Choosing between a bay boat and a skiff comes down to one trade-off: a skiff gets you into the shallowest, most technical water for poling tailing fish, while a bay boat gives you range, big live wells, family comfort, higher sides, and a hardtop you can sight fish from. There is no do-everything boat at any price, so the right pick is the one that matches how you actually fish. In this How 2 Tuesday my friend Mike Larkin and I work through the decision the way I help anglers do it at the Miami Boat Show.
Watch now: press play on the video above and follow along.
It depends entirely on how you fish and who you fish with. A skiff is the better choice if your top priority is getting into the shallowest water possible, poling for tailing permit, tarpon, and redfish, and slipping under low bridges. A bay boat wins if you want range, big live wells, a more comfortable and family friendly ride, higher sides for kids, and a hardtop you can stand on to sight fish. Every boat is a compromise, so the right answer is the boat that fits your real days on the water.
Yes. Tom has caught many bonefish, permit, tarpon, and redfish off a trolling motor. The trick is running it on low so the prop stays fully submerged and never cavitates, which can actually be quieter than poling because a push pole makes noise every time it touches bottom. The catch is that to keep the whole prop underwater you cannot go as shallow as you can while poling, so for true tailing depth a skiff still has the edge.
A skiff is a specialized, technical boat. It needs a buddy who can pole, since chasing fish solo can be miserable. The low sides are a safety concern with kids, the live wells and storage are small, and there is no shade. Battery weight for a trolling motor has to be balanced carefully, and adding a third person can sink a small skiff so much that it no longer floats shallower than a bay boat. It is a fantastic tool for one job, but it asks you to give up comfort and versatility.
A bay boat has higher sides, a larger cockpit, and a more comfortable ride in chop, which matters with a spouse and kids aboard. The big live well doubles as the best entertainment on the boat, a personal aquarium the kids watch all day. There is room for more batteries without hurting performance, plus a hardtop you can stand on to sight fish 20 feet in the air instead of about four feet on a skiff. It also lets you mix fishing with the beach and water skiing.
Stopping the boat is as important as moving it. In wind, a single anchor point lets the bow blow 50 feet off the fish and out of casting range. Two power poles hold the boat's attitude so it stays put and pointed where Tom wants it. He can run the trolling motor and both power poles by remote from the tower. Trolling motors do have reverse, but it is incredibly loud and tricky, so the power poles are the better way to lock the boat down.
Match the boat to your tow vehicle and your storage. Tom's F-150 pulled his 24 footer fine and he later moved to an F-250, but the real constraint is often garage and driveway storage, where swing-away tongue trailers help. More boat also means more systems, power pole wiring, trolling motor, electronics, radar, and in saltwater every added system is one more thing that can fail. Tom's guest Mike Larkin, weighing a Luna bay boat for his family, found the 22 may fit his tow capacity and trailering better than the 24.
My friend Mike Larkin came to me with the same question I field constantly, especially heading into the Miami Boat Show: skiff or bay boat? Mike grew up on an 18 foot skiff in Miami and loves the quietness and dexterity, but he has moved to the Tampa area where everyone runs a trolling motor, and he is weighing a bay boat for his wife and two kids. His situation is a perfect case study, because the answer is never the same for two anglers. I dig into his specifics in the episode, so watch the video above.
Mike assumed a trolling motor meant parking on spots rather than hunting, and that is the most common misconception I hear. The truth is you can absolutely stalk bonefish, permit, tarpon, and redfish off a trolling motor if you run it low with the prop fully submerged so it never cavitates. A push pole makes noise every time it touches bottom, and I have a theory that the last sound a wise old fish hears before getting caught is that pole sliding across the grass. I explain the technique in the video above.
A skiff is a beautiful, specialized tool, but it asks for sacrifices. You need a buddy who can pole, the low sides are a real concern with kids, storage and live wells are small, and there is no shade. Add a third person and a small skiff can sink enough that it no longer floats shallower than a bay boat. I lay out the full pros and cons list with Mike in the episode, so press play above.
One thing newer boat buyers overlook is how you hold position. In wind, a boat that blows 50 feet off the fish has taken you out of casting range no matter how quietly you approached. That is why I run two power poles to hold the boat's attitude, all controlled by remote from the tower along with the trolling motor. I walk through how I set that up in the video above.
Here is the way I help anglers work through this decision. None of it is about which boat is better, only which is better for you.
Watch Mike and me work through the full decision in the video above.
Every boat is a compromise, and the worst thing you can do is buy the wrong one for your real days on the water. The best boat is the one you use constantly, because guide boats that run 300 days a year stay dialed in while neglected boats fall apart.
Name your priority, be honest about who fishes with you, and match the boat to your truck and your garage. Do that and the choice gets a lot clearer. Watch the video above and follow along.
bay boat · skiff · Mike Larkin · trolling motor · push pole · power pole · Yellowfin · Lowrance ActiveTarget · bonefish · permit · tarpon · redfish · Miami Boat Show · Luna bay boat · How 2 Tuesday
How 2 Tuesday is my weekly series where I break down one fishing skill at a time, from knots and casting to gear, tactics, and the habits that make you a better angler. Watch and listen to every How 2 Tuesday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's How 2 Tuesday series I break down one practical skill or lesson at a time, from fishing technique and gear to the habits that make you a better angler, in short, focused episodes you can put to use right away.
