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First boat recommendation for fishing Panhandle and Big Bend?

6K views 46 replies 19 participants last post by  jonterr 
Pole away, but this ain't the Florida Keys with miles and miles of sandy flats. In all the decades I've fished here I've seen one and only one fisherman poling.
You ain’t spending enough time on the water in the early hrs when stalking from the platform with fly gear is prime then! The guys doing the poling are hitting it early before the wind picks up.
 
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OP, I have fished these waters my entire life… if you can find an aluminum hull like mentioned with a tunnel start there then in 6 months you won’t be saying “wish I bought a tunnel”!
 
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Yeah, that must be it. All the guys poling and fly fishing are doing it in the dark and that's why we don't see them.

Seriously, 80% of the fishermen on the Nature Coast are using bait. 19.9% are artificial only, and maybe 0.1% are fly fishermen. The same ratios apply to poling. The OP wants to get started with a limited budget for a starter boat, presumably to gain experience and move up as his situation allows. Why complicate things with tunnels, jack plates, poling platforms and fly rods? Experience will tell what's needed and the preferred direction to go.
You are just a smart ass that “thinks” he knows all about all! Who gives a shit what anyone else is doing? A used tunnel will cost no more than a used no tunnel and he already has an upper hand in that when he realizes he wants/needs a tunnel he already has one to rig out from there. But hey, WTF do I know about boats and the Nature Coast?
 
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Oh, bout’ time for that next booster!
 
If you need to use insults to make your point, you're obviously short of evidence. Here's a drill that will provide some. Go to CL and do a search on the Nature Coast for tunnel hulls with poling platforms for less than $10,000 and let us know what you find. To save a little time, I can tell you that as of this morning, there were none.
there you go with your virtue signaling. The insult was not to make my point about skiffs or fishing the Nature Coast. The insult was simply stating the truth that you are an ass. That said… who cares what anyone else is doing? Fish how you want to fish and buy the boat that best suits those needs is my point. Sure, a no tunnel boat will work. But… if he wants to spend his money wisely and be able to upgrade easily a used tunnel alumacraft, duracraft, sea ark, etc… will fit the bill perfectly and when he decides a tunnel is best for accessing the shallow waters we have here… he’ll already have it! As far as skiffs go with poling platforms ready to go for >$10k goes… lately you ain’t finding one worth buying for those prices and CL is outdated and not many people actually using these days compared to market place and other platforms.
 
Forgive my boating ignorance, but what are the advantages to having a tunnel boat?
A properly built tunnel boat will also have a raised transom so your engine is automatically mounted 4-6” or more higher than a non tunnel hull lessening your chances of striking an obstruction “even at no wake speeds”. Now, add a jack plate and low water pick up along with the right prop and you can pretty much get the entire skeg and prop above the hulls bottom! Now, don’t get me wrong as I am not a non tunnel nazi… I just like true and accurate information without bias as to what “everyone else” is doing. 😉
 
Although a tunnel transom may allow the motor to be mounted higher, to get onto plane a prop needs a certain amount of water over it to develop required thrust. Tunnel or not, that amount is the same. Just because the motor is mounted 4-6" higher does not mean that it won't have to be lowered 4-6" to get onto plane.
MS fact checkers say this statement is FALSE! A tunnel hull with no jack plate properly built and rigged the engine sits the depth of the tunnel higher than a non tunnel and that sir is fact! If you can’t see that or have been running tunnels with your engine starting with cav plate level with the hull bottom from start that explains a lot!!! Starting with… you have no idea whatsoever how a tunnel works!
 
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