Northwest Fishing Reports

Hi all,

We are planning on moving to the Seattle area from the Midwest. I have a 18 foot Tracker Bass Boat with a 150HP motor.

Can this boat be used on inland lakes and Puget Sound?

Or am I going to need something bigger?

Trying to decide if I should sell this boat and buy when we get there or bring my boat with me.


I've always mainly fished for Walleyes and bass....am interested in getting into some ocean fish though.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Lakes are lakes, so yes.

Puget sound - no. For the sound and ocean you'd want a boat with higher gunnels for more freeboard.

I did a search on bass boats on Boat trader within 200 miles from Seattle. There were zero bass boats around Seattle in the search. There were 5 shown but they were all down around Vancouver and Portland. Northern Oregon and southern Washington have some bass lakes and there are walleyes in the Columbia. Just not very many bass lakes or bass boats around Seattle. You'd prob be better off selling where you live now since the market around Seattle for a bass boat is going to be pretty skinny.

Puget Sound, the Strait, Ocean.. rough water conditions, 2-3 foot wind chop, are routine. Strong tides that can create nasty standing waves. You need a boat built for this environment. A bass boat would be more like a bass submarine.

go out on a few guides learn the water 1st before buying a boat for the local area learn the waters and they type of boat you need before dropping 1000's on one .. worst thing is you learn our water our fish and out less then a few hundred after a few trips but that knowledge will be gained

There are plenty of bass boats for sale in the area. Just check out Craigslist, Limit Out Marine, Bass Pro Shops, Cabelas ....

There are also lots of great Lakes. Lake Washington has a ton of smallmouth and big lmbs.

My boat is for sale if you are in the market ;)

http://bellingham.craigslist.org/boa/5113305273.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I grew up back in the Midwest fishing bass and walleye as well. When I moved out here I was sure my first boat should be a Lund because it work well back there. Had a Lund 17 Fisherman for about two years fishing local lakes and Columbia river. The boat did fine but it's just not set up to do as good a job as the one's everyone else runs around here.

Good advise already in the replies. My suggestion is figure out what you will fish for. The bottom line is there is no do it all boat. If you had the means (I don't know many that do) keeping your bass boat for bass fishing and buying a more capable puget sound boat would be a good combo.

I will say I think you would do better selling your boat back home. There are bass and walleye guys out here but you just have a larger market for them back where you are.

I believe AMX has it right. You don't need a bigger boat per say just a differently configured boat. It took on decent wake coming over the back splash well in the Lund for the wife to demand a bigger boat. We now have a 20' Hewescraft Searunner. Higher sides and extended transom that keeps the water where as the wife says "it's supposed to be!" outside the boat.

Safe travels and good luck on your journey. I can tell you the fishing out here is fabulous compared to back there!

Thanks for the input guys.

I will have to think about this some more and decide what to do.

I see the differences in fishing boats from inland waters and the great lakes.


One follow-up question:

I know there's no all-in-one boat, but are the boats that are designed for ocean/Puget Sound too big for inland lakes and rivers? Do people use bass/Aluminum Fish and Ski type boats on inland lakes and rivers? Here in the Midwest we call them walleye boats...(Lund/Alumacraft - Aluminum boats with higher sides).

I don't think I will be able to convince the Wife to get two boats...that I am certain of.

Id say the aluminum boats are by far the most popular boats around here. Hewscraft, Alumaweld, Lund, etc. There is a "North West" style that you see most often.It has the windshield/seats/console sitting more forward than you typically see back east.

I have a 20ft Smokercraft thats built that way and we use it in the Sound, Columbia river, small lakes, big lakes and up in the straight of Juan de Fuca. You dont need a bass boat to catch bass We fish for everything from sturgeon to salmon, halibut, trout, walleye, bass, perch - what ever happens to tickle our fancy

I happen to think this style of boat is the best all round compromise when it comes to fishing the widest range of water types in the various weather conditions we have around here.

It handles water thats rougher than I like to fish in with ease - which is important because you never know when things might get rough when your on big water.

