Holmes Thurmond’s needle-nosed 13-foot bass fishing boats, first built in 1948, were made of molded marine plywood. Soon, though, the company helped take boatbuilding into the era of fiberglass and mass production.
Boat sizes and power grew, and improved controls tended them. By 1975 Skeeter had introduced a 150 hp V-bottom bass boat, one the fishing world then saw as an awesome craft and power plant.
Bigger things lay ahead: larger, sleeker and more powerful bass boats, then boats for big-water tournament walleye fishing. For the new millennium, the company introduced a deep-V line for salt water and, since then, bass boats even bigger and better. Across much of that timespan, the SX bay boat series was winning fans among saltwater anglers.
Skeeter is good at firsts: first to build a “bass boat,” first to offer a V-hull with a pad, to create a no-splashwell transom, to build a production composite bass boat, to craft full-length rod boxes. Its innovations continue.
Our survey respondents liked just about everything about Skeeter boats, but particularly their speed, available equipment, brand reputation and customer service. Value and Performance led, based upon their aggregate attributes, but respondents found plenty to like about their Fishability too.
Skeeter launched its SX230 bay boat with the idea that it was right for a variety of fishing styles — fishing reds on the flats, or wahoo in blue water. Anglers have embraced the concept, riding its shallow draft inshore and enjoying its smooth, dry ride in the waves.
The SX230’s look has been called racy, with its low profile and freeboard, but it’s a hard-working fishing boat, swift, stable and well-equipped.
There are storage lockers beneath every raised deck surface, including a pair of fish boxes forward. Rod holders are abundant, six behind the leaning post/helm seat and four on each side of the streamlined center console, which itself eases movement throughout the boat. Baitwells/livewells under the console seat and aft casting deck are plumbed independently. There are twin pop-up jump seats within the otherwise-smooth rear casting deck.
An attractive option for the SX230 is a comfort console that features a porta potty (not included) and additional storage and handy under-console access to electrical systems.
With Yamaha power options from 150 to 250 hp, the SX230 comes standard with Yamaha multifunction gauges, 8-foot Pro Series Power-Pole, Seastar hydraulic steering, removable windshield, torque-transfer system and aluminum tandem-axle trailer.
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