Thread: aluminum or fiberglass

Haven't seen a battleship I could cappie fish from either.. ( I like tin boats)

True enough, however it put perspective back into the conversation didn't it.
Yea, I spent half my childhood on Lake Michigan. Only ones with glass boats are the pleasure craft. Every working boat has a metal hull.

I have a 2072 seark and after to many boats to count , by me not the wife, I will never look back. I've had glass and alum. And for me I no longer worry about hitting a stump,bumping off rocks, or any of the other hazards common with fishing. I fish both crappie and catfish a lot and I love it.

The first thing you should decide is what lakes and/or rivers you want to fish and then think about how you want to fish Like some have said, some boats are suited for certain conditions, but may be bad in others.

IMO, handling rough water at speed and not being as affected by wind are the strength of glass boats.

Aluminum boats can be broken down into the bass-style boats and the higher sided Lund-type boats. They both are lighter weight for towing and both can be pushed with a smaller outboard.

You also have a few performance aluminum hulls. I don't have experience with those.

On Kentucky lake, I've noticed the high-sided semi-Vs growing in popularity over the Bass Tracker style boats with crappie fishermen. I expect that is for rough water safety. Kentucky gets too rough for the low sided aluminum boats to handle the main lake. Sometimes.

Downsides to all types can be upsides too. Glass boats being heavier sit down in the water and don't get blown around. Tin boats being lighter sit up on the water and tend to get blown around.

When I hit the lottery, I'll have 3 or 4 boats to cover all conditions

Fish don't care. I've caught fish out of all of them. Before anything else, get something safe for the water you fish, then practical for your style of fishing. You wouldn't try to run 50 miles in most metal boats (I wouldn't in a glass boat either), and you wouldn't want a 21' boat in a 10 acre lake either.

Originally Posted by Hanr3

Tin Boats can handle better than fiberglass in rough waters. You need a boat designed for rougher waters. Check out the Alumacraft or Lund products. These boats are built to take on big lakes, as in the "Great Lakes". Have yet to see a Battleship made from fiberglass.

I've yet to see a battleship made out of tin.

Fiberglass, generally speaking, will handle rough water better than aluminum.

OK I'll play along. Show me the evidence!
Show me statistics where fiberglass boats handle rough water better than metal.
You can't, it doesn't exist. The statement that fiberglass is better in rough water is a generalization based on the comparison of bass boats to jon boats. In that case, yea, bass boats will do better. They do better because a jon boat has roughly a flat bottom which sucks in rough water. It sucks because it wasn't designed to handle rough water. Now build that bass boat like a jon boat and it too will suck in rough water.


How well a boat does in rough water has little to nothing to do with hull material. It has to do with design or more specifically water displacement.

Boating Basics

Hull Types

One thing every boat has in common is a hull. A "hull", or bottom of a boat, comes in several different forms. Each form has a unique shape that give it certain handling and performance characteristics. Your boat has the hull form that it has to best match the type of boating it was designed for. In general, hull forms fall into one of the two following categories:

Planing Hulls--Planing hulls are designed to ride on top of the water, regardless of the weight of the boat. The flatter the bottom, the easier it is to get on plane. Also, less power is needed to attain high speeds with a flatter hull. The trade off is in handling. Flat hulls do not do well in rough water. Many planing boats use a shallow "V" shape to ride better in rough waters.

Displacement Hulls-- Displacement hulls typically have a rounded bottom with a tear drop shape running bow to stern. Displacement hulls "displace" or move, an amount of water equal to the weight of the boat. Displacement hulls are very efficient-- most long range cruising boats such as trawlers and many sailboats use this type of hull. But because of their design, displacement hulls are restricted in their speed to the square root of their waterline length times 1.34. Therefore, a 64 foot boat can realistically only expect a top end speed of a little over 10 knots. Most Bass boats are shallow V to ride better in rough waters. They are still planing boats. If you read the rest of the article you will see where your Bass boat compares to a Deep V boat. Deep V boats are the ones I originally posted in this thread. They are specifically designed to cut through rough water. AND YES THEY ARE MADE FROM ALUMINUM, and YES THEY WILL OUT PEROFORM YOUR SHALLOW V BASS BOAT ON ROUGH WATER! The down side to the Deep V is top speed.

Now lets take issue with the generalization that "heavier" boats don't get pushed around by wind and waves as much as lighter aluminum boats. I laugh at this statement and line of thinking everytime I see it. If this were true, a battleship would always be a nice smooth ride wouldn't it?

One of the worst navy accident ever! - YouTube