Ive recommend you get something in the 18' + range at a minimum, but thats just me. I dont like little boats the way I used to

Just to give you a single price point, we bought our Smokercraft Phantom 202 with Yamaha 115 and a 9.9 Merc 4 stroke, easyloader trailer with surge breaks, etc, new, for around $26K last spring. That was the best deal we could find at the time as far as price per foot of boat. Smokercraft are not the top rated boats of this type, but its still a pretty decent boat. Lund or Hewscraft might be the Cadillacs while the Smokercraft is more the chevy of this style boat.

I've had six trailer boats, five glass and the boat I have now is a 2005 18' North River Seahawk, I bought new. I wanted to go bigger but 18' transom mount is the biggest I could get in may garage. Works great for me. For its size, very seaworthy, used 7-8 times in the ocean off the westside of Vanc Island, constantly in the Strait and Puget Sound.

IMO, go with a northwest built alum boat, there are prob a dozen different makers, North River, Hewes, Alumweld etc etc. Every time I think I know all the names I see a new one. They all have websites. Aint cheap, even a new 18' is around 28-32K, some more, some less, plus another 3-4K for gear, kicker, electronics, downriggers etc. If you want to go bigger, you can get 50-60K in one in a hurry!

If you plan to replace your existing boat, your best bet may be to wait until you get here, then link up with local walleye fishermen and buy a boat similar to what they're using. Larger Lunds are very popular here, because the Columbia River can get rough, especially in the Columbia Gorge, and the river's rocky bottom is hard on fiberglass hulls. Virtually all the local walleye anglers I know run Lunds. Puget Sound is saltwater, so if you plan to use the boat for that, you should get a motor designed for saltwater use.

I'd buy an aluminum boat next time. I like the 15' runabout that I have. High gunnels and stable but there's a lot of launches around here with no docks. Would be much nicer to ease an aluminum boat up onto a gravel shore than my fiberglass lol

Larry3215 wrote:Just to give you a single price point, we bought our Smokercraft Phantom 202 with Yamaha 115 and a 9.9 Merc 4 stroke, easyloader trailer with surge breaks, etc, new, for around $26K last spring. That was the best deal we could find at the time as far as price per foot of boat. Smokercraft are not the top rated boats of this type, but its still a pretty decent boat. Lund or Hewscraft might be the Cadillacs while the Smokercraft is more the chevy of this style boat.

I wish I would have bought last year. This year the Phantom 202 w/o the 9.9 is 35K, if you go to the offshore model it is 37.5.
For 5k more I can get a Duckworth Pacific Navigator sport, or Alumaweld Blackhawk.

Is it a deep V? or bass boat

My brother just corrected me - including the kicker it was about 29K + tax. Thats still a big price jump in 1 year! We got ours at Verles just south of Shelton. They had the best deal by far, but maybe we hit them at just the right time.

The Phantom 202 has a 17 deg dead rise. Im not sure if that is considered a deep V or modified V. Handles pretty well, but we are wishing we had gotten the offshore version. We want to go for tuna and the offshore would be much better for crossing the bar and rough water in general.

oops - double post

Verle's is where I am getting the price online. They have an offshore 202 for $37,495. I wood think when I was done with 9.9 + controls for it and other little add ons I would want I would be getting close to 50K.

They should be willing to negotiate that price if they are still operating the same way. I seem to remember talking them down about 7%-8% off the asking price plus a few "free" extras - like a spare prop, spare tire and mount and some other small items. Its no different than buying a new car really.

Thanks for the info, I thought they may come down some. I just don't know if I can go 40+ for a boat. My 93 -17' smoker is getting old and I would like to move up. It sounds like I fish some of the same areas you do. It is nice to hear that the Phantom is doing well with the way I want to fish. Do you have an electric trolling motor for lakes or just the kicker? I have a 55# bow mount I love for lake fishing. Don't know if it would work on the 20' boat.

We have a 55# bow mount on ours and it works fine where/how we like to fish. We just finished a week long trip to Banks and ran the motor all day long trolling for walleyes and it worked great. Had to put the battery on a charger each night though.

Its not going to work as well if your trolling fast against a strong wind and/or current, but for normal days on lakes its fine. If the wind was too much we would just use the 9.9.