on both bodies of water Amistad and Buchannen.

ive been on Buchanan in a bass boat when the "waves" started to grow.... no fun and pretty scary too!!! is buch that low now? i know they had a rough year last year. (btw, im moving back in july/aug so im not up to speed with latest levels and fishing reports.) any info i always welcomed.

thanks all for the input!

+1 with Throwback

Buy as much length as you can afford-in a Blue Wave you are looking at 24 feet. I have been real scared on Amistad in my 22 foot CC...many times actually. Just getting pounded is bad enough but scared is not fun.

Heck I was on Buchanan one spring and it would have been scary in a 50 footer. I watched (through binocs) a 20 - 22 footer with full walk thru windshield completely disappear in the troughs of the waves. It is still low and will take a real frog strangular to get it back up.

A bigger boat isn't always better. More fuel, harder to pull and park and more of the kite effect. I do like the storage on bigger boats as well as being able to take more people. As a boat gets longer it gets wider as well. What I like about the Blue Waves is that the 24' has the same draft as the smaller boats. With it being just the wife and I, we'll probably end up with the 19'. On a flat day I'd run it out to the rigs for bottom fishing also. Generally speaking, if you're scared of the water conditions you need to slow down. For me safety is always the first issue. Every boat I own MUST have a self bailing deck. If the deck water drains into a bilge then I won't own it. I also like a boat that I'm fishing out of and not on top of. Just my preferences and priorities.
Joe

A 24' bay boat is the way to go. I've had a 21' Kenner and 24' Kenner. There's no comparison between the two. The 24' is 3' longer, 18" deeper hull at the bow, 12" wider beam, deeper freeboards (sides). The 24' had a huge console that made driving much more comfortable and drier. Lot's more storage. 2 livewells, larger t-top for more shade. Twice the fuel capacity (100 gallons).

Now there's not much difference in hull dimensions when comparing the 19' Kenner and the 21' Kenner. Length is about it.

Running my 21' in the gulf (open gulf, not the bay) it would get pretty hairy in anything over 3-4 footers. The 24' would handle 4-6 footers fairly well. Also, the 24' didn't draft any deeper than the narrower 21'.

Go with a straight v-hull. The pocket tunnels are next to useless. The only hulls they really show any improvement on are the full tunnel boats.

Mine is in my sig! Great boat.

It really gets down to what your use of the boat is going to be....I love driving a bass boat in calm conditions but not when it's rough-the CC will make that more bearable since your butt is not below water level.