189 Fish and Ski

[Mark Malec]

Hello friends



I am looking for a new boat and I keeping looking at the 189 FS. The wife and Kids would love it, but I would like to hear from any of you who split their time 50% fishing 50% family play. I know the family is pushin the play aspect of the boat, but will I miss some of the fishing features that a Targa has?



Also - Motor options. With the Merc specials now; a 150efi is only $500 more than the 115 optimax, any thoughts?



Thanks for your input.

 

[Jeremy Theys2]

Yes, you will miss some of the features of a true fishing boat. If this is a critical deal for you, then you won't be happy. I have a 2006 Tahoe Q4 F/S and love it. Sure, it's not ideal for fishing, but it is usable. I would recommend looking at those before buying. If you are going to do a lot of tubing or skiing, the inboard is much better than an outboard. Also the swim platform is great. I spend a lot of time just sitting with my legs in the water while crappie or bluegill fishing. Also the ladder is a lifesaver.



I am happy with the tahoe. It is a great family boat.

 

[Eric Aasen]

There are a number of fish and ski owners here so you should get some good advice. I just sold my 188 Sport so I'll start it off.

There are some trade offs. No room for fishing gear and rods. The 189 is especially bad for this. The rod locker on it is a joke. It's ski storage and that's all. The front deck is very small but you can buy or build an extension that makes it much more usable. It won't come with good electronics for fishing but they can be added. On the plus sides, they are very dry riding, the windshield is great on cold mornings, they are very roomy for passengers and I think they look good. You will get comments at the boat ramp. Best advice I can give and this is from personal experience, you must max out the horsepower. You may not think you care about going fast but speed is relative. When you have the power, you can always cruise at slower speed. When you don't have it, you are always on the throttle. That 115 will not pick an adult single skier out of the water. I tried with mine and it just wouldn't do it. The 150 is the minimum I would put on that boat. One guy on here has a 200 Opti on his. That is what the boat is rated for and personally I wouldn't go for less than the 175. The Opti will get better gas milage than the 150. Sorry for being wordy but I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did with my first boat. I would say go for it if you are a casual fisherman who likes to take the family out. But put your money into HORSEPOWER.



NoCAL

 

[Donn Norton2]

I also got a Tahoe, Deck boat with fish package. It fishes great and is great when having friends and family on the boat. I use the ski storage as a rod locker plus a trolling motor up front. I got it since I wasn't doing tourney's anymore. I also have the I/O engine. No problems, just the normal Tracker with the lack of detail. But runs good with speeds of 60-62 mph. I got the 5.0 mpi engine, which is 260 hp. I have had 4 Nitros before I got the Deck boat.

 

[Mike Zechman]

MArk, I have a 2006 189 Sport, and love it, although my fishing time is more like 80% and 20%play. Its a real fun boat for sure, I went with the 200 HP opti and 6 inch JP cuz I do fish some tourny's from time to time, I would never put a 115 on it noway. I will say this when I have 5-6 people on board even the big 200 is alittle hard to stay on plane, so again to me the only way to go and not have problems go with the 200, if you don't have many people in the boat the 150 would be fine, but for many people and towin skiers with many people onboard, go the 200. i also stocked her with color gps and color sonar up front, a custom deck extension, and custom storage as well.

As far as fishing gear and rods, I will disagree with NOCAL. i can put 6 rods in a lockable storage up to 7ft lenghts, I also cut back the infloor storage and put a lock on it and can get 10 total in there(this I did myself cheap and easy) PLENtY of room for gear, I have had no problems with storage at all, the older 185 sport is different, my Dad has one, and he says no comparison to mine.Any other questions I can help you with let me know.

-Mike

 

[Donn Norton2]

Also with the Deck boat you have good room up front on the deck for fishin. They do make the Deck boat with the walk thru wind- shield.

 

[C C]

I shopped the Nitros, Tahoes, Tritons and bought a Ranger 180VS, huge front and rear decks but rod storage would only hold a 6' rod. Otherwise it was a great boat and the Nitro setup with a 150 Opti was only $200 less then the Ranger with a 150 Opti it runs 63mph on a GPS. Year before last we moved to a small lake so we sold the Ranger and bought a 22' pontoon boat.



One of the biggest selling points for me was the front deck and the boat came loaded up with everything as standard, by time I added the same basic options on the other boats they all were priced within $200 - $400 of each other.



Good luck!



Cass

 

[Edward Lea.]

Get the most HP you can and get up in the boat and on that front deck. The front deck is important, sit in that seat and try to run that trolling motor foot pedal while facing out both sides. I have a 175 and after a day of fighting that foot pedal on that short deck it gets to be very frustrating. I know the 189 will have a bigger front porch or I hope it does but really spend some time checking out the front deck as that is where you will be fishing. Other than that inconvience our family loves our Fish n Ski.

 

[Cass Caldwell2]

I had the Nitro 175 Sport F/S and when I bought it I thought it was the ideal boat for me until I started fishing bass tournaments. I didn't have 2 livewells so if I had a non-boater I was screwed. The bottom of the boat where the skis are supposed to be stored was also supposed to double as a rod locker, but that area collected lots of water so I wouldn't but my rods there. Trolling motor and electronics were bottom of the line. I also didn't feel very manly showing up at bass tourneys in my fish and ski. ).



Just my experience, but if you think you'd miss fishing features I"d really think hard about it.

 

[Edward Lea.]

Hey Cass you only have 1 livewell in that 175. Ours came with two. one up front and one in the back. I wouldn't use it for a tournament boat however.

 

[Mike Zechman]

I use mine for tourny's, no problem, I do get alot of,"what the hell" looks, but oh well, I still catch fish just like the guy in the Ranger

 

[Eric Aasen]

There are a lot of guys out here that use fish and skis in tournaments. Just make sure you max out the HP and you'll blow away those Triton 186 and Ranger 188 guys. Just ask Mike. I think he gets around 63 with his 200 Opti. Really with the deck extension there is plenty of room up front to fish and if you put a pedestal mount on the extension, using the trolling motor is not bad at all. The biggest drawback is you don't have as much room to lay rods out and have them ready. Some sort of rod organizer that mounts on the windshield would be really helpful. I say go for it. The 189 is a nice looking boat. Just big and heavy, it needs a gutsy powerplant.



NoCAL

 

[Mike Zechman]

NOCAL, I need to update my stats, since all the prop testing and JP heights I played with, I'm now at 68GPS, full tanks, gear(not as much as a bassboat of course) and 2 gents, the big player for me was the 24 tempast plus prop instead of the laser II

 

[Eric Aasen]

Dude that is flying. I'm still really learning in my Triton but I did get it up to 68 the other day. The chinewalk was there but I'm learning to control it. At 65 it's mellow with the right trim. Above that and pucker factor starts to set in.

 

[C C]

I would most certainly hope that any boat rigged with a 200hp motor and someone that knows how to drive it could out run a 150hp rig. All that extra dough for an extra 5mph?



Cass

 

[Mike Zechman]

Cass, its not just for 5MPH(I happen to like speed) its also gettin out of the hole with a heavy load,ie, people gear ect. A 150 will be ok, but for me the big point for going to a 200 was gettin on plane and stayin there at low speeds especially in big swells and a heavy load