HookedOnFishingBoats.com

Bay boats are great in protected waters, but when it comes to popping through the inlet for an afternoon in the ocean, most of them will beat you to a pulp. You want the beef and the capabilities to make a run off the coast when conditions allow? Pro-Line’s 23 Bay has the shallow water abilities you need to go to the flats, and the oomph it requires to get you to the fish when the hot bite is 10 miles from the beach. When I tested the 23 (with a honkin’ big 250-hp Optimax outboard that was 50-hp shy of the max, yet had the power to push us past 53-mph) there was a stiff breeze and a one to two foot chop on the bay. The boat handled it like a champ, keeping me mostly dry, maintaining good economy through the RPM range, and remaining comfortable in the sloppy waters at speeds in the low to mid 20’s. Note that the 23 has a transom deadrise of 15-degrees. That’s not very sharp for an ocean-goer, but it’s certainly a lot of V in the bottom for a bay boat. In other words, you won’t want to leap from swell to swell in this boat, but it offers significantly more big-water capability then most boats that were designed to spend their life on inshore bays.

Now, are you ready to cast? We wanted to live-bait on our test boat, and were able to load up on shrimp, pinfish, and crabs. Carrying all three was no problem, because we had three separate livewells: two 38 gallon wells—with timers on the aerators and lights inside—plus a small 10 gallon well. Stock boats, however, come with a single well in the aft stern compartment to keep cost reasonable and allow owners to have some flexibility in livewell versus stowage compartment lay-outs. Serious anglers may regret it, however, if they don’t have the other wells plumbed. Our test boat also had a T-top, which most bay boats will likely go without. Still, I like it for the sun protection. One down-side, here: it didn’t have any rocket launchers. You can get the top with these, too, but you’ll pay more. Fortunately, there is plenty of rod stowage with the three vertical holders per side on the console, plus a pair of gunwale holders. But there’s also some cost-cutting visible in the washdown system, which shares a pump with the livewell (ensuring low water flow and a shorter pump life span,) and in the lack of trolling motor pre-wiring (which most bay boats builders install.)