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I love to fish and my wife loves to water ski. We have a young family that I think will love both. It only makes sense that we have a boat that does both. My question is for anybody who has had experience with a Fish and Ski. Mostly I would be fishing for Sturgeon in the Snake River, Bass fishing in some of the local reservoirs, or trolling for Mackinaw, Trout and Kokanee. As far as the skiing, I'm sure we would be pulling around some tubes and a water skier here and there, but mostly fishing. I would prefer to have one that has the option of a canopy or covering of some sort to stay out of the sun. Any help on this is greatly appreciated.
Brady
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I am in the same situation, and this year purchased a ski and fish boat to try to satisfy everybody. Mine turned out to be a great fit for us. It is a 99 Glastron GS205 SF twenty footer with the ski and fish option. It has plenty of power for the wife and kids to ski, and it outfits surprisingly well for fishing, with a detachable Minnkota drive on the front, front and rear pedestal fishing seats, livewell, two batteries for the minnkota and a third to crank the Volvo I/O. It also sports a trolling plate and two mounts for outriggers, though I don't have the hardware for the outriggers yet. It has high enough sides and is stable enough that we all feel very safe in rough waters (which we got into on Utah Lake the first time we used it).
The other option that we looked at was a bass type boat with skiing option. These are 18-20' with an outboard that fishes almost exactly like a bass boat, and does a decent job on the skiing side with a ski pylon and stuff. It can also take on water like a bass boat in big surf.
The only real problem I have our setup is if the BFT'ers see me frothing up the lake to please my wife they may kick me out of the club... Oh well, I gotta do what I gotta do to get my boat for fishing [  ].
Anyway, our boat works great for us. Good luck!
Ray
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My father has a Lund fish and ski (not sure the exact model of the 3). He uses it mainly for fishing, but we use it for skiing at our yearly family trip to Powell. It is perfect for his needs, with him being mainly a fisherman and the boat being great as a fisherman's boat. I would rate it an 8 out of 10 as a fishing boat, and a 6/10 for skiing. It has no problems with double skiis, wakeboards, kneeboards and inflatibles. However, it had trouble pulling out big skiers on a slalom ski. We switched props which helped a lot, but it is still not the same as a dedicated ski boat. My sister, which is 5'6", 110 lbs has no problem getting up with a skinnier profesional ski. However, most of the men cannot get up on a slalom with this boat. I can barely get up using a fatter slalom ski. We have to empty the boat or if we have a couple of skiiers, move them to the front of the boat (when on other boats I have no trouble getting up with a skinier ski). I believe the motor is 225 hp. A tower would really help, but is not ideal for fishing (in my opinion).
It has a livewell, seats more than average when skiing (8 - 10), has a removeable platform on the front of the boat for standing while bassin' and where you can also insert a chair, which removes to seat about 4 on soft cushions when skiing, it has a smaller kicker on the side for trolling, but we mainly use the electric trolling motor on the front for bassin'), it looks good ( he gets a lot of compliments on it), is comfortable, etc. The speakers are small. He wishes it had headlights =). Here it is: [url "http://www.lundboats.com/1950tyee_06.html"]http://www.lundboats.com/1950tyee_06.html[/url]
and with the canopy: [url "http://www.lundboats.com/2150baron_06.html"]http://www.lundboats.com/2150baron_06.html[/url]
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Also Shoot fish4fun05 a Pm he has a beautiful Fish -N- Ski.
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I just bought a 19' Bayliner Capri, open bow with an outboard 120 hp motor on it. So far, it has proven to be a very comfortable fishing boat that will double as a ski boat with the flick of a wrist. I put on a color/gps fishfinder, trolling plate, 4 rod holders, a 70# bow mount, 2 downriggers, and it is awesome. It will do 40 mph or troll at .7 mph. It is large enough to feel safe on rough water but still small enough and light enough to pull around with ease.
A good friend has a Nitro 185 Sport Fish/Ski boat that is an excellent bass platform and a very fast ski boat. That is another idea to look at.[cool]
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I have a Skeeter SL190. It is a fish and ski. I love it. It has a Yamaha Vmax 200 on it a 4hp kicker with remote troll and a minnkota electric troller on it. It has 2 live wells mounts in the front and back for fishing seats. And it gets up on plane right out of the hole. I also have a bimini cover for it to stay out of the sun when needed. It also has downriggers on it. ( that I have never used ) Nice deck on front and back for bassin and a ski pylon. I haven't pulled a skier yet but it pulls a tube just fine.
Last year when I was looking for the boat I was looking for the same thing as you. I almost got a bigger cuddy and a small aluminum boat but when I found this I had to have it. And it was only about 15,000 dollars above my original budget. [  ]
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can never go wrong with the following:
[url "http://www.tahoesportboats.com/"]http://www.tahoesportboats.com/[/url]
if for some reason that does not catch the wifes fancy im sure this will, the ultimate fish/play boat, and priced for any budget!:
[url "http://superyachts.apolloduck.com/feature.phtml?id=50910"]http://superyachts.apolloduck.com/feature.phtml?id=50910[/url]
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Thanks for the ideas. It looks like there are some great options out there. I'm curious, how much can I expect to pay for a used boat similar to what you all have?
