Hey guys I need some help, I'm in the market for a boat to do some bay fishing, Specifically east bay near the Bolivar peninsula, that has some speed but can run in fairly shallow water. A friend of mine has a boston Whaler Montauk with a 2005 yamaha 90; I have also been looking at an alumacraft type maybe a 17 footer with a 70 on it.. I am set on a center console.. ANY RECOMMENDATIONS? or comments about these boats... thanks guys every bit of info helps

PM Pat Goff. He seems knowledgeable about bay boats.

Sorry didn't hear the phone ring...

WAY too many choices with way too little information. I get to ask the first bunch, the more honest the answers, the better the results.

1. What is YOUR opinion of "fairly" shallow? What do you want your toy to run in? Float in? Be able to take off in?
2. *some* speed? That could be 25, it could be 85, that is a direct equation of money invested.
3. How many of your new best friends are coming with you?
4. Are you planning on using your sled to take you to wading spots or not?
5. Sight fishing your thing?
6. Any serious intentions of fishing elsewhere? That's a pretty small piece of water that gets unfishable during parts of the year.
7. Tow vehicle?
8. Could have been #1 but don't want to sound like a pimp, but how much are you budgeting to spend on this project? Looking for new, or not?

There's 60 some odd boats that COULD be good, but honest answers will find the two or three that are best.

Pat--

Here's my answers, maybe you can help..

1. I would like a boat with no more than an 11 inch draft.. run in saltwater but its gotta be able to take some wave so not a true "flats " boat i guess
2. I would like a boat that could do at least 30mph not necessarily more than 40 mph
3. probably no more than 3 friends with me
4.Yes
5.Not really
6. Yes would also like to take to rockport, matagorda, chocolate bay, port aransas
7. tow with either my 1500 silverado or 4runner (with supercharger) it pulls my 1500 lb pop up trailer just fine
8.would like to spend under 15k.. so a few years used boats probably

Fifteen grand should be worthy of something decent.

First rule, the shallower it'll go, the crappier the ride will be, but if you can run really shallow, then there's no reason to get out in the deep rough water either. 1 foot of water will only make a 6" wave, so most of the time it's really not that big a deal.

There's several 18' cat hulls on the market that would serve all of those well, flats cat, the trans cat and shoalwaters would give a decent ride and run pretty dang shallow.

I would NOT lean towards a deep v tunnel like kenner, they'll take more water to float in, and a whole lot more to take off in.

low sided hull would be a much easier platform to get in and out of when wading.

So, I'd start sniffing around 2 cool, boat trader, etc for:
Flats cat
Trans cat
low side gulf coast.
shaolwater cat or tunnel v (not deep v)

All of those are well made and will work fine all the way down to Port Isabel.

Awesome.. Thanks pat, I am liking the looks of that low side Gulf coast boat
Hey listen I know its not the greatest for shallow water but my friend is trying to sell his 1986 Boston whaler montauk 17 in great condition with a 90 2 stroke yamaha from 2005...he wants 8 grand for it... Is it is good deal?good boat? the bottom has a small maybe 1 foot line section on the middle ridge i think, where the paint has chipped off.. comes with trailer and all

I'd have zero interest in that rig. Besides float, it would be a pain to do anything else in.

Here's what a shallow running rig will allow you to do you can't do with a prop sticking a foot under the hull:
You can navigate by sight. No big trick at all to have a tunnel/flats/cat hull that will easily run in 6" or less of water. That allows you to simply look at the wave height and know where you've got some water to run or if it's just slick shoal water. When you head south of POC, you'll know if it's a dark bottom, there's plenty of water to run in, white sand not so much. Instead of being out in the middle of the bay getting your fillings knocked out, you can run the shallower and smoother water. Cuts, passes, back lakes open up. I fail to understand anyone who would limit the water they can fish when you have such good choices.

Hm. I was thinking of taking my 18' Baystealth to POC next month. Is a general bay boat access that limited around there? Can I get to Matagorda Island? I didn't realize the water is that skinny around POC.