5 Fishing-Ready Flats Boats
Flats boats live in the small details. A few inches of draft can change where you fish, especially in places around Florida. A few hundred pounds can change how a boat poles, how it lifts onto plane, and how much throttle it can take across a windy bay.
The layout matters just as much. Console placement can make or break cockpit flow. Hatch gutters matter when the deck is wet and the fly line is loose. Rod storage, livewell position, cockpit height, and platform design all start to feel important when the water is shallow and the fish are already half-spooked before you ever make a cast.
Flats boats under 20 feet hit a sweet spot for a lot of anglers: boats you can pole and trailer easily and use to sneak into skinny water. These are boats for anglers who spend more time reading tides and wind than staring at the plotter.
Flats boats and skiffs definitely overlap, but this list emphasizes compact, purpose-built inshore platforms. They might be more basic but still need enough range, finish, and fishing utility to satisfy serious shallow-water anglers.
Maverick Mirage 18 HPX-V
The Maverick Mirage 18 HPX-V is a polished, versatile flats boat for anglers who value variety. They might start the morning on the pole in slicked-out water. By lunch, they may be crossing open chop. Later in the day, they may be throwing a cast net in the backcountry or sight-casting with a fly rod when the light gets good.
The Mirage’s appeal is its range of use. It has enough hull under it to make ugly bay crossings less of a punishment, but it still behaves like a technical skiff when the engine goes quiet. The walkaround gunwales are practical and the rod tubes are cleanly integrated. Its taller console and 30-gallon aft livewell give it real guide-boat utility without making the deck feel overloaded.
The Maverick Mirage 18 HPX-V can fish live bait without feeling like a compromise but also stay clean enough for fly anglers who care about line management. It has the stability and cockpit space for serious inshore work. Even so, it doesn’t lose the light, responsive feel that makes a flats boat enjoyable on the pole.
For anglers who split time between bait and artificials, the 18 HPX-V makes a lot of sense. The same goes for guides who need a capable customer boat who still want something refined enough for personal sight-fishing days. It’s broad-shouldered enough to be useful when conditions are dicey, yet technical enough to feel at home in skinny water.
Specifications:
- LOA: 18 feet, 4 inches
- Beam: 6 feet, 8 inches
- Draft: 9 inches with Yamaha F150
- Weight: ~1,460 pounds with F150
- Fuel capacity: 29 gallons
- Maximum horsepower: 150
- MSRP: $59,393
Hewes Redfisher 18
Perhaps the most familiar name in this group is the Hewes Redfisher 18, and for good reason. It’s been a backcountry staple for decades, and the current version keeps the Redfisher formula intact. It poles shallow and has the beam to feel secure. It also has the practical layout to take more than one kind of inshore fishing approach.
With a 7-foot, 11-inch beam, it has a different feel than the narrower, more specialized technical boats. The extra width helps when you’re live-baiting or throwing spinning tackle. It also makes family runs and rougher-water crossings feel more natural, all while keeping enough shallow-water ability to fish the flats properly.
The current model is built using Hewes’ VARIS vacuum-infusion process, and the builder balances it around 115 to 150 horsepower. That power range fits the boat’s personality. A 115 keeps it efficient and sensible. A 150 gives it the punch many Redfisher owners want when there’s a long run home across open water.
This is the choice for anglers who want a classic flats boat with a wider, do-everything backcountry platform.
Specifications:
- LOA: 18 feet, 10 inches
- Beam: 7 feet, 11 inches
- Draft: 10 inches
- Weight: ~1,900 pounds with a Yamaha F115
- Fuel capacity: 31 gallons
- Maximum horsepower: 150
- MSRP: $64,488
East Cape 17 EVO
The East Cape 17 EVO has a more custom, region-specific feel than the mass-market boats above. The Lagoon is not the Keys. Biscayne Bay is not the Laguna Madre. A skiff that feels perfect in one fishery can feel slightly off in another, and East Cape builds the EVO with that reality in mind.
A better way to think about the 17 EVO is as a platform East Cape lets you tune. Buyers can order the model with either a 14-degree or 2-degree hull bottom. They can also choose the optional shallow-water tunnel package. The V version is the more versatile open-water personality, while the X and tunnel configurations lean toward ultra-shallow access and Texas-style skinny-water work.
That range of options gives the EVO a distinct advantage for anglers who know exactly where they fish and what they want the boat to do. A flats boat built for long open-water runs across broken chop has different priorities than one built to stalk tailing fish in ankle-deep water. The EVO can be shaped around those priorities.
You can keep the deck clean for fly fishing or set it up with the gear a working guide wants. Standard package features include a Suzuki 60, a 22-gallon built-in fuel cell, electric trim tabs, and hydraulic steering. It also includes under-gunwale rod tubes, an insulated crustacean/livewell, a poling platform, and a custom aluminum trailer. Construction is fully infused and cored with vinylester resin.
Specifications:
- LOA: 16 feet, 7 inches
- Beam: 70 inches
- Draft: Configuration-dependent
- Weight: Build-specific
- Fuel capacity: 22 gallons
- Maximum horsepower: 90
- MSRP: $53,000 boat, motor, trailer package
Beavertail Strike 17
Compact, practical, and hard-fishing. That’s the Beavertail Strike 17. It’s built to run shallow and pole quietly. It can carry two or three anglers easily and is enough of a boat to cross open bays without making you regret leaving the dock.
The Strike 17’s semi-tunnel hull is the feature worthy of attention. It gives the boat the lift and shallow-water attitude anglers want. At the same time, the bow and running surface are shaped with open-water use in mind. That combination matters if your day starts in a protected creek and ends with a wind-against-tide run across a bay.
Beavertail offers a variety of layout options: tiller, side console, or center console. A tiller version keeps weight and obstruction down. A side console provides better control without cluttering the centerline. A center console makes sense for anglers who want the familiar stance and rigging options of a more conventional flats boat.
The Strike’s strength is legitimate utility. It feels like a flats boat that is built to get dirty and work close around oyster bars. It can both pole redfish flats and throw at tarpon with success, so it is Florida-ready. This offering from Beavertail is not the most ornate boat here, but it has a strong price-to-capability case and a layout that makes sense for anglers who use their gear hard.
Specifications:
- LOA: 17 feet, 6 inches
- Beam: 73 inches
- Draft: 6+ inches
- Weight: 550 pounds gross
- Fuel capacity: 20 gallons
- Maximum horsepower: 90
- MSRP: $46,900
Chittum Islamorada 18
The Chittum Islamorada 18 sits at the obsessive end of the world of flats boats. This is the premium technical choice for anglers who pay close attention to silence and draft.
Chittum uses high-volume built-in spray rails, a staggered split chine below the waterline, a radius transom, and no sponsons. Buyers can also choose an available 8-inch pad. The goal is the rare combination every technical-skiff builder chases: quiet on the pole, dry on the run, light underfoot, and composed in open water.
The construction and rigging follow the same obsessive logic. Chittum offers base-carbon and full-carbon layups, along with Yamaha, 70, 90, and 90 SHO power options.
Specifications:
- LOA: 18 feet
- Beam: 6 feet, 8 inches
- Draft: 7 inches (w/70 hp carbon build); 8 inches (w/90 hp carbon build)
- Weight: 535 pounds (unrigged in 100 percent carbon fiber)
- Fuel capacity: 23, 32, or 38 gallons
- Maximum horsepower: 90
- MSRP: Build-specific
Images are courtesy of the manufacturers.
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David Schlake
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