How is the rough water ride in these boats? Say compared to a Champ or Bass Cat which I think are very good riding boats. I have never been in one and cant seem to find anyone to give me a ride in my area. The 2100 is what I am interested in.
How is the rough water ride in these boats? Say compared to a Champ or Bass Cat which I think are very good riding boats. I have never been in one and cant seem to find anyone to give me a ride in my area. The 2100 is what I am interested in.
mine cuts though waves like butta.no really youve gotta ride in one to see what they are like. i would mine a 8 out of 10 on rough water. i'd think someone's gotta have one over there for u to ride in over there.
I think you will find it comparable. Tough to beat a Champ for rough water ride, but the Gambler is close.
A Gambler can be made to ride however the driver wishes it to be. You can bridge a great deal of what most bass fishermen call rough water, and the ride will be smooth. Let no one doubt 5 foot rollers are going to slow down any boat less than about 50 feet in length. However, with the trim tabs you can set the ride in some pretty awful stuff that will simply amaze you. Compared to the Champ you spoke of...it is different. The Champ sets down into the water column and you knife your way thru. This provides a good ride. You can do that in a Gambler too by setting the trim tabs correctily and not over trimming the engine. Where the two seperate ways is in bridging the waves. If you do that in a Champ your gonna get wet, if you do that in a Gambler it just becomes one more tool to use during a day on the water. There is really nothing as versatile as a Gambler, but learning how to do those things with a G-Boat is not something everyone can master the 1st day out. A real dyed in the wool G-man can make a Gambler do things that the average bass boat guy can't begin to imagine. They are really that good.
Modified by Ben Harris at 1:36 PM 2/26/2009
this is good to know..makes me want one even more
I rode in and drove a new 08 Bass Cat Puma this past summer.. It drove ok in a 16" chop but it seemed to bounce around a lot side to side.. The fastest I could get it to run was 75 with two and a fishing load.. If I run my Gambler 2100 at the same speed in 16" chop it is a lot better ride and feels much safer than the Cat..
I have been in a couple of Champions and they are a good riding boat but they are as slow as snail slime..LOL.. If I run mine at the same speeds of a Champion 68 to 70 it will do well in a good chop.. The biggest difference between a Champion and a Gambler in rough water ride is taking waves from the side.. The Champion handles those kind of waves better as far as ride goes but you will get wet..
Thanks guys, and if any of yall are going to be on Rayburn or Toledo soon please let me know, I would love to go for a ride.
As Ben said it is most likely the most versatile boat out there. With the trim tabs you can really battle rollers coming at you directly. For most boaters on most lakes you would never get wet after you learn how to drive it. However, if we start talking about lakes like the Ozarks, Lanier, the Great lakes etc especially in rough weather, or summer traffic your going to get wet. Guntersville when a big barge passes etc. Those cross wakes, and roque waves will get you. truly it will get any boat, but with the Gambler sitting so low it does not offer as much protection from the side as say a CHAMP. The point I am trying to make is most boaters will never see true rough water , and to a point rough water is subjective because of that. There is also a distinction between rough water ride, and dry ride as well. Just my 2 cents
\"Abe Lincoln may have freed all men, but Sam Colt made them equal.\"
Just one more thought here. When I was fishing tournaments, I fished a lot of off shore structure like humps, ledges etc. (One spot out in the middle of the Big O) I would get nervous if my boat was in less than about 25 feet of water. I like to fish crankbaits, stroke a jig and fish 12" paddle tail worms on these ledges. Usually the area I was fishing would be 8-15 feet deep, but the boat would be setting way out passed the drop. To do this you put yourself out in the wind a lot. Trying to stay parallel to a drop off in a cross wind can be a daunting task, especially for some of the high sided boats like a Champion. I had a pal who fished out of a Champ, and that boat wore me out trying to control the trolling motor and keep us positioned next to the drop. A Gambler catches far less wind and is much easier to handle in this condition. For my style of fishing it was perfect. We made very long runs, like from Cadiz KY on Lake Barkely to Paris Landing on KY Lake, thats almost a 100 mile one way run. Gambler gave me more time with my line wet than other boat could afford.
I've got one on the north end of Toledo. Quite a distance from Orange however.
Id love to meet you up there one day for a trip.
Also how does your boat preform around stumps? Does it come off of them easy? Do gamblers draft shallow?
I don't have much experience with stumps and non g-boats.
