I was in Miami on business last week and had the opportunity to spend a few hours at the Miami Boat Show after I wrapped up my business calls.  First off, I have to say that the show is HUGE....far bigger than any trade show I've ever been to.  At the Miami Convention Center alone, there had to be 200 boats on display, plus hundreds of booths for anything and everything boating related.  Engines, electronics, docks, fishing gear, clothing, trailers, accessories, you name it and there's a booth or two or three for that at the Miami Boat Show.  And that's just the Convention Center.  There's another 75 or so boats in the water at the Miami Marriott, plus there's the whole Collins Ave brokerage area, where they have a 2 mile long section of docks full of brokerage boats for sale.  Like I said, it's HUGE!  I never even made it to the Collins Ave section of the show.  But what I did see at the Convention Center impressed me an awful lot.  Boat building has come a long way in the recent years, and the one thing that I noticed abuzz at every major boat builders booths was the addition of Volvo IPS to their boats.  I saw a demo of an IPS system at the Marriott and what they say about being able to pull boats into docks completely sideways is absolutely true.  IPS is a marvel of engineering and if I was in the market for a brand new boat you can be sure that I'd be looking at it very seriously.

Speaking of brand new boats, I spent the majority of my time in the Tiara booth.  I was lucky enough to spend probably 20 un-interrupted minutes talking with Bob Slikkers, President of Tiara, about their line-up of boats for 2010.  Bob showed me their new 4300 Open, which they introduced to the press at this show.  All I can say is WOW!  If I had the money, there's no other boat on the market that I'd buy.  Mom, Dad, PLEASE don't spend my inheritance...I want this boat BAD!!  OK, OK, I know...there's no inheritance....I'll just go buy a lottery ticket instead.  I don't have the exact specs in front of me but if my memory serves me right, it goes something like this:  43' LOA, 15' beam, 23,000 lbs, twin 750hp Diesels in an engine room that you can stand up in, room for 7 or 8 to sleep....it's just incredible.  I snapped a few pictures of it for you to enjoy:







I also spent a lot of time on the rest of the Open series boats, as well as on their Convertible and Sovran line of boats.  I liked the Convertible's and Sovran's but the Opens are the boats that made my pulse quicken.  Truth be told, any of the new Tiara Opens would work jusssssst fine as a charter/tournament boat for us!



I also got to spend some time with my friends at Cannon and Humminbird.  They had a big booth there and were very busy showing people what we've known for quite some time now:  That the new Cannon & Humminbird products rock!  It seemed to me that people were especially impressed with the sonar units from Humminbird and how they can interface with Cannon downriggers.  Here I am pictured with Dale Logue (on the left), Product Manager for Humminbird, and Dave Maryanov (in the middle, next to me), Senior Brand Manager for Cannon:



Dave treated me to dinner with the whole Cannon/Humminbird/Minn Kota crew down on South Beach after the show.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time at dinner with the guys.  They're all about the same age as me and are all avid fishermen, so you know that they stories were just flying!  Thanks a bunch for dinner Dave, I owe you one.  We'll be sure to treat you to a great meal in Wilson this spring, OK?

I could go on and on about the show and all of the cool new products I saw, but I just don't have the time or space to go into it all.  If you've never been to the show before I'd highly recommend it to you.  I'm already working on plans to take a bunch of guys down with me next winter for a long weekend at it.  It's a great way to get yourself revved up for the coming fishing season, that's for sure!

Until Next Time,
Fish On!!

~Capt. Bill