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Mine is a 1994 and i talked the guy down to $4500 and i added $1500 in the riggers, motor and such. You can get alot newer one for around $7000 but without the extras.[ ]
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The 99 Glastron set me back 11K, it was pretty lightly used. Almost bought the 99 Nitro Sport 185 before that, they were asking 10.5K
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I used to have a 2006 Bayliner 175 open bow that I set up as a fish and ski with the trolling motor and carpet covered deck to stand on in the front (instead of the front seats). I found that because 99% of what I do is fishing that the boat just didn't meet all of my needs i.e. rod locker, livewell, general storage and fishing deck space. So... I traded it in for a 2008 Ranger 210 Reata and absolutely love it. WAAAY more power and about 10000 times more storage and fishability. It is also a much more capable ski/tube boat if I wanted to use it for that.
Basically, as someone who has owned both styles of fish-n-ski's I would definitely recommend that if you do mostly fishing, get a "mostly" fishing boat. If you do more skiing then get the ski/bowrider style with some fishing features.
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i love my fish and ski boat it is a 2006 tahoe q4ob bass tracker boat loaded i need to sell it ,i hate to but need to email if interested i am asking 19k or best offer 455-6705 im in wj
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You're making me blush dude! [blush]
I have a 2000 Viper Coral 202 fish n ski. It was made by the same makers of Champion bass boats so it's more fish than ski in my opinion. I've got two rod lockers, split livewell, front and back decks with plenty of room. Most come with a 225 but I bought mine with a 200hp. 40 gallon gas tank, three batteries, on board charger,bowmount, plenty of storage, two graphs with gps, etc. I will pull a tube but I refuse to pull a skier [crazy]. It sits low to the water but have never taken water on even at the Gorge. I absolutely love it. I hope to upgrade to a 21' bass boat someday but I have no complaints with what I have now.
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I have a 93 four winns fish and ski. It has a 140HP johnson outboard, 55# minn kota auto pilot on the bow, 15 HP kicker,a couple downriggers and several pole holders and rocket launcher. It has a forward and aft pedestal, and a ski tri pod all if which can be removed. there are two live wells, a wrap around rear bench of which the center is a 70qt cooler and two captains chairs. The 140 is perfect for a tube (about the minimum you would want for a REAL exciting time - easy for a wake board and a big guy to pull up. I couldn't be happier with it. All in all I think it is mostly personal preference - the canopy can be added to any boat relatively cheaply (check overtons) all in a 1700lb package - easy to tow behind the camper
Get the size and power you want, the rest is pretty easy to change.
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The International Sportsman's expo is coming up on March 12 - 15th at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy. Up to 4 free tickets to the first person who posts a reply to this post.
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Kent nothing like free tickets. I have a 2004 Lowe I bought new from Cabela's in nebraska I happend to be looking for a new boat at the time we were going on a guided trip for wipers and turned out to be a good deal at $14,500 so I went back the next week to pick it up.
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am I replying too late or have the tickets been spoken for? if not I am replying now.
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Congratulations Ira. Send me a PM letting me know how many tickets (up to 4) that you could use and they will be available at will call.
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Dang....always a day late on this kind of free stuff. 
As for this topic, I have a few opinions. The first is to determine where you are primarily going to fish. My target has always been Strawberry. My first 'bigger' (translation: bigger than my old 14' aluminum thing) boat was a 17.5' tri-hull with a 135hp OB on back. The stability if tri-hulls is great.....if you are in somewhat calm waters. They really aren't the best boat for the Berry, though. They are built to stay on top of the water instead of cut through it. That means that, when you get big waves they climb the wave then dive back down...often nose first into the next wave. When the wind is getting bad...find a cove quickly.
When I got tired of that we went out and bought a deep-v. It's a '79 19' Fiberform with a closed bow (not cuddy) and gas tank in the front and 305 V8 in the back. This thing will take on any lake I've put it on. The remote troll works wonderfully and it has a full enclosure for if the rain really kicks up.....or if we just want to camp on the boat.
The 305 also has plenty of power to pull a couple of skiers easily.
Yes, you could get a lot fancier newer boat, but for the $4k I paid for it (markets are down now, so you can really find cheaper bargains), I'm very happy. This thing was like new with only about 160 hours on it and stored indoors its entire life.
With all that said, If you are primarily on smaller, calmer waters, go with a shallower, lighter, more nimble boat. If you plan to frequent windier lakes (Strawberry, Flaming Gorge, etc) look for something that can cut through the waves and protect your biggest investment: your family.
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