Tom Rowland Podcast — Episode 575: Bay Boat vs. Skiff, Which Is Best for You
In this episode: every boat is a compromise, stopping the boat matters more than moving it, vacuum infusion and a thousand pounds lighter, and why the worst thing you can do for a boat is not use it — in the exact words spoken.
Tom Rowland: What's going on, everybody? It's how to Tuesday, and we got a really good one for you today. My friend, Mike Larkin, and I were talking about boats, and we're talking about the difference between a skiff and a bay boat. He's got a lot of questions about how to make that choice for himself, and we've kinda talked about this a little bit, but this is a question that I get all the time. The Miami Boat Show is coming up. I'm leaving for the Miami Boat Show tomorrow. This is gonna be a question that I'm gonna be answering all weekend. So I thought this would make an excellent how to Tuesday, because you probably have similar questions. So, Mike, what's going on today? How are you doing?
Mike Larkin: Good. Good. You?
Tom Rowland: I'm doing great. Just got back from this awesome trip in, in the British Virgin Islands. Did a little sailing, little fishing. It was fantastic. Loved it. Alright. So you're thinking about maybe choosing between a bay boat and a skiff?
Mike Larkin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I I I'm more familiar with the skiff. Back in Miami, had an 18 foot, dolphin super skiff Yeah. And pulling. And then I moved over to the Tampa area, which I feel is like, like the the trolling motor capital of the world. Like, everyone over here has a trolling motor. Uh-huh. So and I'm and I'm very inexperienced at fishing with a trolling motor. So I wanna pick your brain more about, I'm I'm more familiar. I I love skiffs. You know, they're, you know, the pulling, the the quietness, the dexterity. You can spin. You can move. Although I've certainly had some frustrating times pulling a boat. I'm sure you have too. Like, it's a two person or more game. Like, if you're out there by yourself, it could it could be miserable, and I've I've really struggled trying to chase fish pulling by myself. So I'm thinking, you know, these bait boats and override wherever I am, wherever I am, wherever I am, wherever I am, wherever I want to pick your brain. So when you're, you have a bait boat, right? You have a 24 foot bay boat. Am I right? So when you're both and a skip to got you, but you're my hero. You got both. But anyway, so, so can you really stock, for example, I always think in terms of bonefish, can you really stock bonefish on a trolling motor or is it more like you go to an area and you kind of put your Power-Pole down or put your anchor down or whatever? You're kinda going to spots. You're not really stalking them with a trolling motor.
Tom Rowland: You can absolutely stalk them with a trolling motor. I've caught so many bonefish and permit and tarpon with the trolling motor. There's a technique to it. You can't just go on high and, you know, and and expect that they're going to to allow that. So if you run the trolling motor very low and and it is not cavitating, so the blade is staying completely underwater and you're running it on low, I think it may be quieter than polling, and you can get right on top of them, especially if the wind is blowing hard. One of the things about polling is that every time poll touches the bottom, it makes noise. Right? So even if you're in a in a mud bottom, so you're making noise. A lot of times, I think this is just my own personal, theory, but I think that a lot of times, the last thing a fish hears before it's been caught for the last forty years is a pole is a pole touching the ground. Right? And then they get caught. Mhmm. And so they tend to be pretty spooky when they hear the pole slide across the bottom or even, you know, a good, very experienced guide is very careful about how they put the pole in the ground. A lot of people use wood feet, for this purpose. They'll they'll make one out of a mangrove or, something like that to to quiet that down, but you're still touching the bottom. With the trolling motor, you're not touching the bottom. So there is a steady but you can get very close to fish. You can absolutely stalk them. Redfish, no problem. Now where you get in trouble is if you're hitting the bottom or hitting weeds, then it's very loud and they don't tolerate that. But the the trick to the trolling motor is is, you know, when you see fish or you're getting in the area slowing down and running it on on low speed. And when you're running it on low speed and you can keep the the whole, prop submerged, It's very quiet. Now when you are keeping the whole prop submerged, obviously, you're not going as shallow as you are when you're poling. Right? So, you know, if if you'd really like fishing for tailing fish.
Mike Larkin: You need to skip that. Right?
Tom Rowland: I mean,
Mike Larkin: you can't you really I'm sorry, Rod, but you really can't fish for tailing fish with the trolling motor. Right? It's just too too shallow. You'll be cutting them off.
Tom Rowland: You can in, you know, in in places where there's, like, a a trench or or, you know, a a dip or a little bowl or something, and you can kinda get in there and and go right along the edge of it. And you're just in in water that's a little deeper than than tailing depth, but just to your left or to your right is tailing depth. And, you know, we catch catch plenty of of, fish like that. But, you know, if your if your number one priority is to get up in the shallowest water that you possibly can, You know, a trolling motor and a bay boat is probably not for you. But we're gonna go over a couple of different things about you know, I've I've prepared some notes about the things that I think a skiff you know, the pluses for the skiff, the negatives for the skiff, the pluses for the bay boat, and the negatives for the bay boat. So I would start out by saying that no matter what your budget is, even if you have an unlimited budget, right, you you have Which
Mike Larkin: I don't, but go ahead.
