Good boat size / setup for inshore and bass?

[BamaBass99]

I live in an area where I’d like to both inshore fish and bass fish. I assume a 24’ bay boat would be a little big? Maybe a 22’? Anyone else do this?

[Mechanic Bob]

There a lot of very nice Aluminum Bay boats in the 20' length that guys around here have. I do the same thing as you stated. I fish Salt, Brackish, and fresh water. I go after Reds, Speckle Trout, Stripers, Bass, Crappie, Bream, Shad, ... in my rig.

[edw]

Your boat length should be at 20 -22 ft. The hull is what will make a huge difference on handling if things get rough vs you need to get skinny and fish very shallow water. I would highly recommend a small boat builder out of Sebring, Fl. He builds one heck of a boat from scratch, by hand. He produces about 20 to 25 boats a year. His name is Terry McKay. Big -O Boats. Please keep in mind that his boats are of the upmost quality...they do come with a price that reflects that...about 80k rigged including the trailer and motor and batteries and trolling motor with graphs...upwards of 120k fully loaded up to your imagination. His boats are rigged for salt water, and fresh water of course. His standard trailer is of aluminum I beam construction. The hull design is 20 ft long with a beam just over 8ft. It has circular live wells in the front deck and the rear deck! I used to own one back in the early 2000's and had to sell it due to a business matter that I got screwed on. I have regretted it ever since. I have one on order at the present time which will delivered to me soon! It takes an average of 5 months from start to finish. You pick absolutely everything you want as far as deck layout, colors for hull and deck, Ocean Grip flooring colors, seat styles, seat colors, steering wheel designs, gear shifter and hot foot for certain models, batteries and placement, lighting, stereo, graphs, graph layout and type of mount, trolling motor brand and voltage, and best of all, the hull is unrated...and you can choose any brand of motor you prefer. I am getting a Merc 250 pro xs on a Bobs jack plate. The boat will run 75 +/-....and loves/eats up 1 - 1.5 ft chop like it's no tomorrow. It drafts approximately 8" of water. They have a website, but it is down right now...best bet is to check them out on Facebook. Hope this helps! I am available to PM ...and would be verify happy to tell you more about this boat if you are serious about quality and a very nice riding boat that does everything you have described very well.... Respectfully, Ed