A clean, organized, and well designed boat can help you catch more Muskie. How? You will be more efficient, you won't trip over the mess on the floor on your way to dig the cradle out from underneath the cooler, you'll be more comfortable fishing, and the boat will work with you. Remember the boat is just as important as your rod and reel in the presentation of your lure. A well designed boat will assist you, whereas a poor design will distract you from the matter at hand.

Just what makes a good Muskie boat? You may want to consider the Tuffy line of boats: The Esox Ltd, and Esox Magnum are muskie fishing machines. (Tuffy Esox Magnum shown above) Designed with the serious muskie fishermen in mind, its hard to find a better boat for fishing muskie. I have added "*"'s to the items the Tuffy Esox line offers. I will also mention where they fall short. Keep in mind that I fish the waters of NW Wisconsin and the Metro Minnesota lakes and cast 99% of the time. I am not in any way connected to Tuffy Boats, this is only my opinion, take what you like from the following.

If you have any questions about my boat, please feel free to drop me an e-mail. I can't promise I'll get back instantly, but will try to answer any questions you may have.

You will want to look for the following features in your "Muskie" boat:

Hull Design, more or less a personal choice based on the water type you fish.

Deep V's are great for big / rough water, and they track very well for trolling. On the down side, their high sides act as sails and make boat control difficult for casting in windy contitions. The high sides also hinder working some twitch and jerkbaits. Figure 8's may have "blind" spots.

Tuffy's Rampage Magnum is a Sponsoned Deep-V hull. It is bit deeper and has higher sides than the Esox line. This may be a good boat for larger bodies of water, where casting is perhaps not the main mode of fishing.

Modified V's are a little more efficient with the gas, they plane eaiser that a deep V. Lower sides make boat control, jerkbait fishing, and figure-8's eaiser.

* The Esox Ltd and Magnum are "Sponsoned" V's It offers very low sides and serves as a stable casting platform and helps in boat control; the wind does not blow it around like a high sided V hull.

What is a Sponsoned-V Hull?

Here is the Tuffy artwork for the Esox Magnum.  The hull, and the floor plan are show:

Tiller if you are a caster, console if you troll. Or is that console if you are a caster, tiller if you troll? You'll have to pick what suits you.

I personally run a tiller, it offers me better boat control, and I don't need to shift positions to start fishing. I do my fishing from the back of the boat because I usually have a fishing partner or a newcomer in the front.

* The Esox Ltd and Magnum come in both models, although I have never seen a console version of either boat. The tiller version (with or without the optional rear casting deck, more on that later) uses boat space more efficently.

Front and rear casting decks.

If you are a caster you need decks. Without them seeing following fish is difficult and figure 8's are tough. If you fish alone a front deck is all you need, if you fish with a partner, get both front and rear. (Or fish in the low part of the boat to see what a pain it is...)

* You should opt for the optional rear deck in the Esox Ltd if you don't fish alone from the front. The Esox Magnum has such wide "tanks" along the enitre lengh of the boat that you can comfortably use them as the rear deck if you don't often fish with two people. Guides often rig the boat to be run from the rear, using the long cable (or RF) foot control bow mount trolling motors, controlled from the rear deck.

Lots and lots of storage. You can't have enough storage.

Large livewells (50+ inches) can aid in reviving Muskie before release.

* The Esox Ltd and Magnum have 60" insulated livewells. The Magnum also has a insulated 36" baitwell. (Or a real nice built in cooler if you don't fish livebait.)

Lockable Rod storage, 7 foot or longer.

* The Esox Ltd and Magnum have a 7 foot locking rod locker.

Lockable Electronics storage.

* The Esox Ltd and Magnum do not have lockable electronics storage. Being a very shallow design does not allow for the usual electonics bay found on tiller versions of some Deep V's.

Lockable Tackle storage.

* The Esox Ltd and Magnum have lockable storage, however I'm not sure any addicted Muskie hunter could possibly fit all their lures in any locking storage in a boat. It's probably safer in the truck or car overnight anyway.

Did I mention lots and lots of storage?

Trolling Motors

Get more thrust than you think you'll ever need, because that will be barely enough!

Install both bow and transom motors.

Consider using two 12V deep cycle batteries hooked up in parallel to give you long lasting power for your bow mount motor.

Editoral: I've had 2 Motorguide transom mounts that self destructed after a season, no more Motorguides for me.

Electronics

Flashers/LCD installed where you run the boat.

Surface temp gauge. (Your locator may have one built-in as well)

GPS - On some big lakes, this is a great security feature. On small lakes a map and compass work just as well. (And a compass never needs batteries!)

Outboard

Motor manufactuer and type (2 vs 4 stroke) is a personal choice.

Keep in mind it is much better to have a motor in the upper end of the H.P. rate for your boat than to be under powered. There is no need to run down the lake at WOT; you save in fuel and wear and tear on the engine if you run an engine at a lower RPM. When that storm kicks up it's nice to have the speed in your back pocket. There is nothing as frustrating as an underpowered boat.

Trailers

Again, like motors trailers are a matter of personal choice, use whatever you are comfortable with.

Roller trailers are nice for shallow launch ramps.

Bunk are nice for drive-on, easy maintainence, and offer good hull support while trailering.

* The Esox Ltd and Magnum are equipped with custom bunk trailers that make loading and unloading a dream. In fact I'm not sure you can even get a roller trailer for the Esox's.