In Reply to: advice on buying fishing boat ~24' posted by Jules on August 08, 2001 at 10:22:56:
I am not in your area, Miami here, so my opinions might not be of any use to you. Down here ability to handle open ocean and fish-ability are most important. To that end you can't go wrong with the Grady White and resale value is great. The Bayliner is unsafe crap IMHO. It might be okay for a bay boat but that is about it. As far as open fisherman types go old Aquasports & Makos are very good. Dusky, Rabolo, Proline are very wortwhile. John Allmands are nice "family" fishing boats with a surprising amount of room for their size but now you are getting to the limits of something you can put on a trailer. Don't know if this is any help. I don't have any first hand experience with the Parker but it appears to be a "budget" boat best bought new and sold before long. A Grady or Mako will take 20+ years of constant hard useage with no problem at all and give you peace of mind the first time the weather turns really nasty. Down here us fishing fanatics think nothing of running 30 miles out into the open ocean in 17' boats so getting home when one gets caught in a thunderstorm with 5-7' seas is a consideration. Take my word for it, you don't want to be in a Bayliner at a time like that!!Good luck,
Russ
Follow Ups:
You can not post to an archived thread.