Florida - Lemon Bay/Englewood/Port Charlotte/Gasparilla area

[bigwaves]

Is anyone running a jet boat in the area? I’ve been here for several days, scouted 12 marinas and have seen two Yamaha boats. Both were on the hard, in storage, and covered. I haven’t seen any in the water. Center consoles are everywhere and not just used for fishing. By far the most popular boat. With the beautiful bluish green, shallow water and sandbar hoping so popular I was expecting to see lots of jet boats. Zip, Zilch, Zero. (in the water)

The Admiral and I will be spending a lot of time in this area and may even buy a place. I was thinking I already have the perfect boat for this water. Maybe not. I’ve spent the day “kicking tires” checking out center consoles. I may have to add to the fleet.

What am I missing?

 

[VitaminSea]

Haven’t made it that far south on the west coast of Florida with the boat to be able to comment on the boating there. What I can add is, most of the marina’s I have checked out have very limited, if any jet boats in high/dry, but whenever I head out to the ICW and head to the sandbars, I always see other Yamaha’s (on both the gulf coast and Atlantic). Maybe a higher % of Yamaha coastal boaters chose to trailer than store at a marina?

Yes, CC’s seem to be the preferred format in costal Florida. I even see CCs out on the lakes in central Florida.

 

[bigwaves]

Haven’t made it that far south on the west coast of Florida with the boat to be able to comment on the boating there. What I can add is, most of the marina’s I have checked out have very limited, if any jet boats in high/dry, but whenever I head out to the ICW and head to the sandbars, I always see other Yamaha’s (on both the gulf coast and Atlantic). Maybe a higher % of Yamaha coastal boaters chose to trailer than store at a marina?

Yes, CC’s seem to be the preferred format in costal Florida. I even see CCs out on the lakes in central Florida.

Yep, maybe the Yamaha folks could be much more inclined to trailer than store at a high and dry. Didn’t think of that. That’s probably the right answer. The setting down here in this area just seems picture perfect for our Yamaha jet boats (any jet boats). Shallow water, lots of sandbars, places to explore and fishing? Thanks ??

 

[Garrett C]

@bigwaves yeah I was thinking the same when I moved to Key West. I really have never seen any center consoles until I got stationed here. Since mid 2019 I have started to see a lot more Jet Boats out here at least in the Keys which is great to see because it is so shallow and all the great sandbars. We are moving to the Sarasota area and can't wait to get boating up there. If you like to fish and go off shore, then go with the CC, but if you are the hang out at sandbars, kick back, tube or whatever it is you do (I don't fish) then stick with your jet boat. You will get a lot of stares like I did if they aren't around and many people just want to ask you questions who have CC's. Heck I even tell them about the FSH models and I have seen two people get them that I talked to at the sand bar and for sure you have a great boat for the Florida waters. Good luck if you move to Florida.

 

[Dean P]

There's a lot of them here (Yamis (mainly), Scarabs and Chaparrals) in the Tamps Bay/St. Pete area. Several sandbars close by and always see them. Fishing is huge around here and down to Fort Desoto.

 

[JDinfla]

Lots of jet boats, alot of boats. Everyone moving down from northeast.

 

[bigwaves]

Great! This is all very encouraging. I have this beautiful, practically brand new AR190 and after the past couple of days without seeing any down here I’m questioning whether I should bring her to Florida or not. From the responses so far looks like this part of Florida will be perfect for my Yamaha.

I think I have the marina to keep her at picked out. It’s a high and dry right on Lemon Bay with direct access to the gulf through nearby Stump Pass.

 

[CraigAR]

This is just south of stump pass near the Boca causeway Gulf side. I keep my boat on my trailer as well. Plenty of yamahas down this way near cape coral. I would like to do a meet up at some point.

 

[bigwaves]

Great pic, that’s exactly what the Admiral and I want to do. Your Yamaha and cold beverage look right at home there. Thanks

 

[Coryd]

I live in Englewood, we're out and around Stump Pass almost every weekend. My wife and I were just commenting this past weekend that we have started seeing a lot more Yamaha's around this area in the last month or so. Up to that point, there was maybe one or two others that we'd see regularly. Just a ton of center consoles down here.

 

[Bajd98]

We live on sanibel island and I feel that there are more and more jets all the time in the area but the cc will always be king here

 

[nikkoUM]

I know this thread is a bit old. We got ours and have had it in the water around Port St. Lucie and now around Naples. It’s performed well and been lots of fun. Seen a bunch of larger 25-27s in the water around Naples. By ar190 was a bit of a novelty in Stuart though.

 

[rbarthur21]

Welcome to the area! We live in Port Charlotte and keep our sx190 on the trailer. We always launch at Laishley Park. Our favorite spot is Cayo Costa. We see other Yamahas frequently. We’ve been here 5 years and love it!