Tom Rowland: Let's just say let's just say you wanna make this purchase and and money is not an object and it doesn't matter how much it costs and it it doesn't even that doesn't even matter. Every boat is a compromise. There is not a boat out there for any do everything. No. There's not a boat that can do everything at at any price. So if you wanna go super shallow, but you also wanna be able to go offshore on on rough days, it's gonna be really tough. You know? That's not gonna be something that that is doable because those boats do two completely different things. Going offshore, you know, has a deep v and displacement, and you can go offshore in a big boat on any weather. But that boat is not designed to go in shallow water. That's the extreme end of the of the spectrum. When you go in from a bay boat to a skiff, you know, like, if you want if your number one priority is getting super shallow, you know, then you're gonna you're gonna and that's where 90% of your fishing is. You're probably not gonna enjoy a bay boat. That's probably not gonna be a good boat for you because you're you're going to eliminate 90% of of what you like to do. But if you are different than that and you have you're making choices because of your family, because of the number of people that you wanna take, because of a lot of other kind of options that we're gonna go into, then you start looking at, okay. Well, I can do 80 of the fishing that I wanna do in this boat, and I'm only giving up 10%. And maybe I can go with a buddy or maybe I can, you know, do something for that. So the there's just just this list that I came up with, you know, and this is how I kinda make a lot of decisions is, you know, you just yell a pad test, you know. You put put a line down the middle. You got you got the the the good things on one side. You got the bad things on the other side, and then you just kinda decide what how you wanna do that. So a skiff, the the positive things are very it's very technical boat. You can, you know, you can get out there, with a buddy that knows how to pull and you can fly fish for permit. Probably the most technical, tarpon, whatever, redfish. You can get in super shallow water. Very, very technical. You can spin it real quick. You can do do all kinds of of great things with it. That's fantastic. The downside to that is that you do need that buddy, and they need to be able to pull. And if you're the only one that knows how to pull, then you're always gonna be And
Mike Larkin: you're calling.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. And then so it's really fun to take people fishing. You're just like a fishing guide. In a skiff, most skiffs are like one person and you. Like you and one person. That's the ideal. You and two people is doable. You and three people kind of getting to a problem and even getting to whether that's coast guard legal in a lot of boats.
Mike Larkin: So Especially if they're big guys or something. Yeah. Yeah.
Tom Rowland: So, you know, take that with a family. Like, we had I had my wife and three kids, and that's just not that's just not a good combination on a on a skiff. Plus, one of the things that is a is a positive for the skiff is it's extremely lightweight. The sides are very low. It's mostly deck, and that's also a negative when you have kids. Right? Because a a little kid can get their get their their their waist up over the over the side. They lean over, their feet come out just like the way that that a kid falls in a bucket. You know, you wouldn't think you always see that little warning on the side of a five gallon bucket. You're like, hey. Look. What kind of kid's gonna fall into a bucket? But it's really easy if you see it happen. They just get they just get a little top heavy, and they lean over and boom, they go right in. And I've seen people go right out of skiffs like that too. So the low sides, that's a that's kind of a problem. The number of passengers is kind of a problem for some people, but that's also really great for others. Like, that's those are those are two completely different things. So the skiffs are also great for fly fishing. Has then this is where there's a big difference. There's a big difference in the amount of water it takes to jump on plane. Okay. So between a bay boat and a skiff. So if you're in shallow water, even if you're even if you're fishing like we're talking about where you're submerging the the the whole blade of the trolling motor and you're getting up in there and you've you've gone for an hour up into shallow water, like snake bite area or something like that, you've well, you can't use a trolling motor in there. So the bad example, but you can go in there and, you go into an area and it's very shallow. Well, you're gonna have to trolling motor all the way out where in a skiff, if you find a little pothole or you find just even just a smidge deeper water, a lot of skiffs can jump up on plane right there and and not hurt the bottom and not do anything. So there is a big difference in in jumping up on plane. That's one that people don't think about. And that's that's significant because, you know, now you're like, oh, man, we're going to it's going to take an hour to get out of here to jump up on plane where all the skiffs around you are jumping up and they're already fishing somewhere else. So the skiff can be very fast as well. But in a very fast skiff, it's also, you know, is is it's not like you want your kid riding at 70 miles an hour in the skiff, you know, five years old holding on for a day.
Mike Larkin: Yeah. Yeah.
