It's crazy how people are really hatin' on the bass boats this year. It's a different (far more efficient, in my mind) style of fishing when you are using a bass boat. There's no time wasted if you want to hit a bunch of spots on the lake. You have an incredible vantage poing from the casting deck, and it's ridiculously stable. Cruising along a weedline with the trolling motor...being able to stop, hover, back up, all without making a sound absolutely blows a tinner away.
I'm not saying I'll catch more fish out of a bass boat....but I sure as heck will keep my lure in the water longer, with less effort. No oars to pull out and muck around with....no bobbing up and down in the waves while I'm standing on the bench of my tinner.
The whole speed thing really is no different than any other boat. Who cares if you go fast....as long as you are courteous.
Are they practical for every style of fishing? Of course not. Should every boat out there be able to handle every kind of fishing situation? I guess that's up to you....in my mind the answer is no. In a perfect world I would have a nice big salmon boat for the Great Lakes.....a big deep-V for Temagami, Muskoka's big 3, etc, a bass boat for, well, BASS fishing and weekend tournaments for fun, and of course a couple tinners, one big one and one small one, light enough to drag through the woods to back lakes. Don't forget the canoe and float tube.....maybe a kayak.....maybe.
Most of us don't have the means or selfishness to have all those boats though....so we gotta pick one or two. Some of us pick bass boats....because yeah, bass are easy and fun to catch, and there's the challenge of pulling in a limit of all 5 pounders....and the chance of dinging a true monster, or the next Ontario record. Look at the 6.4lb'er that was just caught on Rice....anyone who thinks that the lakes are polluted with fish like that is living in a dream world. I've seen people keep a limit of 6 fish that wouldn't outweigh that bass.
Anyway. I told myself I'd leave these bassboat threads alone....but you dragged it out of me Now I have to go bail out my tinner.