Side by Side seating discussion

Been having lots of discussions for the past year with boat dealers , boat manufactures , customers , fishermen of other message boards and the crappie CREW I run with about seating arrangement on boats used primarily to crappie fish. Having been in the fishing industry for most of my life ( family owned a Marina for 20 years ) I have seen the change in fishing styles over the years and up until the popularity of spider rigging side by side seating wasn't very popular or at least I didn't see much of it HOWEVER since spider rigging and especially now with all the Forward facing sonars seems that side by side seating is more the norm.

So when this topic started to get my interest was the past 5 years I have had two new boats , when shopping for a boat front deck seating became an issue ( for me ) as I was upgrading electronic and wanted to have seating for partners or wife to be able to have access to said electronics and of coarse not be stuck in the " back 40 " when long pole jigging. I realize that the Bass Guys drive the market for now but with events like the Crappie Expo ( 50,000 attendance last year and estimated 60,000 this year ) I'm curious is the boat manufactures are going to get with the program and make more boat models with factory side by side seating .

The issue with many boat models I have looked at is the manufacture are making storage compartment lids that come past the center seat pedestal hole and eliminate the possibility of even adding aftermarket pedestal bases AND even if you add an aftermarket array like the Millennial Side kick attachment the seat braces site on the storage lids ! So for me as a crappie fishing boat consumer ANY boat with at style of front deck layout is off the list . Am hoping that the industry will start to realize the crappie fishing is more of a family sport and crappie tournaments are a TEAM ( 2 angles working together ) competition AND that it's going to by pretty hard to get a wife to sign off on a 50 k boat and 5 k worth of electronics when you tell her she has to sit in the back of the boat !

Interested in getting feedback on this topic as I stated it's something that has been kicked around my circle for sometime now !

It will be interesting to see what they come up with in terms of new boats for crappie fishing and the seating arrangements they will provide

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Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

It will be interesting to see what they come up with in terms of new boats for crappie fishing and the seating arrangements they will provide

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Well as I stated and I know to be true is " the Bass Guys drive the market " and probably always will so trying to get a boat manufacture to walk way from that market will be impossible BUT redesigning a front deck that will accommodate side by side seating issue not .... IMHO it's a two birds with one stone thing. In my personal option the manufactures just haven't realized the impact of the new electronics and difference in fishing styles between bass and crappie.

There are definitely a few that have headed in our direction. If I had the money I would own one of these. Attachment 407881

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Yes SeaArk BC and Stealth models are fine boats , big front decks and side by side seating ! Few other companies understand

I have a 2011 SeaArk XV860 and I love it...Came from factory with three seat mounts up front, 18 ft long...nice and wide good hull angle for rough water when needed. A good multi-species boat.

I haven’t got to try out the arrangements yet, but the Bass Tracker 175TF has the 3 seat layout on the front! Hopefully going to give it a sit tomorrow while we are checking for any issues!


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Wareagle has had three receivers on the front deck and one on the rear deck for years.

G3 also has some.

I bought my 1st Excel Bay Pro 203 with 3 across bases on the front deck. I found out quickly that they weren’t exactly where I would have liked the outside bases. My next 3 boats have been ordered with the stock front base only and I’ve either used a Millennium SideKick or installed my own outside bases ONLY after fishing out of the boat several times and making sure where I wanted the new bases installed.
My Storm Cat 230 has a huge front deck and I ended up installing my two outside bases forward of where my factory center base was placed. I can now set the boat up for spider rigging or side-by-side stand-up seats for LiveScope.
My advice would be to get into a model you might’ve interested in and determine where you would like your bases installed. The factory will place them as close to where you want as possible as long as it won’t hurt structural integrity.


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