Mako unveiled its new series of inshore skiffs last  spring at the Miami Boat Show with mixed reviews. But upon further review on my part and with the help of fellow guide (Mako pro-staff team) Rob Fordyce, I have been convinced.

          No ..... Rob didn't convince me, the new Mako Inshore hull did. At the show they stood a 20 footer up on its transom so you could see the radical new hull design, which Rob had a hand in designing. This chine design really works ...... it is without any drought the quietest hull I've ever fished ...... BAR NONE.

 Poling into the wind or on a angle this hull is silent. The track of the boat is remarkable also. A responsive track that feels like a 15 or a 16 foot boat ....... but it's 17.5 feet long. The longer hull is extremely stable compared to my Silver King "16" at the same weight 850 lbs., and takes a chop much better because of that length and weight even with the dead rise of 16 degrees and a beam of 87 inches. I know, I said the same thing,  but this hull rides great with a Mercury 90 Saltwater on her transom. The GPS showed 46 MPH with the two of us on board. Just think of that .... Me @ 260 lbs. and Rob Fordyce at ... well around ... 240 lbs. ....... that's a tag team of 500 lbs.

        OK! ...... Draft you ask? Well I pushed this hull up on a sand flat outside of Elliot Key until she rubbed hard enough to stop, and we were in 7 ½ inches of water. I could have pushed her along if I were chasing a bone into shallower water still. Then we added a third person to the weight scenario and the figures barley changed. We went from 7.5  to 8.5 inches of draft and down to 42 MPH.  The ride got even better and the poling was totally unchanged. The hole shot drafts were better that my old girl ... at 20 inches, and in a boats length we were up and running when using our trim tabs.

But a boat this good on the outside has to have no dry storage right? Wrong again ....  The dry wells are huge and really ..DRY..  The lids are quiet when dropped, and silent when walking on them, and the rod storage is the best. Rather than making the tops solid over the rod storage they added hinges for added ease and  protection when removing and replacing our very expensive rods.  Fuel capacity is 30 gallons and with the new Mercury Optimax engines that's enough to go to Lostman's river for the day from Islamorada without sweating it.

         This new hull from Mako is a home run in a park with a center field that has, up to  know, been out of sight. This new inshore skiff has indeed the handling of a very heavy, deeper vee hull, without "HULL SLAP",  and the poling and shallow water capabilities of one of those super light hulls, without the loss of stability and storage...... and you've got to love the crustacean well built in and the accessibility to the bait well pumps. The battery is mounted in the forward hatch for better balance, and the console comes in either a deep storage well or a cooler that is as good as an Igloo. This skiff is what I have been searching for to replace my King..... The max rating is a 115 HP for the 1700 and I can't wait to put one on my new hull .......

And they said you can't get a skiff that does everything ........Oh, yes I can .....and it's called a Mako Inshore 1700

                                                                    Capt. Dave Sutton
 

          I have had the opportunity to try quite a few poling poles as a guide here in So. Florida. I started, as many you have, with the most cost effective (cheapest) pole I could find. This is of course the A'OK Fish & Bait $145.00 special.  A great deal for a rough and tough, no nonsense glass pole. I then moved on to Moonlighter .... a considerable difference, and a considerable cost difference. Then I started the move to the caddilacs of poles ........ graphite composites, hybrid's, solid graphite, and the most hi-teck and hi-dollar stuff I could find trying to find a pole that would stand up to a tarpon season on the outside of Key Largo and Elliot Key. After breaking the best of them, I thought it was me and my inability to set a pole properly, well OK, at first it was.

        Then I was in Biscayne Bay Fly Shops when they got a new pole in from Texas. It was called a Stiffy. This is by far the best pole I have ever used. I bought a Hybrid 80/20 . Eighty percent graphite and 20 percent e-glass wrapping. This pole is twenty one feet long and weights less than five and a half pounds. It feels as stiff as those 100 % graphic poles but will out perform them hands down. The pole allows me to use my height (6'3") and weight  (255 pounds)  to push my SilverKing as if it were a Mirage. I can lean on this pole to push up wind to reach a tailer that I would not have even tried for in the past.  The best part is this is not even their lightest pole .... not even their second lightest pole.

        Stiffy makes poles from their fiberglass poles (weighting 6.7 oz.. per ft.), an 80/20 Hybrid pole (3.6 oz.. per ft.),  an 100% graphite pole (2.56 oz.. per ft.),  and a Hells Bay Custom Stiffy (2 oz.. per ft.). The composite foot weights 8.9 oz.. and the spike is only 2.5 oz. When you do the math  a 21 ft. Hells Bay pole weights less than four pounds. These guys even make a pole for your canoe or kayak in a reduced diameter and at lengths from five feet to twenty feet.

           If you are in the market for a new push pole, or just want to get the very best for those few days you have out on the flats, look at a Stiffy. When Flip Pallot handled this pole he had a signature line created for his Hells Bay Boats, Jose Wejebe and  Rick Murphy own a Stiffy Push Pole.  Check out the web site at www.fibertexsupply.com, or better yet take a ride down to Biscayne Bay Fly Shop and handle one for yourself.  Just make sure to tell them Capt. Dave sent you.

Tight lines & quick releases    Capt. Dave Sutton