What is the best fish and ski boat?

Question

I have looked at Skeeter, Ranger, and Triton.

Answer 1

Ranger makes a great boat but for my money, buy a Lund...best fishing boats ever. They cost more mmore they do for a reason..they take the stress and strain better and hold up longer...you get what you pay for

Answer 2

Ranger makes a great boat but for my money, buy a Lund...best fishing boats ever. They cost more mmore they do for a reason..they take the stress and strain better and hold up longer...you get what you pay f

Answer 3

sorry there is no best fish and ski boat and i will explain. when you buy a fish and ski YOU DO NOT get the best of both worlds as the manufactures claim in thier advertisements YOU get a half-*** bass boat and and a half-*** ski boat and that is it. as good as the concept seems as it would seemly provide a boat the whole family can enjoy the buyer will be disapointed in the end. lets look at the pros and cons of both boats.

PROS:bass boat

1.a good bass boat needs large front and rear casting decks and plenty of room the move around.

2. a bass boat needs plenty of rod storage (at least 7' minimum)and front storage for tackle and other equipment so your not tripping over things as you move about in your boat

3. a bass boat needs large livewells

PROS: ski boat

1. ski boats need plenty of open rear space in the back of the boat for passengers (spotters)

2. ski boats need BIG motors with small pitch props (most ski boats run smaller pitch props so the have alot of power coming out of the hole as tto pull thier skier up as quickly as possibly, where as the smaller pitch props equals slower top end speed, water skiing speeds are only in the lows 30's mph  if i am remembering correctly)

CONS:

now here is what you get with a fish and ski boat

1. most rod lockers are 6 to 6' 6" in fish and ski boats

2. bow windshields cover across the whole boat and are moved forward to make more open room in back for passengers resulting in smaller front decks (some fish and ski boats dont even have rear decks)

3. livewells are usally about 50% smaller and "hidden" under seats in fish and ski boats

4. storage space for skis are usally in the center of the boat and run up the front and take away storage for fishing tackle in front

5. most fish and ski boats are proped with too high of pitch prop and dont give you the right preformance for water sking (and since you are looking at ranger,skeeter and triton you will be buying from a bass boat dealer NOT  a water sking dealer and chances are the guy rigging the motor will set it up just like he does all the other engines for bass boats)

6) if after buying a fish and ski and you decide to sell it and purchase a regular bass boat or a ski boat it will be hard to sell.

you should make a decison  either on a real bass boat or a real ski boat depending on which you do the most of. i know a few guys with wives and kids who bought fish and ski boats and the same thing happened, after the first few months they wound up fishing more than sking and then regreted not buying a real bass boat.

your best bet would be buy  a bass boat and then you can purchase a ski tow bar (from the dealer or from cabelas or bass pro shops) and then when you go fishing you will have a great bass boat and when you want to take the wife and kids out on the lake for the day you can quickly set up for sking and enjoy the family time then when you get home take off the sking stuff and you still have your great bass boat for  when you and your buddy go fishing.

as far as skeeter, ranger and triton go, if you choose a skeeter you will get a yamaha engine (yamaha owns skeeter so you dont have a choice of engine brands), ranger will be the best built and probly will last the longest (20+ years if taken care of) and you will get more options to choose from but the price will be higher (dont let the ranger dealer fool you with the ranger has higher resale value, a 10 year old ranger will sell for 3k more than the other brands but you would also have had to pay 3k more to buy it 10 years ago too, they depreciate the same percentage as the rest of the brands). triton make an ok boat and you will get alot of options and your choice of motor brands.

depending on the size of boat i was buying would depend on brand of boat.

for bass fishing boat:

17' boat : ranger 175vs w/ merc 115 optimax  (hands down the best 17' boat on the market today for bass boats)

18' bass boat: ranger 185vs w/ yamaha vmax 150, (2nd choice would be triton w/ 150 mercury optimax)

19' basss boat : ranger z19 w/200 merc or skeeter zx 190 w/ 200 yamaha vmax

20+ ranger z series or skeeter i - class series

fish and ski boats: personally i would never buy one but if i did i would buy AT LEAST a 20' boat with AT LEAST a 150 hp engine

also if looking at skeeter stay with either zx or i-class series , the sx series are not very good and you wont be happy in the long run with it,

sorry for the long reply and i hope this helps and good luck with your boat whatever you buy