Tom Rowland: So so that's that's kind of that's kind of an issue with the skiff. Skiffs have, small live wells, typically, but they do have live wells a lot of times. Typically for shrimp and crabs and maybe for a bonefish release or redfish release, well. When you the other thing that might be a downside for a lot of people is when you're thinking about taking your family out there, there's no shade in a skiff. There's there's no shade at all. So you can get shade in a bay boat. That's something that is a major factor for some people. Like, your wife doesn't want to go out there unless there's shade or your kids are sensitive to the sun or somebody needs to be in the shade. So that's Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A big deal. The the skiff also when you're talking about a trolling motor setup, now a lot's changed as we move into these lithium batteries.
Mike Larkin: Quite a bit. Wider batteries and stuff.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. They're much lighter. They can be mounted on their sides and stuff like that. But for the most part, there's very little room in a skiff. So there's very little room for, bags, for tackle, for batteries. Right? And then you then there's a real weight balance of where do you put the batteries. And if you and and you can totally do it, but you might need to change the prop. You might need to change where where these batteries are, so that you get a good you maintain a good smooth ride in a bay boat. Man, I think you can we've had bay boats with batteries in the console. We've had bay boats with batteries upfront. It doesn't seem to matter because the bay boat is
Mike Larkin: Big enough.
Tom Rowland: It's bigger. And so when you add weight to it, it doesn't affect the draft that much where if you have a a small skiff, like a really small one, and you put two big guys in that skiff, that boat goes down immediately. Like, it doesn't there's not enough boat to displace this weight, so it goes down. So a boat that has this unbelievable draft when it's just you and one person, if you put a third person in there, you may not be able to go as shallow as a bay boat. Right? Because that extra weight just sinks that boat down big time. And and, you know, that's why most fishing guides, you ask them if they can take three people. They're like, no. Uh-uh. Because everything that they have, that boat, that specialized boat, it's specialized to perform with a certain amount of weight in it. And you put more weight in there than what's what's what it's good for, and that boat just goes straight down. And they can't get to where they wanna get. It's really hard to pull. All those things are are issues. So, a couple other things for the for the, the skiff, they can be it can be a little rough ride in some conditions where the bay boat I've got some positives here. So one of the big things that I like about the bay boat is increased range with the larger fuel tanks. I can go anywhere. I can go anywhere I wanna go. Like, I can go offshore and come back inshore in the same day. I have big live wells. So if you like if you like bait fishing
Mike Larkin: Like, mullet, if you need some big bait fish.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. You got mullet. You can throw the net for pilchards. You can do anything. I have a 150 gallons of live well in my in my yellowfin. That's as much as an offshore boat. When you combine that with the 75 gallons of fuel that I have, I can on a calm day, we can go out and go mahi fishing and come back in and go bone fishing. Like, it's it's very doable to do that. So in certain areas, that's something that a lot of people like. Like, maybe one of your kids likes to offshore fish. The other one likes to ensure fish. Okay. Well, if you get a skiff, one person's just not happy. If you get a bay boat, it's possible on nice days. It's still a bay boat. It's not an offshore boat. It's a bay boat. So you got to really watch it. With a bay boat, you have more opportunity to get bigger electronics like radar. You can have radar. So, you know, that's that's pretty nice for some people. In some places, like, especially Louisiana, where you're fishing the Mississippi River and it's foggy a lot of times, and then there's all that ship traffic there. Those guys use radar all the time. So there's not really a place for it. It's a more comfortable ride. You it's definitely more family friendly. The sides are higher. The cockpit's larger. Kids can have a great time in there. The bait well is not only good for keeping bait in there, but it's also probably the best entertainment for almost every kid that's ever been on any boat that I've owned. You get a live well full of shrimp or or a live well full of pilchards, and they don't even wanna fish, man. They wanna play in the live well. They love it. Yeah.
Mike Larkin: You're an aquarium. Yeah.
Tom Rowland: It's like your own aquarium, and they, you know, it's fantastic for them. And as long as everybody's having a good time, it's it's fantastic. You can put more batteries in the in the thing without without, affecting its performance. Then the other thing that we we were gonna talk about is, like, the you were talking about the trolling motor and how how in your area there, everybody's using a trolling motor. And then you were asking about, can you stock fish with the trolling motor? And you absolutely can. But there's one thing that that's really important, when you're when you're thinking about doing that and is also the ability to stop. Like, that's something that you're not really thinking about a lot of times when you're with a push pole because of a school of fishes coming at you, and you just put the push pole down and you stop the boat. So the push pole is good for pushing the boat and moving the boat, but it's also good for stopping the boat. And some people are doing it without even thinking about it. Like, you can either stake out or you can push the pole forward and you can actually stop the boat. In a lot of ways, stopping the boat is as important, if not more important, than forward motion. So with a bay boat, we don't have a push pole. We use Power-Poles, and the Power-Pole is a fantastic invention that can quietly stop the boat. So if you have a school of redfish coming towards you and the wind is blowing at your back, If you don't stop the boat, you're gonna get maybe one cast at the school of fish and the boat's gonna blow right over the top of it and you're never gonna see them again. But if you can stop on the outside of that school, you can make 20 casts into that school and you can catch fish after fish after fish. So stopping the boat is very, very important with a because I
Mike Larkin: even know real quick. So sorry to interrupt you. But trolling motors, do they have reverse or no?
