Author: Lenny Rudow

The Sea Pro 219 is a versatile little center console that’s easy to buy, easy to handle, and easy to love. Bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to center console fishing boats, and for many anglers, the 21-foot size range is ideal – which is why interest levels in boats like the Sea Pro 219 is high. Start with the fact that you can park a 219 in your driveway spending in the $50K range (get it loaded to the teeth and you’ll be pushing 60), which means you may have spent less on your boat than you…

Check out the latest and the greatest marine electronics has to offer, for the year 2020. Don’t blink – DON’T BLINK – or you’ll miss out on the newest marine electronics because this stuff evolves so dang fast it’s virtually impossible to keep up with. But never fear folks, we’re here to help keep you up to date and abreast of the changes and developments as they happen. And since the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) show and the International Boatbuilders Exhibition and Conference (IBEX) are now history, we’ve had a sneak-peek at what’s coming down the pike. Here are…

If you care about fishing, fishing, and fishing – period – and you’ve been trying to choose between the pilothouse, cuddy cabin, or walkaround models on the market, there’s a good chance you’ve experienced something of a let-down. You’ve probably seen plenty of frou-frou “fishing” boats that have so much styling and so many luxuries built-in that they cost a million bucks, but precious few serious fishing machines. You say you don’t need all that garbage, and you want a manly-man’s kind of boat? Then the Judge Yachts Chesapeake 27 might be right up your alley. Judge is a small…

The Intrepid 345 Nomad leaves a gleam in your eye and a sweet taste in your mouth. In Best Center Console Fishing Boats – 10 Traits to Look For, we enumerate the top 10 things an angler should be considering for when they’re checking out new boats. If we’d kept going, item number 11 may well have been “looks”. Not because we all simply love to gaze at our boat (we do), nor because a boat’s look has any sort of bearing on how it performs (it does not), but because of simple economics. When you get right down to…

You say you’re sick and tired of laying out big bucks for boat maintenance and you want a better boat without spending one red cent more? Believe it or not, that’s not an impossible task. Yes, everything with the word “marine” stamped on the package costs triple what we think it should and even simple things like boat soap and scrub brushes can put a serious dent in the bait fund. So we completely understand the urge to look for cost-free ways to improve your boat – and we’re here to help. Check out these five FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE!…

The Aspen C107 may well be one of the most unusual boats we’ve ever put on the pages of BDOutdoors. Ever. Power catamarans have plenty of pros and cons, and while they aren’t right for everyone, red-hot models like the Freeman 42LR and the Tideline 365 get plenty of attention. One new powercat that hasn’t drawn quite so much notice, however, is the Aspen C107. That’s a shame because although this boat isn’t particularly fast nor particularly flashy, it’s one of a kind in more ways than one. The most unusual feature of this boat is undoubtedly the fact that…

Save a bundle and get the latest tech on your boat, by installing a new fishfinder. If you’ve done your research and figured out what the best fishfinder for your needs is, all you have to do now is install it on your boat. Piece of cake, right? Actually, in the case of units with transom-mounted transducers, it is. Yet every spring I get a half-dozen phone calls from boat-owning friends and family members, where the conversation starts with the words “can you help me.” Many boaters have a severe aversion to do-it-yourselfing any project that includes drilling holes in…

Don’t let these common falsehoods get in the way of the truth when you shove off the dock. Lenny Rudow debunks some very common boat myths.

Is your boat’s safety gear up to snuff? If you don’t have at least one of these signaling items aboard, the answer is a solid “no”. Boat safety equipment is a serious matter, and in this day and age, it’s easy and affordable to raise the safety bar well above minimum requirements. How? Start with the basics, like getting a courtesy vessel safety check, and taking a look at some basic boating safety tips. Then take safety to the next level by harnessing the best signaling gear that modern technology has to offer. EPIRBs – Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacons…

The 44FA is Contender’s new flagship of the fleet, and it has more to offer than mere size. If you’ve checked out center consoles in the Contender fleet like the 30ST or the 35ST, you’ve probably noticed how spectacular their cruise and top-end speeds are. But, what happens when Contender makes a big jump and builds a 44-foot center console yacht? Won’t the substantially larger boat go slower? Ummm, no. The 44FA is the newest and largest boat in the Contender fleet, and it still tromps right on past the mile-a-minute mark. In fact, rigged with triple Yamaha F425 XTO…

The Grady-White Canyon 326 is ready for distant voyages, big crews, and fish. Lots of fish. Sure, we love mammoth quad-engine center console yachts like the Grady-White Canyon 456 but some people would call them excessive, and many die-hard anglers may want a fishboat that’s smaller and easier to manage – like the Canyon 326. Wait a sec, doesn’t Grady already have a slew of boats that slot nicely between their flagship and much smaller models? Sure they do. But the 326 fits perfectly into a specific niche that many bay and offshore anglers will find appealing: it’s big enough…

Running at night certainly raises the danger-factor to be out on the ocean, but these tips and tactics will help make that cruise through the darkness a safe one. Sometimes the bluefin go on a night bite, you want to try an overnight fishing trip, or maybe the Student of Slay mantra “Never Give Up” running through your head tempted you to keep fishing until the sun fell past the horizon. Whatever the reason may be, if you’re a die-hard angler who makes long runs and fishes hard, there’s a good chance that sooner or later you’ll find yourself running…

