Fishing, in general, requires stealth and flexibility. Just imagine, on a nice sunny day, you’re in the mood for some fishing. Fortunately for you, there’s a lot of fish in the river now.
You get all excited and happy, but your boating vehicle is so loud you barely caught only three fishes. Now, who doesn’t want to enjoy fishing swiftly with fun? There’s a ton of good boating options for fishing available. But here we will be discussing: are inflatable boats good for fishing or not?
While inflatable boats may not be the first thing anyone thinks of for fishing, it’s certainly not a bad option at all. Instead, inflatable boats are a good option for fishing. It’s more flexible and very cost-efficient than the usual boats of today.
However, to know in detail why inflatable boats are good for fishing, be sure to read till the end. Without further ado, let’s start with a brief introduction to inflatable boats and their relevance to fishing.
Are Inflatable Boats Good For Fishing? Explained
Inflatable boats are these lightweight boats having flexible bow and sides. Both are made of pressurized gas.
As for boats longer than three meters, the boat’s floor has some rigid aluminum sheets attached firmly between the tubes. However, they are not joined together rigidly.
Moreover, some inflatable boats can be disjoint and then taken into small volumes to transport and store the boat.
These sorts of boats are suitable for aircraft, larger boats, or just recreational purposes, for instance, fishing in this case.
Modern-day inflatable boats are usually manufactured with supported fabrics. People now use inflatable boats for recreational purposes like fishing, water rafting, and so on.
Types Of Inflatable Boats
There are mainly two types of inflatable boats available.
1. Rigid Inflatable Boat
RIB or rigid inflatable boats have a rigid floor and a solid hull. This strong hull ensures the boat travels fast, even in tough waves. It gives a comfortable ride cutting through the rough water waves.
This hull’s structure ensures the boat can carry big powerful engines, be it outboard or inboard engines. These inflatable boats can be powerful and big enough to carry a car, let alone buckets of fishes.
2. Soft Inflatable Boat
Just by the name, you can tell that a SIB or soft inflatable boat lacks the hard hull that a rigid inflatable boat has.
Instead of the solid hull, this type of inflatable boat has a removable stalled floor. This makes it easy to transport the boat through any vehicle.
Soft inflatable boats have a lower draft. This makes it possible and easy for the boat to travel in shallow water. Not only that, but it also allows the boat to travel in places without landing facilities.
Actually, some soft inflatable boats have rigid transom that can carry and support an outboard engine.
The boat also has an inflatable kneel that can create a V-shaped bottom with the hull. This enables the hull’s balance keeping as well as directional stability.
Since the vessels of a soft inflatable boat are very light, it’s recommended to keep the weight and kinds of stuff in the bow area to prevent the bow from rising when the boat is about to board the plane.
This sort of inflatable boat has an extra advantage in that is it offers several floor choices starting from high-pressure air floor, roll up a slate floor, ribbed air floor, and many more. You can use the one according to the activity you will do.
Rigid Inflatable Boat Or Soft Inflatable Boat: Which Is Better For Fishing?
As previously mentioned, rigid inflatable boats mainly carry significant weight and heavy pieces of stuff, for instance, cars or big bundles of things.
Unless you are planning to go fishing for a family trip or business, there’s not any need for you to use rigid inflatable boats for fishing.
As for Soft inflatable boats, you can use whatever type of floor you want to use, be it high-pressure air floor, roll up a slate floor, ribbed air floor, or any other kind. These are also comparatively cheap.
You can take it folded and just start rowing and fishing. This is the perfect choice for the recreational fishing time.
But ultimately, the choice is yours. You can choose whichever you like based on the number of fishes you want to catch etc.
Advantages And Reasons To Use An Inflatable Boat For Fishing
There’s plenty of advantages of using an inflatable boat for fishing that there’s hardly any reason not to do so! Let’s take a look at some of the benefits.
Cost-Efficient
Inflatable boats are the best for you if you’re on a tight budget. These boats are unique but costs cheaper than other boats. Cheap to the point where the cost is as low as only $1.005.
And the best thing is that you do not need to buy any extra types of equipment for inflatable boats. Inflatable boats don’t require stuff like trailering pieces of equipment, ramps, or even marine space.
Stealthy
As mentioned earlier, to catch as many fishes as possible, you need to be stealthy. Inflatable boats do this job the best way.
It’s way too quieter compared to regular boats. This gives you the upper hand in sneaking up on the fishes.
Unsinkable
Inflatable boats are unsinkable. The tubes of these boats have separate chambers even if there isn’t any sort of extra protection and one of the tubes gets punctures; it will not affect the other tubes.
The craft still remains buoyant as the other tubes have air pressure, so you have very little to zero chance of sinking.
It’s pretty much a fact that inflatable boats are practically unsinkable. With this kind of boat, you can even enjoy fishing in the middle of an ocean without any worries, isn’t that great?
Accessible To Drive And Control
These Inflatable boats require minimal experience to use. You can simply row the boat even in extreme water currents.
But you can also use a troller motor in case you’re looking forward to going fishing for a longer time.
As mentioned previously, you can use any transform outboard or inboard engine too. However, this isn’t necessary for simple fishing.
FAQ
1. How Far Can I Go With An Inflatable Boat?
With rigid inflatable boats, you can travel at least a mile or two or even more depend on some factors such as weather, your own experience, etc. You can row the boat or use a small engine if you’re looking to travel far away.
2. Can You Stand Up On An Inflatable Boat?
Depending on the type of inflatable boat you have, you can stand up for a long time. While some inflatable boats allow us to stand up as much as we want, others don’t. This also depends on the type of bottom you have.
3. Does Inflatable Boats Puncture Easily?
It is possible for the inflated boat to puncture like any other boat but definitely not easy.
A better-built inflatable boat will have a double exterior structure that ensures maximum safety as well as abrasion resistance, ultimately making it unlikely to get punctured in the worst scenarios.
Final Words
Hopefully, by reading so far, you got the answer to your question, “are inflatable boats good for fishing? Well, let us conclude once again, inflatable boats are a good option for fishing.
It’s super easy to drive, is cheap, unsinkable, and whatnot! How great is that! Think about it.
You can finally enjoy your fishing without a worry in your mind. Thank you for reading to the end. We hope you have a great have. Don’t forget to tell us what inflatable boat you’d choose. Happy fishing!