Tom Rowland: Is it just have reverse. They do have reverse,
Mike Larkin: but it's
Tom Rowland: incredibly loud. It's almost better just to spin the trolling motor all the way around. But even then, it's, it's loud and it's not it doesn't work as well. Like, when you're pulling the boat along with the trolling motor, it is actually pulling it from the very tip of the boat. When you go to turn it around and try to back up, now your your your your trolling motor is at the very tip of the bow, pushing it backwards, and it goes every which way. Right? It's very tricky.
Mike Larkin: I can It's very tricky.
Tom Rowland: It's just much easier to just put that Power-Pole down or even, you know, if if if you don't have a Power-Pole, even just have somebody ready with the anchor and just put the anchor down or something down. They have, like, you know, you can even stake the boat out. That's what we used to do before there were Power-Poles. But the combination of the Power-Pole and the trolling motor, that's the fish catching combination. They're being able to stop, but also being able to to move it along. So whether that's with a skiff or bay boat, you need to be able to stop if you're going to have a trolling motor and you're gonna be stalking fish and really trying, to to catch fish in that way. Stopping is huge. Now with a bay boat, I have two Power-Poles. And the two Power-Poles is nice because you can imagine if the wind's on your on your, left shoulder and you're kinda going across the wind and you put the Power-Pole down and cut the trolling motor, immediately, you're blowing around to the right. Right? So the the wind will blow you right around. When you have two Power-Poles down, you can keep the boat in the same attitude for the most part. So I guess when you blow a 24 foot boat all the way around, you might be 50 feet further away from the fish. Now you're out of casting range. Right. So that's that's tricky. So the twin Power-Poles, that's that's really good. The shade, that's a that's a good positive for the bay boat if if you have people that need it. I do
Mike Larkin: feel like the shade could be a positive or negative. Yeah. I I see your side, the positive, but if you're fly casting Yeah.
Tom Rowland: No. It can be
Mike Larkin: a problem. Thing to hit your feet. Yeah. You hit your bow and your back cast.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. That's a problem. So it could be positive or negative. Yes. And and but on the other hand, if you have, a hardtop, like, we stand up on top of the hardtop. So instead of being four feet off the deck on a skiff, I'm 20 feet in the air on the top of the hardtop, and I can see fish that that people in a skiff can't see at all. Like, it's it's that's Are
Mike Larkin: you guiding up there? Are you fishing up there? You must have got it.
Tom Rowland: You can guide up there and fish up there, but it's more more I mean, you you're better off just to guide up there. And so now the trolling motor is a remote control. Yeah. So the remote the the trolling motor I use has a remote control, and we just, you know, I can be up on the up on the bow, and I can also have a remote control for the for the Power-Pole. So I'm in total control of the boat standing 20 feet off the deck. It's pretty awesome. It really is. It's like flying in a helicopter.
Mike Larkin: It could be a a diving board for the kids. Right? Yeah. It can be.
Tom Rowland: So that's another that's another positive. But, you know, there's other things, you know, like I say, every boat's a come around. So if you have that tower, yes, it gets in the way of fly fishing. Yes. It gets in the way of bridges, which is this is a problem. And and I often wonder when I buy when I get a new boat, like, where you we spend a lot of time at Hawkes Caye. And, man, if it's blowing 25 out of the north and we just wanna or or 25 out of the South is even better, and we just wanna leave, Hawkes Caye, and we wanna just go on the other side of the road right there. If you're in a skiff, you can without even jumping on plane, you can idle, never get a drop of water on you, idle under one bridge, idle under the next bridge, and now you're on the you're in the lee and you can fish any anywhere you want to. You never even jumped up on plane. With a bay boat, we've got to go all the way around and under Long Key Bridge. Everybody gets wet. It's not great with 25 from the South. So the, you know, and then there's then there's other places where with a bay boat, you can't even access areas that you can in a skiff because you can't get under the bridge. So that's definitely something to consider whether you get a
Mike Larkin: Or you could buy a bay boat without a tower. Right? Without a You could. But even you could
Tom Rowland: even then, you know, the bay boat without a tower, the console is still probably taller than the polling tower. So it's it's definitely something to consider. So those are kind of the positives and negatives. So I don't know what questions you have. You probably got lots of questions now.
Mike Larkin: Yeah. But I'm thinking also I mean, obviously, from, you know, someone with a wife and two kids, a bay boat is definitely the way for me to go. It's just something I'm unfamiliar with. You know, cause that way they could go fishing, we could go to the beach, they could go hopefully water skiing off it. But I do also juggle, you know, the, the negatives or consider the negatives of a bay boat. The fuel cost is higher. Right. I mean, I feel like when I had to skip in Miami, I would spend sometimes $10
Tom Rowland: right now.
Mike Larkin: And obviously the fuel costs a lot higher with the, with the bay boat, trailering. Like I feel like putting that trail, the boat on a trailer, a skiff, I didn't even really know it was, I mean, I knew it was there, but like, but if you're trailering, I mean, do you trailer?