If you’ve ever had to deal with a spun prop hub, you’ll appreciate this new propeller design. Propellers are a critical element of your fishing boat, and hopefully, you’ve already gone through the steps to choose the ideal propeller rather than simply depending on the stock option. As technology marches forward, however, things chance – and that includes propeller technology. The latest development? Suzuki Marine has come out with a new line of props called the WATERGRIP. The idea behind the WATERGRIP prop is to eliminate the problem of spinning out a prop hub. If you’ve been running an outboard…

With so many styles ranging from center consoles to pilot houses to convertibles to choose from, how will you make the best pick? While you can find a wealth of information about fishing boats on BDOutdoors, we recognize that there is no such thing as the perfect boat. What’s ideal for angler A is not necessarily ideal for angler B, and may be an utterly awful choice for angler C. That’s one of the reasons why we have so many different types, styles, and sizes of boats to choose from. And it’s why the secret to being a happy fishboat…

The Solace 345 is unlike any fishboat you’ve ever seen before. Period. Month after month and year after year we check out a slew of new center console fishing boats.  Some are plain vanilla, some are more unusual than others, and a rare handful are truly distinctive. But it’s been years since we’ve run across a new center console fishing machine so ground-breaking and unusual that we could call it a completely unique one-of-a-kind boat. Meet the Solace 345. The most unusual design trait of the Solace 345 hits you the moment you see it: the cockpit extends aft between…

Do you want to make your boat a better fishing machine? These five unexpected electronic upgrades will do the trick. We have an entire section of BDOutdoors dedicated to marine electronics because in this day and age all of us anglers depend on our fishfinders, chartplotters, and other digital tools to get the hotspots and then fill the fishbox. But the modern marine electronic advantages you can utilize go well beyond those sounders and plotters. Do you want to make your fishing machine into a better boat? Here are five surprise electronic upgrades you may not have thought of, which will…

When a new Hatteras pulls off the dock, people pay attention – and the GT59 keeps that attention riveted. You can’t have a serious discussion about the best convertible fishing boats ever to hit the water without Hatteras being mentioned. In fact, it’s fair to say their very first boat, the 41’ Knit Wits – the first fiberglass fishing boat over 40’ ever built – revolutionized offshore fishing boat design and construction. The company has gone through a lot of changes since those times, but one thing remains true: Hatteras yachts are built like a brick you-know-what-house. Hatteras builds the…

The Sportsman Masters 267 OE is one beefy bay boat that’s designed and built with the attitude of a serious piscatorial predator. I’m walking down the docks looking at a line-up of seven new center console fishing boats one after the next when I spot it. Stop! Hold on, wait a sec, and just a moment. What is this fine creature of carnage bobbing around in slip number eight? I see Sportsman printed on the side, but this bay boat looks different from Sportsman’s current bay boat models. Then I find the rep and learn the back-story: this is a…

A dead or failing battery is one of the most common reasons a boat won’t start. When you can’t get your boat started, the vast majority of the time your problem is either related to ethanol gas, or a bad boat battery. And when the battery is the problem, quite regularly the failure can be traced back to a lack of battery maintenance. Truth be told, most of us tend to put in the battery or batteries and then forget about them – right up until the day the boat doesn’t start. To make sure battery issues don’t ruin your…

When it comes to boats, learning from the mistakes of others is far less painful than learning for yourself. Whether you have a small, inexpensive center console fishing boat, a massive beast of a convertible, or anything in between, one thing is for sure: you want to do everything you can to make sure you and your crew are safe when aboard. You’d probably also like to make sure accidents or events that damage the boat are minimized. And while many of us end up learning things the hard way, we can save ourselves a lot of heartaches if we learn…

You may know how to get your boat from point A to point B, but these tips will help you do so faster, safer, and better than before. Captains with years of experience under their belts may know all about advanced seamanship, what boat safety equipment to choose and use, and how to get in and out of a slip in the wind, but harnessing technology isn’t always the forte of the grizzled – especially when learning something new. If your phone often has you stumped and you go to your kids for advice on how to use the computer, there’s a…

The Mako 414 CC is not only the largest center console fishing boat ever built by Mako Marine, but it might also just be the best. Mako boats have been in production since way back in 1967, and while today their smaller offerings like the Pro Skiff 190 CC may be their most popular, it’s the monster-sized 414 CC that will really turn heads. Why is it so spectacular, among today’s large fleet of center console yachts? Because this is no fru-fru cushy-comfy wannabe fishboat – it’s the real deal for die-hard anglers. Halleluiah, people, it’s a monster-mega center console…

Removing an outboard from a boat you’re repowering can save you some serious cash. Whether you just purchased a used boat with dead outboards or decided to repower your present boat, you’ve probably been perusing our Boat Motor pages in search of the ideal new outboard. But before you can have a shiny new engine mounted on your pride and joy, that old anchor needs to come off the transom. You could pay the shop to do it, but savvy do-it-yourselfers know that you stand to save a bundle by taking on this chore yourself. Why? Because you won’t just…

The Bayliner Element F21 proves that you can find a brand-spanking-new 21-foot fishing boat that costs less than the average new car. As we pointed out in Top 3 Aluminum Fishing Boats Under $20,000, if you’re okay with aluminum and you don’t mind owning a fairly small, simple boat, there are plenty of very economical options out there. But what if you want a fiberglass fishing machine? Are there any truly economical options out there? Not many. Anyone who’s looked at the prices for a modern center console fishing boat knows that they aren’t exactly inexpensive. Enter, the Bayliner Element F21.…