If you want to fish the skinny stuff around Tampa Bay, Cockroach Bay, the Kitchen up near Weedon Island, the back side of Fort De Soto, the four hulls that actually earn their keep are the Hewes Redfisher 18, the Maverick HPX-V, the East Cape Vantage, and the Pathfinder 2200 TRS. Each one solves a different problem. None of them does everything.
We see these boats every week in our Tampa shop getting decks redone, so this isn’t theory, it’s what’s parked on our trailers at our Tampa location and rolling out of St. Pete.
The Redfisher 18 is the boat we recommend to anyone who wants to fish flats but also wants to run from Maximo across open Tampa Bay to Cockroach without getting beat up. It’s not a true skiff, but it’s not a bay boat pretending to be one either.
The wide casting decks on the Redfisher are exactly where rubber flooring earns its money. Standing on hot gel coat in July out on the Kitchen flats with the sun overhead is miserable. Bare feet, wet feet, fish slime, gel coat turns into a slip hazard. We see a lot of Redfishers come in for full bow and stern coverage.
If your priority is poling Cockroach Bay at dead low for tailing reds and you don’t care about crossing the Howard Frankland in a stiff north wind, the HPX-V is the boat. It floats in 7 inches. It poles like nothing else in its class.
The HPX is also where the flooring choice matters most. Sight casting is a quiet game. Every footstep on a bare deck transmits through the hull and pushes fish off the flat. This is exactly where the SeaDek vs. rubber debate comes up most often. SeaDek is quieter than gel coat, no argument. But EVA foam dents when you drop a Boga grip, chalks under our UV in three or four seasons, and absorbs fish blood that never fully washes out.
Marine rubber flooring kills the same footstep noise without the denting and without the chalking. On a poling skiff where you’ll spend ten years on the same hull, that math matters.
The Vantage is what we see guides running out of Tierra Verde and Bay Pines. Skinnier draft than the HPX (6 to 7 inches), narrower beam, lighter on the pole. It’s a specialist’s boat.
Vantage owners tend to be the most particular customers we get. They care about every pound, every sound. We’ve done a handful of Vantage decks with our thinner rubber flooring specifically because the owner didn’t want to add weight forward of the poling platform. Check the gallery for a few of those builds.
The Pathfinder 2200 is the most common serious fishing boat we see at Harborage at Bayboro and Municipal Marina. It’s not a flats boat. It’s a bay boat. But the TRS hull will float in 12 inches and run in 9, which is enough to fish 80% of the spots most people actually fish in Tampa Bay.
If you want one boat that takes the family out to Egmont on Saturday and lets you sneak into Cockroach at dawn on Sunday, this is it. It’s also a boat where the deck space is huge, bow casting platform, stern casting deck, plus the cockpit. That’s a lot of square footage to cover, and it’s the boat where we see the most marine carpet rip-outs. Carpet on a 2200 in Florida lasts about four years before it’s stained, mildewed, and smelling like the bait well.
Both still get fished. Both are great. But if you’re shopping new or recent used and you want a boat that handles Tampa Bay’s particular mix of skinny flats and open-water runs, the four above are where we’d point you. The older Hewes Bonefisher hulls are still out there too, and they’re worth picking up cheap if you find one with a solid transom.
Here’s the thing about every boat on this list: the factory deck wasn’t designed for the way Florida anglers actually use it. Sight casting means standing barefoot on the bow for hours. Skinny-water poling means absolute silence. Summer means a blazing-hot bare deck at noon.
Quick contrast on flooring options for these specific boats:
On a Redfisher or Pathfinder, the cockpit takes the most abuse, fish, bait, sunscreen, beer. Rubber wins there easily. On an HPX or Vantage, it’s about silence and weight. Rubber wins there too, with the right thickness spec.
If you’ve got one of these hulls, or something close, and you’re tired of hot decks, faded foam, or carpet that smells like last season’s pinfish, come talk to us. We’ll spec a deck that matches how you actually fish, whether you run out of Demens Landing, Coffee Pot Bayou, or keep it slipped.
Get a free quote at our Tampa quote page or call us direct at (813) 434-0395. We answer.