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Pathfinder 2500 Hybrid Test

Join SWS as we take this hot new bay boat for a test ride.

While many bay boats have morphed into jack-of-all-trades crafts, the new Pathfinder 2500 Hybrid places more of a premium on hardcore inshore and nearshore fishing, encompassing the essentials that make a bay boat, a bay boat.

Three large lockers under the fore casting deck provide ample dry storage and twin racks to cradle a pair of rods to port and another to starboard. The 43-gallon fish box on this new Pathfinder serves as a step to the fore deck and is long enough to keep big kingfish or cobia. An in-deck locker between the step and the console keeps your cast net handy yet out of the way.

And the 2500 Hybrid offers two helm seating options, both leaning-post configurations with tackle storage. One includes premium seats with flip-up bolsters, pull-down arm and footrests and an expanded tackle center. The other has a bench seat with removable backrest, a tackle drawer and a massive livewell with viewing window in back.

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If you opt for the premium helm seats, a lighted 35-gallon livewell on the transom handles most of your live bait needs. If it isn’t enough, request the storage compartment on the portside corner be plumbed and turned into a 15-gallon crustacean well.

Other key options include hydraulic or power-assisted steering, trim tabs, 8- or 10-foot Power-pole, bubbling and recirculating livewell aeriation systems, and vertical racks to carry six extra rods on the hardtop and another four in back of the leaning post.

Check out our full review.

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