What boat should I buy for lake and river fishing?

To point you in the right direction, here’s our guide to buying a small boat to fish bays and harbours, lakes and dams, rivers and estuaries.

Why are you buying a boat? What will you use it for? Where will you use it? These are the most important questions to address before you make a boat purchasing decision. Get these questions right, and you’ll be on track to finding the right boat for your favourite fishing activity.

For example, if you intend fishing mainly in very smooth waters, i.e., narrow creeks and rivers, or small lakes and dams, then your priority should be to buy a roomy boat that is very stable, planes easily, and can carry a large load. Ride comfort is not going to be much of an issue here as the boat will be used in smooth waters.

Conversely, the angler who fishes coastal bays and harbours, large, open lakes (Eucumbene, Dartmouth etc) is going to need a craft with comfortable ride, high freeboard to keep spray and water out of the boat, and predictable, safe handling.

In these larger waterways, conditions can quickly change from dead calm to choppy, even rough. This is when having a more comfortable riding boat pays dividends.

So what are the most comfortable riding boats? Well, for monohull craft, the best riding boats are those with a vee-hull bottom shape – as opposed to the completely flat shape you would find on a river barge or a small car topper punt.

The vee-hull boat is not a safer boat - it is just more comfortable, softer riding in choppy water.

Conversely, the punt or barge is unquestionably the best type of boat to fish from. Rectangular in shape, with a square bow, low topsides and a completely flat bottom, the punt is the most stable of all monohull (single hull) boat types.

Punts have a shallow draft for getting into tight, shallow creeks, a large load-carrying capacity, and they will plane easily with smaller outboards.

The punt is also the most spacious of small boats because the beam or width of the boat is usually constant from the stem to the stern. With a rounded, or pointed bow boat, the beam tapers into a point at the bow from about amidships.

The combination of unparalleled stability and increased useable fishing space would make the punt the craft of choice for all anglers - if sea conditions were always calm. Unfortunately, in the real world we have to contend with all kinds of sea conditions, and that's when you have to start compromising.

In even mildly choppy waters flat-bottomed punts will be wet and hard riding, making them unsuitable for most boating and fishing applications.

The vee-hulled, rounded-bow open boat remains the most popular style of small boat in Australia, but not by a long shot. The latest v-nosed barra boats or v-punts (think Quintrex Explorer and Hornet) have many of the advantages of the vee-bottom boat – including a similar level of ride comfort.

To achieve a comfortable ride, modern vee-nose barra boats also have a vee-hull bottom shape, albeit with a shallower vee angle to ensure the boats are stable at rest.

Think of the vee-nose barra boat as a cross between a flat-bottomed punt and a regular rounded bow vee-hulled boat. It has pros and cons of each.

Vee-nose barra boats are very stable, roomy inside, reasonably comfortable riding and quick to plane with small power engines.

On the flip-side however, most vee-nose boats have minimal cockpit freeboard and low exterior topsides. This makes them great to fish from – but less than ideal in rough water sea conditions as large waves can flood into the boat.

The rounded-bow, vee-hull boat on the other hand might not be quite as stable at rest, but it does have higher topsides and more internal freeboard for improved seaworthiness in open waters.

The vee-hull boat will also be drier in choppy water and the more streamlined bow shape of this type of boat will allow it to slip more easily through the wind and water.

There are exceptions to the above rules. US tournament bass boats, for example, combine a smooth riding vee-hull fibreglass bottom shape with low topsides like a ski boat. These craft are generally stable and wonderfully soft riding – but they are not designed for open waters.

In Australia, most new boats less than 4.7 metres in length are made of pressed aluminium.

Aluminium boats are much lighter than comparable fibreglass (or poly plastic) boats, making them easier to launch (whether car-topped or trailered), and to carry and drag up the beach.

These are important considerations for people who like to fish on their own.

Pressed alloy boats also require less power - about two-thirds the horsepower for similar performance. This equates to better fuel economy and cheaper running costs.

Alloy is also very strong, durable, and requires very little maintenance. Keeping an alloy boat in good condition relies only on hosing it down after each use.

In a construction sense, alloy is also more versatile. Because each boat is made from sheets of alloy, pressed and welded together in a jigsaw-like pattern, it is easy to customise individual boats. You can therefore order any number of different options and even order a boat built entirely to your specifications.

With fibreglass, customisation is much more difficult because a mould has to be made for each modification - and this is simply too expensive.

Despite the apparent disadvantages of small fibreglass boats, they should not be discounted. For certain applications, I believe a fibreglass boat is a good choice.

If you live in a major town or city where there are good boating facilities, and you don't have to worry about running aground or otherwise damaging the boat, then a fibreglass boat is a sound proposition.

I would also seriously consider buying a fibreglass boat, be it a monohull or multihull if my primary fishing ground was a wide open bay or lake. There's no question that a good glass boat is considerably softer riding than a tinnie.

