Cross posting from AO to see if anyone here that wouldn't otherwise see it has some good insights.


I've gotten the all clear from the wife to start researching for a boat purchase. We're a ways out since we plan to purchase in mid 2022 or so, but there's a ton of learning I want/need to do before I pull the trigger.

We're looking for something that will give us the most options and funtionality so we put the boat to use rather than have it sit. This would ideally mean something we can use on rivers like the Wapiti, Peace, Smokey, and Murray since we live in GP and rivers are more common than lakes. That said, we love fishing lakes for trout so we'd like to be able to use the boat on lakes the size of Rock Lake near Hinton or Sheridan Lake in BC. We'd probably take it to Sturgeon Lake as well depending on the wind.

I realize a river boat isn't going to perform ideally on a lake once the whitecaps start rolling but I'm almost always off the lake by then since flyfishing in those winds kinda sucks. I'm willing to sacrifice a smoother ride on the lake by using a jet boat and I'm willing to give up running skinny water to have a slightly deeper hull. I've been thinking a hull somewhere in the 10 - 12 degree, maybe up to 15 degree range would work for us. I haven't run the rivers I named above, so I'm not sure if some or all of those need a flatter hull or if I can get away with a deeper one.

I'm also debating inboard vs outboard jet. I like that the outboard frees up a lot of space in the boat. It strikes me that outboards would be easier to maintain and cheaper to repair. Not sure if that's true. I'm also under the impression that outboards will be better on fuel. Again, not totally sure on that.

Here's my list of wants and I'm wondering if you all have suggestions on boats to look at and add to my list. I'll most likely be looking for a used boat, so having a list of models will be helpful when I begin actively searching.

-$30K, give or take a bit. Hard ceiling of $40K and it'd have to be a one-of-a-kind boat.
- Max of 18ft if the trailer has a swing tongue, I have 21 feet of length to play with in my garage.
- Interior room for 2, maybe 3 people fly fishing
- Ability to run some reasonable rivers but also be usable on medium size lakes.
- Not adverse to a tiller model, but a side console would be nice for those longer days (running the Murray up to Kinuseo falls for example)
- Kicker mount
- Ability to bow mount an electric trolling motor for the lake days
- Wide and stable
- A no frills a boat (no livewells, minimal storage compartments etc). I want simplicity, reliability and longevity over frills. I can add accessories if I want.


Anything else I should be considering?

Boats that I've seen which pique my interest are the Coyote 160 Otter (seems pretty narrow and interior layout is poor), Explorer Industries 172 (most likely too flat a bottom) and the Hewescraft Open Fisherman (might be too deep a V for rivers?). The Firefish Frenzy looks nice and it seems like a 12deg hull is an option, but I expect it's way out of my price range even used