The Edgewater 188 offers a dedicated fishing platform packed with plenty of features for the serious fisho. SCOTT THOMAS reports.
Centre consoles have come along way in recent years – both in design, features, and acceptance from fishos. There’s no mistaking a centre console’s purpose. They’re dedicated fishing boats and more and more fishos are coming around to the benefits of an open boat.
The Yanks know a thing or two about building these boats. The home of Edgewater Boats, Florida, the main boating state of the US, is the ideal playground and testing ground for this style of craft. We’ve seen a lot of US boats on our shores over the past few years. Just like US style fishing tournaments and American fishing techniques, these flashy boats with all the bells and whistles have been gladly accepted by Aussie anglers. However, sometimes looks can be deceiving; some of these imports are outstanding, others are all looks, and little substance. The Edgewater is a well designed, smoothly finished and nice riding boat.
Sydney Harbour is a great body of water to test and fish from these boats. The harbour’s full of fish and big enough to take advantage of a larger boat that’s capable of eating up the sometimes sloppy conditions. It’s also where we tested the new Edgewater 188 while attempting to catch a fish or two for a photo. Evinrude’s Riley Tolmay had been fishing from the 188 all morning at a reef off Sydney. He’d landed plenty of rat kings and a few flathead, but was keen to check out what the harbour had on offer while putting this boat through its paces nearby a few Sydney landmarks.
What’s on offer?
Starting at the transom, the test boat featured a 150hp E-TEC, which is the maximum rated for this model. There are two padded seats at the transom, handy for a day out of the water with the family, but they do eat into valuable aft fishing space. What I liked was the three tackle storage trays under the port side seat and extra storage on the starboard side with access to fuel filter and oil tank. There’s also a couple of drink holders in front of the outboard’s cut-away style transom.
The sides are padded for prolonged battles with big fish. And underneath the gunwales is enough space for three rods, on either side of the boat.
In the centre the console is pretty big with enough space to protect two people from cold wind or spray while under way. Inside the console there’s heaps of space for storage of lifejackets and other equipment. The helm seat features a storage box underneath. The boat’s large livewell sits behind the helm seat.
The console’s panel has enough space for a couple of 10 inch screens and there’s heaps of space for mounting electronics on the dash. The dash also features a built-in compass. There’s also a large ice box which doubles as a seat directly in front of the console.
Centre consoles are only useful if they keep their promise of ample fishing space. The Edgewater keeps this promise with a good bow area and raised casting platform. The casting platform also has a dry area underneath which holds more than enough tackle and safety equipment. The nearby anchor well is only small, typical of this style of boat, but probably more than adequate for the type of fishing this boat is intended to do.
This boat has ample features and is typical of this US style of boat; it has plenty of grab rails for rougher conditions, a grippy floor, heaps of floor space, and ample storage for valuables and tackle.
Fishability
Okay, so the fishing wasn’t ideal. The schools of kingfish and bonito disappeared as the harbour’s boat traffic increased. Fisho colleague Mick Fletoridis managed a flattie casting a plastic near one of the lower Harbour’s crowded reefs. We were fishing two from the Edgewater and there was ample space. Three people fishing wouldn’t be a problem either, there’s plenty of room. The transom seat had four rocket launcher rod holders and the gunwale had several more. This, combined with the six under rod holders under the gunwale, is more than enough for three fishos onboard. It’s a spacious easy boat to fish from. It’s also stable enough to have a few big blokes on one side without any problems.
Performance
On the water the Edgewater has a heavy, solid feel and handled any chop we experienced without a problem. The 20 knot nor-easter allowed for decent test. WOT was somewhere around 37 knots, and at this speed, ate up the harbour chop with ease. The steering seemed a little stiff, but overall the boat was a pleasure to drive and gave a good account of itself in the messy conditions.
The overall feel of the boat was solid, and combined with plenty of fishing friendly features would be a worthy contender for serious inshore fishos. I know a few serious fly and lure fishermen with their eye on this boat. For chasing kingfish, snapper, and other fish in and around the inshore reefs, the Edgewater 188 would be an ideal boat.
