Thread: New boat

I found this one 2 weeks ago. Its perfect for the long line trolling and some spider rigging that I do. It has the deep V so it rides like a dream. 18.5 feet long with a 99 inch beam. Its plenty big and very stable. I have rigged it with 12 rod holders in the back and my Simrad unit on the dash. For a 2008 boat it was always garage kept and in excellent condition. Its just the right boat for my kind of fishing.

Check out the Tracker Pro Guide V175. I have one, and I probably wouldn't buy it again, but that's more about me than the boat. With a 115, I am running 35mph with ease. I can get it up to 41 on a good day. It's heavy, doesn't rock a lot when moving around on the boat, and rides well. It's a huge boat with tall gunwales. It's not going to win any races and doesn't tow down the highway like most aluminum boats do. It's the "lead sled" of the aluminum boat world.

Pros: deep-vee, pretty danged heavy boat, WIDE beam so it doesn't rock. Lots of room. Very generous front and rear livewells. The front will hold a nice bunch of bluegill and the rear will hold several 3-5 pound catfish. I've had a 10 pounder in there and while he wasn't turning around, he fit and had room to move.

Cons: Those 3" seat bases -- I much prefer the 1" pin style. It has lots of room, but the storage (mine is a 2014) is very poor. It has two "rod lockers", but there is no organizer in either. They're more like really long boxes. There's a third rod locker in the center, which has an organizer, but I don't like the design of the lid. Stepping up on the large front or adequate rear deck is a pain in the knee (the newer ones have a step which should resolve that complaint). The front deck has one storage "box", but it's not flat on the bottom, nor rectangular, so putting in a tackle box organizer ain't happening. The front cleats are way too far back to be useful for anchoring (and keeping the boat from flopping around).

Changes I'd make if I were designing the boat... a smaller front deck (seriously, it's huge), a bigger rod locker on the port side with longer access. Center rod locker gone with a nice cavernous dry storage area, a front anchor locker, a rear anchor locker, a rear storage box (there's no usable storage on the rear deck), and some minor changes to the cockpit (which may have already been changed in newer models).

It really isn't that the boat has a lack of storage SPACE, just that it's laid out awkwardly and makes it difficult to organize.