Tom Rowland: You said,
Mike Larkin: I'm sorry. You have a 24 foot bay boat.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. It trailers. Great. It it it trailer's great. I can trailer I've had a F-150, and now I have an F-250. The F-150 pulled it perfectly fine. It's definitely a larger boat. You definitely, you know, see it in both mirrors and in the in the rearview mirror. You're looking at it. But honestly, it's it's not a it's not an issue to trailer. The issue is, can you park it in your garage? Because a bay
Mike Larkin: boat or a
Tom Rowland: lot of times, you know, a lot of people can't park a boat on the street. They it has to if they have something, it has to fit inside the garage. And they do have trailers now that have the swing away tongue. So you can cut a lot of, of of the overall length out of the whole rig when you have this tongue that swings back so that, you know, just for storage. Right? So you can swing, like, four feet of the trailer out of the way and, you know, that will fit in some garages. But a 24 foot bay boat, you know, you gotta have a place to put it. You know, that's that's kind of the problem. So Yeah.
Mike Larkin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Tom Rowland: That's that's
Mike Larkin: I'm not the pay. I don't have space where I have to pay somewhere. It's just an hour expense. I have to find a place to store it Right. Because I can't fit in my my yard. But, another thing is, so when I in Miami, it was a a skiff. I had a steering wheel and a motor. And that's it. I had a handheld GPS and I had a handheld radio. So there's nothing to go wrong other than the steering, but I feel like may I'm hoping electronics have come a long way, but like, you know, with, with this bay boat or say, you, you know, wiring for your Power-Pole wiring for your trolling motor, wiring for your electronics, your radio, it's also a lot more things that could go wrong. Right. I mean, whether you get rust in them or salt water, so, or more things to the upkeep. Right. So they go, oh, my radio is not working. Like I always had a handheld radio. Like it was, you know, and, and you can still have that.
Tom Rowland: I mean, you can still build a bay by the way that you want to, and you can have, instead of having, you know, the VHF inside the boat and ready to go, you can have you can have your handheld. You don't have the range on the handheld that you do on a on a on a boat with an antenna wave
Mike Larkin: With antenna. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Tom Rowland: But you can keep them very, very sparse. And I I agree with you. I mean, my favorite boats are the ones that are absolutely the most simple. However, I'm also drawn to all these new things, like, you know, when Lowrance comes out with with, you know, a new a new this active target that can shoot a beam out in front of you and you can actually see a fish Like, we can see tarpon swimming across the screen. Yeah. I want that. Right? And so Yeah. That's right. Cool. That. You've gotta you've gotta do all this other stuff. So, I'm drawn to all the technology, but I know in my heart that the more stuff you put on a boat, the more stuff can go wrong with it. And the worst thing that you can do for a boat is not use it. The best thing you can do for a boat is to use it every single day. And when you use a boat every single day, like you get on a guide boat and that boat runs 300 a year, basically, stuff might be worn down, but it's not broken. And it all works because he's using it every single day. And that's the best thing you can do for a boat to keep it functional. But you're right. You know, the more stuff you have on a boat, the more stuff there is to go wrong. And it doesn't matter what that boat is and it doesn't matter what, how much it costs. Saltwater is tough on things. So and especially electronics and electrical wiring and stuff like that. So you do get what you pay for when you go to a premium boat. Like, if you look at the wiring on the yellowfin that we have, it's remarkable. Every wire you can you can look at where it goes. You can follow it right down to the to the switch panel, and you can see exactly what instead of having just this big bundle of wires. Right? And I've had boats like that, and it's like there's a bundle of wires. And if something goes wrong, good luck. So a really nice boat, typically, they already know there's a chance that, you know, your bilge pump could go out. Let's make it really easy to fix. Let's you know, there is a chance that you could blow a fuse somewhere. Let's make it really easy to find that so that you can get back going as quickly as possible. And, you know, those are those are things that I consider too when I'm buying, whether it's a skiff or or a bay boat. You know? What what does the wiring look like? And and what kind of attention to detail do they put into, the part of the boat that you're not seeing? Because that's really the heart and soul of that boat.
Mike Larkin: Gotcha. Gotcha. The other thing is, so looks like Luna Bay boats, they come from what I've seen, in my mind, they come, in three sizes, like, roughly about 20 feet, 22 feet, 24 feet. And I'm just, I think maybe I did 24. You you have a 24, but I think I guess it's all trade offs. Right? I mean, I think, to me, the 22 is more, in my mind, more more fits me better because of trailering. My my car can only tow about 5,000 pounds.
Tom Rowland: I think
Mike Larkin: if you get to 24 with gas and everything, you can I don't wanna exceed the towing capacity? I think 20 is a little bit too small for me and my family and still might work, but 22 seems to be that middle middle ground. Have have you been able to use all three or just focus on the bigger bay boats?
