First in, last out. Gotta love the center console.
Unless you live in Florida or other points South, now is the time of defrosting, and to think about launching your boat. Here in the Northeast, I always like to take a drive past the marinas and yacht clubs and see which types of boats splash first. Odds are that first boat of spring is going to be a center console. They’re the robins of the boating world. Why? Fishing.
Some of the best fishing is on the margins of good spring and fall weather and anglers are likely to put up with just about anything if the bite is on. You’ll see sailboats lingering on their moorings well into November for the fall racing, but it seems like they follow the leader in spring. After that you get some cruisers and then the runabout/dayboat crowd that plugs in from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Think I’ve got it wrong? Prove me wrong. Send in a time-stamped photo of you and your boat on launch day to editor[AT]overboardboater[dotcom]. I’ll post it here with your permission and maybe, if I like yours best, I’ll send a hat or something.*
*(No promises because then it becomes a contest and I have to put up a 50-page disclaimer and 30-1,000 contest rules, with State eligibility exemptions and whatnot. So no guarantees or anything of the sort.)
Costa Del Mar is a sunglass maker that supports conservation causes and grass roots fishing around the world. They produce and sponsor a lot of fishing videos, including this one about Belize: How development is changing it, and affecting its world-famous flats fishing.
A flashlight that plugs into your 12V outlet and recharges in 90 seconds? Sounds too good to be true, but it exists. 5.11 Tactical sent me a tester unit of its UC3.400 “Light For Life” flashlight a while back, and after a season of use I’d call it a solid addition to your onboard tool collection.
The flashlight recharges through an ultracapacitor electrostatic storage system rather than chemical batteries, which allows for the fast recharge.The UC3.400 features three LED lights that last for 50,000 hours of use. Fully charged, the light operates for 60 minutes at 90 lumens, and 15 minutes at peak 270 lumen output. There’s also a 270-lumen strobe mode.
While I wouldn’t use it to locate channel markers on a midnight cruise, it’s good for looking around the engine compartment, going belowdecks, or fumbling around at the launch ramp on a pre-dawn mission. It features a rugged housing, to law enforcement specs, and because it lasts forever and you don’t need to worry about dead batteries, you can stow it onboard long term.
As an afterthought, 5.11 threw in a pair of Taclite Pro Shorts:
Made of a lightweight cotton/poly blend, the Taclite shorts are treated with Teflon for stain and water resistance. They’re made for cops on the beat, but I’ve been wearing them as fishing shorts. They wash off easily, they don’t absorb fish blood, they’re breathable, and they’re super rugged. Plus, the “magazine” back pocket holds my fly box for quick access and the external knife pocket works for a fishing blade or a pair of pliers. I’d recommend them to any angler for inshore and offshore duty.
At the Miami Boat Show last week, Scout Boats announced its new 345 XSF, but being a light tackle enthusiast, the 2010 210 XSF (pictured) is right in my wheelhouse.
One complaint my non-fishing friends and relatives always have is the lack of seating on the small center consoles I like to fish, an issue Scout seems to address by adding armrests to the cushioning atop the cooler seating forward of the console. Here’s a look at the overhead accommo plan:
Note the transom seating as well. Good for a 20-footer. Will it all get in the way of fishing? Only a proper test will sort it out. Coming soon.
Scout also makes a dual console version, called the 210 Dorado, that’s more family oriented than fishing focused. Witness the layout differences:
Boating is a healthy pastime, right? You’re outdoors, breathing in fresh air, and–if you’re on my boat–eating your weight in processed junk food. I’m usually on a boat for one of two reasons, fishing or otherwise getting recreational. Fiddling around with cooking or food prep is a colossal waste of time. Rip open a bag, pop a top, chomp it down, and be done with it.
Here are the best scientifically proven food products to bring aboard.
PRINGLES: Is there a better boat food? The chips are protected in an ingenious tube so they don’t get smashed beyond edibility when crammed under the console. It keeps the chips from getting soggy and disgusting. If the inventor of the Pringle’s tube found it suitable to be buried in, it’s good enough for my boat.
