tiller vs console?

[Shizzy]

I was at the state fair last night and stopped in one of the boat dealer's areas. some really nice fishing rigs. V hulls and bass boats mostly. The thing I noticed was many of them were tiller. Only one was a console unit. I guess I have never seen a larger boat with an 70+hp tiller.

what would be the reason/benefit to having a tiller on such a large boat? I assumed one of the first steps up from my little tinny with a 6hp tiller was something with a steering wheel.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: tiller vs console?

Lots of walleye anglers prefer a tiller boat, even in the larger sizes. The technique of backtrolling actually requires a tiller boat.

I prefer a tiller boat for solo fishing, myself. It's easier to fish and operate the motor with a tiller, as far as I'm concerned. I don't troll a lot, but when I do, having a tiller boat, with the depth graph visible makes it easy to follow a contour.

Still, if you have a large tiller boat, it's going to be pretty much a pure fishing boat, not a multipurpose boat.

Bass fishermen, on the other hand, don't fish while running the boat, so a console makes sense. Then, when they're in the fishing area, they operate the boat with a bow-mounted trolling motor, controlled with a foot pedal.

Just different styles for different techniques. Up here in Minnesota, the walleye is king, for some reason I don't understand. So big tiller boats are really common here.

 

[Navy Jr.]

Re: tiller vs console?

In addition to what CAT said, some folks just like the additional deck space a tiller gives you. The console eats up a bunch of square footage.