Tom Rowland: Certainly have used all three over the over the last, you know, twenty twenty years of of owning bay boats. The 20 twos typically, are are basically the 24 with two feet cut out of the middle of the of the boat. And you usually sacrifice, you know, depending on the brand, and this isn't across all brands because some people will have a very specific 22, and then it will be a different haul than the 24. But in the couple of different boat brands that I've spent a lot of time in, the 22 is very similar to the 24, except you're gonna usually sacrifice some live well storage and possibly have a smaller fuel tank in it. But they can they can be great. Now a lot of people will decide that they want the 22 over the 24 because it can fit in their garage. That's one, you know, where where it's a really, really big deal to somebody. Like, you like, if you can fit that boat in your garage, now you don't have to pay storage on it. Now everything's easier. Right? So but if if it was a decision like that, I would absolutely go with a 22 over 24 for for that purpose. You know, if you're if you're just saying, you know, you can get whatever you want, do you want the 22 or the 24? I'm probably gonna go with the 24 because it's got larger lab well, larger fuel tank. And, you know, it's it's just a a a little bit bigger boat. And when you get to a boat like that, you're not gonna see that the 22 is gonna float in a lot shallower water than the 24. It's not like it's not like between an 18 foot skiff and a 16 foot skiff. Like, you know, you can see that that can be that can be a big difference. You know? Like, some 16 foot skiffs are very, very, very small, like a like a Hells Bay or something like that. They're tiny little boats. And then you go up to 18 and like, the difference between, like, a a 16 what is the boat I'm thinking about? What what was that? The whip ray. The Hells Bay Whip Ray 16. And then you go up to, like, a a a Maverick
Mike Larkin: Or KC.
Tom Rowland: 18, you know, Mirage 18. Those are two very different boats. They're one's bigger. Way one's way bigger, and one's way smaller. Yeah.
Mike Larkin: I had a dolphin 18.
Tom Rowland: It was really wide and and stable. Dolphin super skiff. Like, that is a small boat. That's a tiny little boat. And, it's a great boat, but it's a very, very small boat compared to some of the eighteens that are out there.
Mike Larkin: So what do you think not to get in the weeds too much with these. I don't know if you're familiar, but the, sorry. I read about these, you know, these skiffs making this vacuum infused, you know, holes. Yes. But I don't think that's translated over to the bay boat. Do you know why that is?
Tom Rowland: It is definitely. It is definitely. Certainly, with the premium manufacturers, I mean, that's that's absolutely the way that that Yellowfin does it. And you can even go a step further.
Mike Larkin: For all their bay boats, they do that? Yeah. I think okay. Okay.
Tom Rowland: Yeah. I mean, they they do Which
Mike Larkin: I guess gives you
Tom Rowland: Well, you get you get really good, I mean, the the weight of a boat is, is in the resin. Right? So if you just dump a whole bunch of resin in a boat and you're and you're you don't squeegee it out really well, that boat is gonna be heavy, like a really heavy boat. And so over time, these skiff manufacturers as they're as they're starting to, to try to eliminate weight out of this boat, make it float shallower and shallower and shallower, they would start to build them slightly different. And they're like, look. We don't need hundreds of gallons of resin in here. We just need to wet the, you know, get the get the fiberglass
Mike Larkin: whatever.
Tom Rowland: Wet like it needs to with this so that there's this bonding. And once you have that, excess is only extra weight. So when you go to that vacuum, bag system, it pulls the resin right through the fiberglass, and you get exactly how much you need, but not more. Right? And so it pulls a tremendous amount of weight out of the boat. And then when you start adding, you know, using different materials like carbon, you can even pull more weight out of the boat. So, I mean, I've the boat that I have now is probably over a thousand pounds lighter than the boat that I had ten years ago. And
Mike Larkin: Wow. Okay. That's that's a big difference, especially with trailering and
Tom Rowland: Yeah. Yeah. And and and the way it floats and the way it rides and everything. It's you can they they have taken tremendous amount of weight out of out of these boats these days. And and all manufacturers are doing a better job of, you know, getting rid of excess resin, but also reducing human error and, making a making a really good boat. So that is translating over, not to all brands, but to the premium brands. They're definitely they're definitely using the vacuum bag.
Mike Larkin: And because you keep your bay boat on a trailer primarily, or do you put it in the water and at a dock somewhere?
Tom Rowland: I I don't like to leave any boat in the water. It we have a lift at Hawks Cay. So there's a there's a boat on the lift at Hawks Cay. My bay boat stays on a trailer. The skiff stays on a trailer. I like a trailer. I I was a trailer guide.
Mike Larkin: Me too. Me too. Yeah.
Tom Rowland: I I don't really like keeping a boat in the same exact place. I like to be able to move. And on and I use the trailer in the bay boat and the skiff. I use a trailer as a tool in the Florida Keys where if it's really blowing, I can choose a a boat ramp, and we can go and fish a couple little spots there and then put the boat back on the trailer all in the course of of the day, and then trailer down 20 miles, hit another boat ramp, fish a little bit around there, all while everybody's staying. I mean, I just don't see any reason why it's blowing 30 to beat the hell out of your customers. Right? When you can just put it on the trailer and just drive down the keys, everybody's happy. You're comfortable. You put the boat back in the water. I mean, there there have been many days where I'll I'll take the boat out and put it back in, you know, maybe two or three times in the course of a day to keep everybody more comfortable and to fish for the kind of fish that we we wanna fish for. Now if you're going to the Marquesas, you don't have that opportunity. So you just gotta or the Everglades or something like that. Like, sometimes you gotta just suck it up and take the take the rough ride, but, you know. But I'm the
Mike Larkin: same way. We what when I was at University of Miami, we had docks and we'd we'd heat the boat there, but I couldn't I couldn't sleep well at night. I would just be, like, so afraid of the bilge from stop working or anyway, I'm I'm a huge fan of trailering. So here's the last topic I have, which is kind of a negative heartbreaking one, cost.
