The Miami Boat Show is Just a Week Away!

Welcome, everyone, to the Miami boat show. Next week in sunny Florida, thousands of new boats, cool accessory gear, and mind-boggling marine electronics will go on display.

No, we can’t all be there – but I will (I haven’t missed a single Miami show since 1995) and don’t worry, I will report back in this blog on the cool new goodies the boating world brings us. In the meantime, I have already caught drift of a few things boaters and anglers will want to know about:

– Lowrance is introducing the next generation of HDS, the Gen3. These units mark the return of buttons. The original HDS used a full keypad and no touch-screen, Gen2 went to a touch-screen with a few important buttons serving as a back-up, and Gen3 has a full keypad, as well as a touch-screen.

– Scout is rolling out their biggest center console ever, a 42-footer. Wow – talk about a BIG center console fishing machine!

– An outfit called Blue Gas Marine is introducing a system that allows you to convert your existing outboard to run on natural gas.

– Pathfinder has a new 2600 in the works, and it’ll make its debut at the Miami show.

– Yamaha is introducing a new fishing boat… a jet-powered fishing boat. This isn’t coming from Yamaha Marine (outboards) or one of the fishing boat builders they own, but from Yamaha Watercraft, which builds jet boat bowriders, and runabouts. Will this one be a contender to serious anglers? Obvious draft advantages aside, we’ll see…

You say none of these specific developments holds much interest? Well, don’t worry. We’re barely scratching the surface, by mentioning these five goodies. Stay tuned to this blog, and in the coming weeks I’ll keep you posted on what we saw down there in Florida. Among the many boats and accessories, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be something of interest for everyone.