GOGURTS: No need for bowls, spoons, or napkins to ingest breakfast. Fellow Boatermouth writer Lenny Rudow used to raid his kids’ lunch-food and bring stacks of them on offshore tuna trips to the canyons. [Lenny also invented the famed "boat sandwich," wherein you roll a cold cut in a piece of cheese.] Your hunger is satiated, rather healthily, in seconds.
HARD PRETZELS: The choice of Kevin Falvey, another boating writer, for mako shark trips. Or any trip. You can just throw a box in a locker at the beginning of the season and if they go stale, how can you tell?
BEEF JERKY: Would be the A-One top choice but for the inconsistency between brands and batches. Some come out just right, others worse than shoe leather. But if you get a quality bag of jerky, it hits the spot and fills the protein void left by the other snacks. It takes a long time to chew and can distract from the tedium of trolling.
DRIED MANGO SLICES: They have the veneer of being healthy; they’re derived from one of the three most awesome fresh fruits in existence. But when you read the bag on a lot of packaged mango slices, you’ll see they’re processed with incredible amounts of sugar. And, possibly, sulphur dioxide. Eat a bag and you’ll have boundless energy, I guess because it combines the magic of fruit with the sugar of Mountain Dew and the calories of a Big Mac.
Taking this photo moments ago is my first official act of the Miami Boat Show. I can live blog this mother straight from my iPhone. Will be shooting grainy phone video, too.
I apologize in advance for typos and accidental autofills. It’s not easy producing real time journalism typing with your thumbs.
As an angler, he should appreciate this one called Fishbate, described in detail by Gizmodo. After reading the review, you might not want to let your kids download it.
Click on the picture for a full-size view. There are two stories at work here. First off, this is the demo boat for Cummins MerCruiser’s QuadZeus propulsion set-up, which debuted at the Ft. Lauderdale boat show last fall. The boat is the first to employ four pod drives, powered by four Cummins MerCruiser Diesel QSC8.3-liter 600-hp engines. The idea is to provide unprecedented maneuverability for a 60′ boat. The results? We missed Lauderdale, but we’re checking it out at the upcoming Miami Boat Show.
The other story is that this may be the largest graphics wrap ever on a boat. “We bought it as a test boat,” explained Clay Gaillard of Cummins. “It was just a naked shell.”
When they decided to run that boat at Ft. Lauderdale, they realized they needed to dress it up. So they decided to wrap it. They got together to Image Monster and artist Steve Goione to create a wrap big and bold enough to make a 60-footer look good.
Whether its the biggest wrapped boat of all time is not definite but one thing is, it looks pretty cool.
I guess was wrong. An old school video of commercial tuna fishing on the West Coast. As bad as this may seem from a carnage standpoint, it’s nothing compared to today’s commercial harvest causing the extinction of the bluefin. According to the Discover Magazine website, only 41,000 breeding adults remain in the Atlantic bluefin stock.
Stripers Forever, the organization dedicated to making striped bass a game fish, recently released its annual membership survey. The numbers, taken from members surveyed from Maine to North Carolina, are not good. [Here's a link to the full info.]
69% of anglers surveyed felt that striped fishing has gotten worse.
51% felt the average size of the fish they caught were smaller.
72% reported catching fewer fish per hour.
These are reports from guys on the front lines. While this is an opinion poll, and the results don’t constitute scientific data, it tells me that Fisheries Management isn’t doing such a great job at maintaining a healthy striped bass population. It says on its website that,
“The most recent stock assessment for striped bass was completed in 2009. The update assessment indicated that striped bass are not overfished and overfishing is not occurring.”
Thousands of anglers, who pump many millions of dollars into the regional economy, would beg to differ. I advocate Stripers Forever’s efforts to give the striped bass game fish status, thus exempting it from commercial fishing. Even if you don’t, I’d hope you agree that one of the country’s most important sport fish deserves more protection than is currently provided.
