Venture vs. Cruiser for fishing and ride - PNW

StuCrys

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Hello CBrats - first and foremost, I am new to the forum and want to say the wealth of knowledge here is plentify, helpful, and for a newbie somewhat overwhelming, which is good! We have a Lazy Daze RV which has a similarly loyal, active, and knowledgeable group of owners helping each other out in the same format. This is encouraging should we go down the C-Dory path.

On the questions: we are doing diligence on the 25 cruiser and 26 venture which have some seemingly small but significant differences for us. As initial fit, finish, and cabin size can be assessed on the lot, what I am really curious about is if anyone in the PNW has set either boat up for both heavy fishing and cruising in the San Juan and Canadian Gulf islands. Not planning to go to offshore WA or Vancouver Island, but would like to do the Inside Passage at some point.

I'm looking for experience and input on how either can be set up with downriggers as the transoms and cockpit depths are different with the cruiser being more shallow. Also, particularly for the Venture owners, is the lack of scuppers a problem with fish blood, guts, etc. and keeping the deck clean and not smelling after a while as I'm sure the bilge pumps will move water out. In short, how problematic is not having a self bailing cockpit?

For the ride, we'll be running out of Anacortes so crossing straits and transiting through passes to both fish (speed) and explore (cruise) will be a regular occurrence as well as longer runs to fish the south/west side of San Juan Island and across to the Eastside of Vancouver Island. Any, and all input, will be very helpful. Thank you in advance!
 
Hello, we have a 25' cruiser and use it in the same manner as what you are looking for. We cruise and fish in the Puget Sound, San Juans, and Gulf Islands. First, we love our boat. However, if we would have had the ability to have this boat built at the factory we would have had the railing system in the cockpit custom made to allow us to mount the downriggers to the gunnel instead of on the railing. We currently are using the Burnewiin Rail Kit for our Scotty downriggers. Good luck with your decision-making and hope that helps.
 
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