Thoughts and Questions on the Boat Market and Fishing Industry as it sits today..

Hey all, I am in the market for a new boat, but am also in the market of selling my old one (see signature line). A few things I have noticed are that new boats seem to be dropping prices significantly. Boats that used to be $100k+ are now sitting at $89k. Boats that used to retail for $83k are being sold now for $67k. Now... I know that a lot of this pricing has to do with fall season, and dealers trying to push boats off their lot. However, a few are putting their 2025 models up online and they are lower than what I would expect/have seen in recent times.

On the other hand.. The used market seems to be holding at the same level of pricing. Which in my opinion, follows the usual trend of the market (New models reduce price first, old models follow suit within a year later). I also see multiple used boats that I consider a decent price (maybe a little high, but enough to negotiate) sitting on the market for weeks to months. There's a few other nuances in the used market that are fun to see as well, but irrelevant to this thread (Livescope vs No Livescope - pricing and length of time listed on market).

So now that I am done pretending to be Bass Boat Wall Street genius...

My questions:

Is now one of the best times in recent years to get into a brand new/one year old but still new boat?
Is now one of the best times to sell an older, used boat?
The big question, what does next year bring? Does the market just hold at these awkward prices or does it drop significantly? I don't see it going up unless something drastic happens in the world.

One thing is for sure, it is a very interesting time to be an owner of a bass boat, and not just for purposes of the market. Tournament fishing is changing and the industry is realizing that bass fishing has peaked in publicity and beginning a downward trend. Everyone is realizing that something big needs to change in order to maintain a consistent fanbase, yet there are such heated debates about certain topics that one may be led to believe a civil war was had not long ago for said topics. Recreational fishing as a whole is changing with advancements also. In terms of understanding fish behavior, we are leagues ahead of where we were ten years ago. So much so, that on the very few bodies of water left in the nation where use FFS is *relatively* not able to be used as effectively, the knowledge we have gained from it elsewhere can still be applied even when fishing in an area where FFS is useless. How does this all affect the market? Will the industry sink or figure out a way to swim?

Yes I had too much coffee this morning and wayy too little sleep. Hopefully this brings some interesting discussion, stay positive, have a good day if you made it this far.

Skeeter and Phoenix sell very, very well here. Prices are increasing on them. They are still selling well.

Really?? Cannot say the same for up north, however we have winter coming and, admittedly, I do not watch the market as close for Skeeters.

Just like playing the stock market.........always a roll of the dice when making these types of transactions. The market is self correcting it appears and there is still some downward room IMHO.

Frankly, I would not expect new boat prices to come down a whole lot in the future. A manufacturer might come out with a more basic package deal, but they can't do a whole lot when the total retail price is predicated on the price of the boat, motor, trolling motor, electronics, poles, etc. as they have no control over the price of all those things. I think it's reasonable to expect better prices on used boats because there are so many sitting out there. I just ran into a young guy who paid $22K for a beautiful 19' Skeeter with a 200 Yamaha with only 50 hours on it - the owner had health problems and had to sell it. I would be patient and look for the right deal.

Trying to time the market never works well. There are always people talking doom and gloom and others saying things are great. Neither of them are usually right.

I know that when I sold and bought my last boat, market conditions had nothing to do with the decision. If you're ready, go for it. If not, wait it out. My guess is things won't change all that much.

American labor costs are way up(as they should be...), and as far as I am aware we do not import any bass boats. All materials are up. Not an economist but isn't inflation compounding? So like goods should be up somewhere around 25-30% as opposed to 5yrs ago.

I would not be surprised if the profit margins on most boats are within 20%, maybe less for boats like bass cat that use premium materials. When you have thin profit margins and stagnating sales you sacrifice some of that profit for volume to make cash flow.

With interest rates dropping I expect we will see new boats level out.

Used boats will always have a higher demand as there are a lot of people who want a boat but cant justify 50k+ for one.

Boats in the 10-20k range are still moving pretty fast as that is the sweet spot for most serious anglers.


Peak bass fishing is probably NOW and we will likely see a decline in participation soon due to the difficulty threshold going way up.

Just as with cars and trucks, the way to get a reduced price on a new boat [and pretty much the only way, unless you find a dealer going out of business] is to buy a year-end leftover. Reduced 10-15% that is. So that’s where and why you’re seeing $100k boats now listed at $89k. 2024 models or even 2023. This is not a problem if you intend to keep the boat at least 5 years, because by that time, if the hours and condition are no worse than average for that year boat, yearly depreciation will have leveled out. 5 or 6 years down the road, a clean and low hours 2024 might have a similar value to a 2025. I seldom buy year-end holdover boats because I’m picky about colors, but I almost always buy year-end holdover trucks, because there are a LOT more trucks to choose from and dealers to visit than with boats.