Thread: Advice on boat

Ok so I've been searching and searching for a decent boat that is in my budget. One of finalists is technically a bay boat. It's a 19 ft seafox 195 bay fisher. I was Suprised though it's sides were higher than expected, had full transom and decent modified v hull. Could I theoretically run that boat 10 to 20 miles out on a calm day? Or is that just asking for trouble? If I want to be able to fish nearshore i.e. troll for kings, chase tarpon and occasionally head out to rigs and maybe Lil further. Do I have to get say a 21 ft offshore cape horn or can I take that 19ft seafox under real consideration? I'm looking for advice from experienced GOM boat fisherman. Majority of my prior boat experience comes from great Lakes and other inland waterways. My 2 years of saltwater shore based and occasional going out on others people's boats doesn't count for jack. So seeking true knowledge based on experience. I understand perfectly well that the Gulf will kill you in a heart beat if you don't have respect and think about what your getting yourself into.

We go out 5 miles in an 18 foot Mako. Does ok but for a nice dry ride bigger is better. We got out early one morning and 3 miles out the wind got up and waves were 3 to 5 feet. We came in but were soaked. Three people in our boat is too crowded. You will never wish you had a smaller boat in most cases.

I'm a fair weather fisherman and usually the roughest water we see is at or near the pass. If you can handle the big boat wakes and limit your sorties to fair weather days you will be fine.

I watch the forecasts and always look for a following wind/sea on the return trip. If you pay attention to the forecasts the only wild card will be pop-up storms which should be seriously minded.

Could I theoretically run that boat 10 to 20 miles out on a calm day? Or is that just asking for trouble?

I would not be afraid as long as you pay attention to the weather. From late July to early September you will have stretches where you can confidently go much farther than that as long as you watch the pop-ups. During the dog days serious wind is only going to be around storms. Other times of the year the precision of the wind forecasts is wider (there is a wider +/-). I've been over 40 miles in my less-than 22 footer.

In the fall I like to go out on the transition days between fronts when the north wind is dying or has died and the south yet to pick up, that way if the wind rises it is following me home. I do not go out far if the north wind is still steady, I stick to the lee of the shore (about 3 miles or less). In the spring you can do the same, but the transition wind shift is much quicker.

Edit2: Do not fight a south wind going out with a front approaching, the south (or southwest) wind is the one that builds as a front approaches. I cannot over stress that you need to learn to read our weather patterns.

You can get a good look at the weather models at Weather Underground - you should become very familiar with them (scroll down to "Model Data" on the right and click the little gear to get the menus). Note that in the drop down menus you can select a wind forecast.

EDIT: All the above is given proper equipment and maintenance.

https://www.wunderground.com/wunderm...Start=0&favs=0

I owned a 20' CC from '97-'03, similar in size and gunwale height to what you are looking at.
Had a 115hp 2 stroke with a 50 gallon tank. VHF, GPS, FF, 350' of rode, 15' of chain and an oversize anchor. Full safety kit.
Fished that hull hard, some years we fished offshore 15+ days.

Fishing 3 was perfect, 4 was a little crowded, but doable.

We fished it anywhere from Mobile Bay reefs out to the Trysler Ground hard bottoms ~20 miles, up to 150' deep.
(If it had a 4 stroke, I would have taken it 30 miles, but the fuel usage with the old 2 stroke just didn't give us the legs.)

Only went offshore on days with a good forecast but every once & while the winds picks up and we had a long, slow, rough, wet ride in.
Hull could handle a lot rougher seas than I was willing to deal with.

My experience is that in towable-size boats, anything more than 3' seas (unless its lonnnnng swells) is not worth going out & getting beat up in.
So 19' vs 21' to me is not a huge difference, But the price and fuel cost go up each foot of hull you add.

So, IMO:
If you are primarily inshore/nearshore fishing but want to run out 10-20 miles on a good calm days, that Sea Fox 19' hull is fine.
If you primarily want to fish offshore and sometimes fish the inshore reefs, rigs & pass, get a 19' Cape Horn.

But then, If I could buy another hull right now, it would be a Cape Horn 17' with a 115 4 stroke.
"Big" boats for the length: wide, deep, big fish box and nice anchor locker.
Can fish just about anywhere you want other than really shallow flats.
Plenty of legs to fish up to 20' miles out.
Can fish 3 easy, 4 ok.

I've fished 13' whaler to 16' cape to 21' sea hunt and now looking at something a little bigger! If you want to do most offshore which includes trolling for close kings get as big as you can afford. Comments are correct on number fishing too. In my 21' it gets crowded with four people fishing in chop. A nice compromise is the 22-24' sea hunt bay series. Very nice and can handle a little chop too. Good luck