A better quality of ride is not the only advantage of the fibreglass boat. Glass boats are also much quieter, generally better finished, and more attractive.

An interesting debate for the angler seeking an alloy boat up to 4.0 metres long is whether to buy a lightweight boat that can be car-topped or a heavy-duty version designed to be trailered. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

The most obvious advantage of the lighter boat is that you don't need a trailer. To fish those out-of-the-way hot spots, accessible only with a 4WD vehicle, you can simply strap the boat to the roof racks, and off you go.

Being lighter, the car topper is also easier to drag up the beach, carry/drag over shallows, and generally much easier to manhandle.

For the same reason, it can be powered by a smaller, lighter outboard.

In contrast, the heavy-duty boat is a much better bet for open-water fishing. Being heavier and wider, it will likely be softer riding, drier, more stable, and have a greater load carry capacity to carry more people or gear.

The penalty for the heavy-duty boat's better on-water performance is that you'll need a bigger outboard, as well as a trailer in craft over 3.8 m long.

Light and heavy-duty versions are available in all three of the popular types of aluminium boats, the square bow punt, vee-hulled open dinghy, as well as the vee-punt or barra boat.

Whether to buy a pressed alloy or a plate alloy boat is another choice confronting the aluminium boat buyer. There is a substantial difference between the two.

Pressed alloy boats make up most small boats on the Aussie market.

Building from pressed alloy is the quickest and cheapest construction technique which is why it is favoured by the big companies. It is not, as this statement might imply, an inferior construction technique, just a different one. It could be argued to be superior because the result is a strong, durable, yet lightweight boat.

The primary difference between the techniques is that with pressed alloy boats, the interior framework, i.e., the ribbing and longitudinal keel, as well as the cross thwarts, provides the majority of the hull strength. The side and bottom sheeting is made of relatively lightweight alloy (1.2 - 2.0 mm), pre-pressed for better rigidity, and to prevent buckling.

In contrast, plate alloy boats are built with much of the hull strength determined by the thickness of the alloy plate - rather than the internal rib structure. For this reason, it is not uncommon to see small plate alloy boats built from up to 3.0 and 4.0 mm thick alloy.

Having made these observations, there is no question that plate alloy boats are ultimately stronger - particularly if they are built with a strong internal box section in addition to the heavy outside plate alloy.

Inflatable boats have never been especially popular with small-boat fishers, yet they deserve to be considered by anglers intending to fish in remote locations.

Car topper dinghies or barra punts usually get the nod in this situation because they are a lot cheaper, as well as stronger, and can take more of a beating.

Inflatable boats are not as fragile as they once were, but they still can't compete with the durability of alloy for rough-and-tumble boating and fishing.

On the plus side, inflatables are the most transportable of all boat types because you can literally fold them up and pack them away in the boot of your car.

Whilst it's true you can car-top lightweight dinghies and punts, the bigger models can be difficult to get down off the roof single-handed, unless you have a special (expensive) folding roof rack system.

Stability is another key feature of the inflatable. With two opposing, inflated sponsons, the inflatable is easily the most stable type of small boat, and for this very reason, one of the safest.

Against the inflatable is that most lack interior storage space, they can take more than half an hour to rig up and down, most are bouncy and wet in even mildly choppy conditions, and they have little wind or spray protection.

The demand for small multihulls for estuary and freshwater fishing is relatively low, but these craft should not be discounted.

Powered catamarans and trihulls can work very well in certain fishing and boating applications as they can be both soft riding and very stable at rest.

Traditional monohulls will be soft riding or stable, but rarely both. It all depends on hull weight, waterline beam width, and the vee-angle of the hull.

At one end of the scale is the hard-riding, very stable punt. At the other, there is the soft-riding but tender vee-bottom boat.

What all this means is that a cat or trihull should be seriously considered if you intend to fish choppy bays and lakes. Not only are they generally soft riding and very stable, but their rectangular shape is conducive to fishing.

Similar to the square-bowed punt, most cats and trihulls are as wide at the bow as amidships, so there is plenty of space up forward for a casting deck, pedestal seat and more.

That said, multihulls can be lacking in storage compartments, weighty on a trailer, and wet in blustery/windy sea conditions.

Some cats and trihulls will also lean outward through a turn like a car. This can be disconcerting for some people.

On the plus side, multihull boats are usually very safe with superior handling in a following and beam sea.

Most are also unsinkable, with two or three separate air-tight (sometimes foam-filled) sponsons.

Another virtually unsinkable option is the aluminium pontoon monohull from the likes of New Zealand boat brands Stabicraft and Osprey.

These craft have airtight baffled aluminium pontoons encircling a smooth riding, deep-vee monohull like a collar so that when the boat comes to a stop, the pontoons settle into the water to provide exceptional stability. 

Pontoon alloy monohulls are also very strong and durable as they are made from heavy-duty plate aluminium.