2009 Tidewater Boats 216 CC yam150 4-stroke

Looking for that Slick little Center Console boat that will please the whole family while still providing excellent bay and shallows performance? Well over at Marine Dynamics in Englewood, Fl they have at least one that meets the need.

    This 2009 Tidewater 216cc is designed from the beginning to get into water about a foot deep yet has high enough sides you can feel comfortable taking her out in the Gulf for a day of wreck or reef fishing without having to worry about it too much.

   This boat has all the usual amenities to make the wife and kids happy, roomy, recessed Vee bow at the front with cushions and a rear deck with seats and cushions as well. Take a closer look and you will see a nice, well made dive ladder that is made for skiers as well as divers and rugged enough to last till your grand kids inherit the boat. Tidewater paid good attention to how people actually use the ladder too, there are rear cleats within easy reach for hanging your BCD and tanks while you get on the boat, the ladder itself is located in just the right position to where grabbing on the boat and climbing up is easy enough for a little girl while at the same time your 6’4” teenager (or aging redneck uncle) wont have to bend over at some ungodly angle to climb back aboard – pretty much just a “walk it right up” sort of a thing. When your family is done skiing, sure you can hand up the skis but just in case its one of those days when you have a couple of skiers in the water and only one person onboard, the rear deck is convenient enough to slide a couple of sets up on. At the same time that rear deck was made to be a casting platform for when you have your buddies out fishing with you so if you found that big treasure on the wreck you were diving you wont mess up your rear deck or have to fight the transom to get it aboard.

    The stereo on this boat is even well thought out. Rugged, waterproof speakers that produce a sound quality that is on par with some of the better car audio systems. Tidewater has taken it a few steps further though…..This is that rare system that sounds good outdoors whether you are at the beach or running at cruising speeds out on the water This is one good sounding stereo. Worth noting is that Tidewater placed the speakers in such a way that you wont have to worry about your larger cousin Bertha sitting in front of the speakers, blocking the sound. Everything was thought out.

   Now fishing one of these boats is just a dream, whether you troll, fish the flats, fish the lakes and rivers, fish the gulf or even if you are one of those folks who gets out there and drifts around with a pole in the water out to catch “whatever bites the hook”. This is a nicely rigged out boat.

    Lets take a look first at the Gulf fishing folks….. This boat is a respectable handler with High hard sides that wont have you soaked and miserable the first few hours like a lot of other boats. She is made from the beginning to keep you dry and while we sincerely hope you are not out fishing the gulf when its rough…. its nice to know its going to take a lot more wave to come over the side than your Dads Scout Bay boat would. She does have some excellent deck drains for those days when you stayed out there a little too long and have to run in in the rough stuff but she is a stable enough handler that you should not need them.

     Running out in the gulf in this boat is excellent. Sure you know you are over those swells but you don't feel them as much. Back off the throttle a bit, find that sweet cruise spot around 30 or 35 and you can enjoy the day without a lot of bone jarring bounce and pound.

   In the bays and inter-coastal this boat handles pretty sharp. That little 150 on the back aint gonna set any water speed record or anything but there is enough juice to make her move along at a comfy 40 or so without having to strain her every bolt. Handling in the rough stuff is adequate for most conditions the average person would have the guts to be out in and she can easily handle “just a bit more”

   Backwater fishing in the grassflats/shallows around the Charlotte harbor area has shown these boats (don’t worry I didn’t use this exact one) to be a dream. Sure that cooler holds enough food, sodas and such for a families weekend beach getaway but did you know that same cooler will hold a weekends worth of beer too? Yup it will!. Getting her into the shallows is slick – even short folks can stand the center console and see perfectly in front making navigation in a foot of water not just safe on the boat but a lot easier on the average rednecks nerves because you can put your little girl at the wheel, knowing she can see well enough to steer through the shallows – heck if you’re raising the kid right you wont even have to push the thing off the flats.

   If you leave all the wife pleasers (cushions) in the truck (or better the garage) you will find that the forward deck makes for one heck of a nicely laid out casting platform. If you happen to be in the gulf it is a wonderful thing to be able to sit down and get to those tackle boxes that Tidewater was nice enough to integrate into the hull. Pretty much anyone 5 foot nothing or bigger aint even got to lean over or stretch too far to get into them and that just makes it slicker than greased butter-bread on those days when you are anchored out over a wreck in some good swells. The folks at Tidewater were nice enough to pay attention to that extra detail and made the surface of this wonderful casting platform with something that is grippy and part of it (not some cheesy surface paint with sand in it like a lot of other boats – this stuff is part of the fiberglass). They had good sense with the forward livewell too… While you are sitting on the back of the casting platform you can reach into that livewell at the front of the console pretty easy – So’s you can get some bait on the hook you just had to re-rig ‘cause you forgot the wire leader on the last one and that fish done took the whole thing….Makes feeding the fish bait a lot easier when you can get to the bait easier.

   At the rear, there is a good, healthy casting platform as well – kick that seat back for the rear passengers off in the truck or the back of the garage if you like ….but the folks over at Tidewater Boats have you covered anyway…Yup they left you enough deck space back there to not only use as a casting platform but before you leave that seat back out in the truck…..Let me let you in on a little secret – that puppy gets pretty handy those times wou have on a 100lb Tarpon or a couple of hundred pounds of Grouper…. You kinda shoot one leg over it, lock your leg behind it and work it till you can get both legs locked to it… Next work your way down to the lower deck (if you have a buddy along this is the time to tell his/her redneck self to get out of the way)…. From there you work yourself forward to the front casting platform, get up on it in a couple of steps and you will find that all you really have to do is dig one foot along the bow and Work that fish! It aint a whole lot of work though… This Tidewater is light enough you can let the fish drag you around for a couple of hours and except when he pulls straight down…… You probably aint going to work up a whole lot of sweat (well ok unless its a hot day and you aint had a cold beer in a couple of hours).

    But lets take an extra peek at the rear casting platform…. That dive ladder I talked about earlier? It tucks right the heck out of the way into its own little compartment. The engine is not really in your way but yup it is there you know it and you can see that the deck goes back far enough that unless you have a really short pole… It wont really get in the way of some durn good fishing. Sure there is a nice integrated tackle box at the back and yes you can definitely get to the fish treats (oops I meant bait) really easy from that monster 30+ gallon livewell. The big bonus for the guy working the back platform though is the fact that you can simply put your pole into one of the trolling rod-holders and reach right into that cooler for a soda or “Barley Pop” without having to lose track of your other pole.

   Sure this thing has rod holders all over it but for trolling I would use the 2 rear outside ones. Of course those ones on the back of the seat are excellent and if you are trolling by yourself that is really nice to know that you have your rods right there where you can reach them and still control the boat. Plus if you do get a big fish on…..Man let me tell you that seat is a good thing, just lock your legs into it at an angle slightly above your knees and that seat frame aint moving – I think that’s the real reason Tidewater had the good sense to put that lower section of cushion at the front of the seat; so you don’t get bruises on your upper legs fighting that fish until you get the chance to get up to the forward fighting deck. Another good thing you’ll notice when you troll this boat (or just fish a normal day) is that switching from your heavy to light poles is easy – those rod holders in the side let you slide ‘em in and out without a snag or catch like a lot of other rod holders do.

    In plain Southern English This Little Tidewater cuts the water like a hot knife through butter, will keep up with a cheetah on cocaine and she aint gonna rob you in parts or gas ‘cause the folks at Tidewater done made her good.