I’m going to leave it right here, hands down the best sailboat for fishing is a catamaran. I will go into the details below, but there is no question whether you are trolling or reef fishing, a catamaran offers the best platform for fishing where sailboats are concerned.
That said, you can catch fish on any sailboat with minimal investment. Knowledge, skill and a little luck will have you eating fish tacos in no time.
For sake of this article I’m mainly going to be talking about trolling while sailing. Any boat is really fine for bottom fishing. Sailing usually involves trying to get somewhere. When we’re sailing, unless we have too much fish in the freezer, we nearly always have a line in the water. It’s an easy way to supplement our grocery bill with fresh fish. Nothing is better than getting to an anchorage and eating fresh wahoo tacos.
Rigging Problems
Purpose designed fishing boats are entirely open at the rear to allow for placing fishing rods and more importantly fighting the fish once you get one on the line.
Sailboats present a unique set of problems when it comes to fishing, many sailboats have rigging and stanchions that support solar arrays, dinghy davit systems, self steering gear, and bimini supports that get in the way of fishing rods and lines. Some of these impediments will make your life miserable if you’re trying to fish with a rod and reel, some you need to use to your advantage.
Saltwater open ocean fish are big, tough, strong animals. If you get a big tuna on you may have to fight it for a while. Doing that sideways trying to avoid a bunch of stainless tubes and cables isn’t my idea of a good time.
Spreading Out the Lines
When trolling on modern fishing boats they use outriggers to get more lines in the water. The outriggers spread the lines apart so they don’t get tangled up with one another. My catamaran is 25 feet wide, so I can spread my lines out nearly the same width as a fancy outrigger system. This plus the amount of space you have is really the huge advantage to fishing on the back of a catamaran.
Space is at a Premium
The other advantage we have on catamarans is our stays that hold up the mast (stainless steel cables) don’t come all the way to the back of the boat. They only come part way back due to how catamarans are rigged. 99% of monohulls have at least a backstay that comes to the stern. So we have a nice place to fish with a trolling rod and reel setup and plenty of space to fight and land the fish once we get it on the line. This open space to fight and land fish is why a catamaran is really the best when it comes to fishing.
If we are really trying to catch some fish I can and have put out six lines on our boat. Two with our trolling rods and reels and four hand lines. On most sailboats the most lines you can get out are two. Otherwise they will get tangled up with each other and just make you frustrated.
Usually one or both of the trolling rods I deploy will have a planer or deep diving lure on it. The key to catching fish is varying your lure depth in the water column. Sometimes fish do not want to come to the surface to eat but they will strike lures that dive deeper.
Handlines
In my opinion every sailboat should have a couple of handlines. Whether you just want dinner, or aren’t in the mood to fight a fish on a rod the handline is the way to go. You can clip them to any stanchion, backstay or other piece of solid rigging on your boat and when you get one on it makes it much easier to fight the fish. Fish on a handline usually rise to the surface and kind of skip across the top of the water when you are pulling them in. So if you have a lot of stuff in the way making a conventional rod and reel setup impractical handlines are the way to go.
You need to use all of these attachment points on sailboats to your advantage, they are great places to attach a handline. Just make sure they are sturdy, you don’t want to get a huge tuna or marlin on and break something on your boat.
The Worst Sailboat for Fishing
In my opinion the worst sailboat for fishing is a double ender. Double ender sailboats have a stern that looks like a big canoe. The problem with this design when it comes to fishing is there is very limited room at the stern because it comes to a point, basically the opposite of a catamaran. Usually sailors, especially long distance sailors, have installed davits or bimini supports plus the back stay and perhaps a self steering device leave little room for rods and reels and even less room to fight a fish once you get one on the line.
That said, double enders are usually extremely well built, sea worthy and comfortable sailboats. You can catch fish from any boat.
Conclusion
We didn’t buy a catamaran because we thought it would be a great fishing platform. Don’t get me wrong, whatever boat we would have purchased and if we ever get another boat in the future, we will fish from it. I personally like sailing a monohull better than a catamaran. We bought a cat because it is a great platform for our adventures which also include scuba diving and living on our boat full time. It just also happens to be a great platform for fishing.
If I were boat shopping the fishability of a boat would not be in the top list of criteria as I’m shopping around, as I said above, you can catch a lot of fish from any boat.