Tom Rowland: Yes.
Mike Larkin: I mean, to buy a new boat, it looks like they're for these bay boats and don't get me wrong, they're they're phenomenal boats. I watched the videos. I see them at boat shows. They've really come a long way, and I just sit there and I drool looking at them. But you're looking at 6 figures to buy a new one. I mean, I'm definitely not gonna buy a new one, but it just it kinda sits there, like, breaks my heart. Like, I could never buy that new boat. You know, I could with with my income, I could never like, to me, 6 figures is what I spend for a house. Right. You know? So
Tom Rowland: Yeah. And they've got No.
Mike Larkin: I mean, I know there's more
Tom Rowland: and more expensive. But the the used, you know, used boat is is there's nothing wrong with it, especially if you're going with a premium manufacturer. I would rather have a used boat from a premium manufacturer than a brand new boat from a not a premium manufacturer. Because, you know, once you like, if you were to get a a used boat, say it's ten years old, and you put a new motor on that, and you fix whatever wiring issues there are, you've got a brand new boat. Like, that's a great boat. And, you know, if you're talking about, like, a yellowfin or something like that, those boats, they last. They really, really last. Now the motor needs to be replaced. The trolling motor batteries need to be replaced.
Mike Larkin: The How often did you change that to trolling motor batteries? Like, every five years or so? Or make my car batteries every five years?
Tom Rowland: Yeah. That'd be good. And depends on how much you you know, any kind of batteries is gonna have a a number of of recharging cycles, just like your cell phone. Right? Like, you know, if you just Yeah. Charge your cell phone every single day, it it only can do that so many times before the battery just won't do it anymore. So, you know, if you're if you're using it a whole bunch and you you need to change them out more often than maybe somebody that doesn't use it as much. But, you know, the those are the things that I look at. It's like, you know, you're outboard for sure. Like, if you had an old boat with a new outboard, you're good to go, man. You're good to go. There's I I've got one of my favorite boats in The Keys is a is is a, is our, underwater cameraman's boat. And that boat is 30 years old. He just puts new motors on it, and it's fine. It's perfectly fine. And What is
Mike Larkin: it, Bill? My mascot, what is it?
Tom Rowland: That's a 28 Whitewater. You know Whitewater. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And that's not a bay boat or or a skiff. So that's kind of a an offshore boat. It's a small offshore boat. And, you know, it's it's a it's it's just what I like about that boat is that it stands the test of time. Like, that is that boat has been out there in every weather condition, and and it's fine. But, you know, the the, they throw no new motors on it, and and it's a it's good to go. And so the when when you're getting a used boat, you know, the the number of hours on the motor is is really that's a that's a big factor. And, you know, maybe if you get a really good deal on it, then you can afford to put a new motor on on an old boat, and you're you're good to go, man. That's a that's a great that's a great choice.
Mike Larkin: Gotcha. Well, I'll look for a definitely use one and maybe something that'll come out in price, but I doubt they ever the new ones ever will, but that's alright. It's a world we live in.
Tom Rowland: Yeah.
Mike Larkin: So but, no. Thanks, Tom. Thanks. You will. Thanks for all my questions.
Tom Rowland: Now you've made now you have a choice, that that's even harder now that you now that you understand this. But, you know, I think the big the big takeaway is that no matter no matter what the budget, every boat's a compromise. And, you know, when you're when you're looking to go into a new boat, whether whether you're getting out of a big boat and going into a skiff, there's an adjustment period. Or the other way around, whether you're getting out of a out of a a skiff and going into a bay boat, you know, there's an adjustment period and it's gonna feel really big and it's gonna feel like, woah, I don't, you know, I don't this is too much boat or this is too much boat for the area that I'm trying to fish in or but, you know, if you just spend a little time in it, it it all it all becomes more comfortable. And, you know, the bay boat bay boat's a nice ride. I mean, your your family's gonna like it. I promise you that. Like, that's Yeah. That's definitely more of a family boat.
Mike Larkin: I don't think my checkbook will, but I think the family will. Yeah. That's right.
Tom Rowland: That's right. Well, good luck with your decision. Let me know if I can help any further. And I'm sure all of you guys might have questions as well. If you do, you can always text (305) 930-7346. You can ask those questions, and maybe it will spark a episode just like this one with Mike. Alright. That's a Bay Boat versus a Skiff. We'll be back next week for another episode, How To Tuesday. See you.
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