Most of the stumps I hit are on one side or the other. There are a few times I have hit a stump pretty much dead on, and it took a bunch of rocking and trolling motor side to side to get the boat off. There are also a few times I have had to use the big motor to get off a stump.
That is surely not a factor I would checkmark against a gambler though.
I had mine out in some rough stuff this weekend.. Had 20 to 30 mph winds and solid 3 footers with a bigger one thrown in here and there.. I didn't have any trouble running at a reasonable speed.. We never got wet except one time when I put the tabs down to much when we were coming off plane.. The waves were coming from the side and I stuck the nose down to fast when I was setting it down and one of the waves hit me from the side and sprayed over onto the passenger.. Other than that the G-boat did fantastic.. It was by far the roughest water that I have been in in my G-Boat.. I have been in water just as rough if not a little rougher in my Ranger but we got a lot wetter and couldn't run near as fast with the Ranger..
Gambler are awesome riding boats is all I have to say..
Hey Gam216, I was born and raised in Salem Ky, just east of Paducah. I used to fish KY and Barkley a lot. I have some 280 GPS waypoints of humps and ledges on KY alone. I had a running bet with anyone, in any kind of boat that could run with me in the afternoon on KY Lake from the dam to the 68 bridge and back. I had no takers....ever. I have lived in Nashville for over 30 years now.
I'd be happy to try to work that out, but I seldom know in advance when I will be there. It's usually kind of a last minute thing. But I'd still be happy to try if you are going to be in the area. Shoot me a message if you are heading this way, but my schedule often changes at the last minute (I'm on call 24-7) so I would hesitate to plan anything that involved you making a special trip. Since you are in Orange, I am curious where you usually fish? I am curious because I have relatives in the area.
I usually think of bay boats for shallow drafting. My father has a bay boat that he bass fishes out of and I don't think it is any less than mine, but I haven't really done a direct comparison. Regarding stumps, I honestly don't think that it handles them very well. The chines tend to hang up more than a standard V-hull boat. I do like the ride, speed, and agility of the Gambler and I feel like it is stable in rough water, but the weak link is the stump handling.
I could supply you the way points if you can deal with Garmin PC software. I had a couple of Garmin handheld units that I used back then, and I could connect the cable and download whichever lake I was headed to. I have extensive points for KY and Barkley, Ohio River around Smithland, Percy Priest, Old HIckory, Center Hill, Cordell Hull, Tims Ford, Watts Bar, Guntersville, Wheeler, Pickwick, Toho, Kissimimee, Big O, Lake Martin, and Santee. Let me know if I can help out, be glad to do so to any happy Gambler owner.
gamblers are very good rough water boats, but they are terrible to get off stumps. I've definetely been stuck on a few here at Fork. There is a guy that works on props at fork, and he says the only reason he has a bullet is that gamblers are too pretty to get all scratched up from stumps, and they're a pain to get off of stums with.
If you're running in open water, go with a Gambler. People always ask, does going 80 mph help me actually catch fish? Well, lets take this scenario. We all know how fish can turn off just like light switches right? So you're going out in draw format, and you're 10th boat out. You have to run 45 miles down the lake to get to your spot. You're crusing to your spot at an average of 75 mph, and you pass a boat 10 min in your run. So you get to the spot and start nailing them as soon as you get there. Well, you go along the bank little ways, and there is that ranger that you passed early on your run to your hole. Too bad for them though, because you've already fished the area, and the fish have turned off like a light switch already.
It might be a sstupid scenario and all, but who knows, having an 80 mph boat might get you to that spot faster and helped you win that tournament. Longer run in a Gambler means more fishing time for you vs. everyone else.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The reverse hook on the outside chines will catch on a stump now and again. The trick is don't keep moving forward when you first feel the stump. (Besides your about to mess up a perfectly good fishing hole) Back off as soon as you feel the stump. If you do get hung, forget trying to go forward. Backing off maybe the only answer. Now me, I would rarely get stuck on a stump, for they ain't to many of them close enough to get caught on in 25 feet of water. Love that <U>deeeeeep </U>water, you guys can have the bank for yourselves.
I owned a Basscat Puma and I fish with a bunch of folks that run the big Gamblers with the trim tabs. There is absolutely NO COMPARISON between the ride of a Basscat and a Gambler. Once you get the hang of those trim tabs, that Gambler will embarrass a lot of boats in the rough stuff!
Reply With Quote
