The Best Saltwater Fishing Boat

What is the ideal saltwater fishing boat? Hi, my name is Captain Roy Lawson I have been fishing in saltwater in Southern California since 1962, I have set or have helped others set forty one International Game Fish Association world records, I have owned and operated Top Gun Charters since 1978. I have skip-pered half day party boats, three quarter day party boats, all day party boats, and overnight tuna boats out of San Diego. I have owned boats from a forty five foot twin diesel six pack sport fisher down to the twenty four foot cuddy cabin walk around I now drive, there have been many boats in between these two.

All boats are a trade off between form and function, what looks great on the showroom floor may be your worst nightmare when you try to fish from it. I have been to many boat shows and less than five percent of the boats would make a really great saltwater fishing boat. I have spent the better part of my life in boats fishing on the ocean. Now after forty years of ocean fishing here is my choice for the ultimate salt water fishing boat. I won't name any boat company's because that way you know I am not writing an ad for anyone.

First the boat must be in the price range of the typical ocean fisherman, so we will make it under twenty eight feet and under $100,000. It should either be a center console or a cuddy cabin walk around, and it must be a catamaran.

A catamaran is the best riding boat I have ever ridden in, the twin hulls slice through the waves without the pounding of a single hull boat, they don't rock and roll when beam to the seas, they just kind of go up and down, and best of all they get almost triple the fuel economy of a single hull boat, and in the era of three to four dollars a gallon fuel, this one feature is huge. You can go much farther on the same amount of fuel.

In cats up to twenty five feet you are limited to outboards, in the twenty six to twenty eight foot range inboard diesels are an option. The diesels will triple your mileage again to around five to six miles per gallon and will give you five to ten times the engine life of outboards. A twenty four foot single hull with a V-8 gas engine uses about three hundred dollars worth of fuel to go from Marina Del Rey California to Catalina Island and back, an outboard powered cat will use about one hundred dollars in fuel and a diesel cat will use about fifty five dollars in fuel. If you use a boat a lot the diesels will more than pay for themselves over the life of the boat. An average outboard if kept in top shape and seldom run over three quarter throttle will last about fifteen hundred hours at most, then you are looking at ten to twenty thousand to rebuild the pair of them.

A diesel will usually go seven thousand five hundred hours if not pushed over three quarter throttle very often. In the same number of hours you would have spent fifty to one hundred thousand dollars rebuilding outboards. If you use the boat a lot and put lots of miles on it the diesels are the way to go. Diesels are
also much more reliable, no complicated electrical systems to fail or spark plugs to foul and leave you stranded, diesels use compression not sparks to burn the fuel. Diesel powered boats have lower insurance bills as diesel will not explode as gas sometimes will, and the resale value is much higher.

There you have it, the twenty six to twenty eight foot catamaran with diesel power is the best boat you can buy for nearshore ( within 100 miles of shore ) saltwater fishing any where in the world where ten foot seas are uncommon. Big seas need big boats, but thats another story!