The Best Budget Bait Boats under £200 - (Full Guide On Cheap Bait Boats)
Love them or loathe them, bait boats are here to stay. Back in the day, all you would have to rely on, to get the bait to your swim, was a well-aimed catapult (or a very strong throwing arm). What was once expensive technology is now really affordable.
Today you can get bait boats under £200 that will do everything that you need. In this article we are going to delve into this technology to help you decide what’s necessary.
Strapped For Time?
Not got the time to read the full article? You can skip straight to our choices of the best bait boats under £200 below.
The following table summarises the best baits under £200. Please read on to see more information and the full reviews on our recommended bait boats.
What is a bait boat?
A bait boat is basically an advanced technological bait delivery system. It works as follows. You load the hoppers of the boat with the bait of your choosing. Many offer the option of also attaching your hook bait.
You place the boat in the water and using a wireless control, manoeuvre it to where you think the fish are. At the touch of a button the boat will jettison its cargo in an attractive plume. You then return the boat and then sit and wait for a bite.
Essentially a bait boat replaces the need for accurate placement of your bait manually. If you are careful in choosing the right bait boat it may actually remove the need to cast accurately.
Another key benefit is distance. Carp can be wary and pretty smart. If you are fishing on a large venue, you may find that the carp have come to equate being closer to the bank to being caught.
A bait boat will allow you to reach these fish quietly and with ease and negates the need for a distance casting rod or even a big pit reel.
They will hold in areas ‘offshore’ that are out of reach for even the strongest casters, in relative safety. By being able to access these fish with a bait boat you may be successful as they are lulled into a false sense of security partly due to there being less angling pressure distance.
To see one in action take a look at this video...
What should I look for in the best bait boat?
The best boats have several features that make them an ideal solution, but you need to know what to look for. When they first came out you could easily spend thousands of pounds, but now you should be able to get all of these features in bait boats under £200.
The first feature we will discuss is capacity, also know as a bait boat payload. The payload is the amount of bait that your bait boat can carry. If you can fill it and saturate your swim with plenty of bait to keep the fish interested then this is a good thing.
However, in carrying your bait to the swim you will want to ensure that the only time it deposits its payload is when it is over the desired area of your swim.
If it leaks or ‘drips’ bait, you are going to scatter bait all over the place, removing accuracy, which is why you decided to look for a bait boat in the first place!
A bait boat must also be stable. If it capsizes or tips at any point then again, you are going to have food deposited at an incorrect location in your swim. Whilst some bait boats under £200 can be flimsy affairs, all of our suggestions have features that will keep them stable.
A good thing to look out for in a bait boat is decent range. We are talking in the magnitude of hundreds of metres. Any less than that and it might be more cost effective to use a catapult.
It is generally unusual to find bait boats under £200 that have a significant range, but 500 metres should be all you need.
Visibility is also a key feature. This goes two ways. You will definitely need to see your bait boat. IF you can’t see it then how can you expect to be able to manoeuvre it to the correct location in your swim?
Remember we have said that bait boats (yes, even bait boats under £200) can have a range of several hundreds of metres, at that distance it may just be a speck on the horizon.
The flip side to this coin is that you do not want a bait boat that will actually scare the fish away. Carp are, by nature, cautious creatures. It doesn’t take much to put the frighteners on them, and scare them into not feeding.
If your Day-Glo bait boat achieves this then you will have wasted your money.
This can also be said of noise. The best bait boat will be a silent runner. This is normally achieved through using an electric engine. They tend to be pretty quiet. Whilst we are on the subject of electric engines look for decent battery capacity.
Whilst bait boats under £200 are cheap, they aren't cheap enough to warrant losing one if you run out of battery. Ensure that you pick one with enough power to last!
Are bait boats worth it?
If you were going to drop, say, over a grand on one (as you would have had to when they were first invented) then we say, no definitely not. However with several viable bait boats under £200 on the market. They are a worthy investment for the money.
If you are careful about which you choose, and ensure that it is up to the task you can probably increase your catch rate by using a bait boat.
With all this in mind lets check out some examples of bait boats under £200
Best Baits Under £200
1
AHWZ Fishing Bait Boat
This bait boat offers a really decent range for the money and is super heavy-duty. You’ll be able to transport enough bait to sink a battleship (about 1.5kg to be precise).
Control of the boat is super intuitive and can be done one handed, the ergonomic single handed controller features a thumbstick, press forward to go forward, press back to go back etc… You can release the bait, turn on the lights or even put it into silent running mode all at the press of a thumb.
The range of this boat is super impressive. Bring your glasses as it can be manoeuvred to around half a kilometre.
Pros
Cons
2
Huiop Fishing Bait Boat
For a good value budget bait boat this fits the bill rather nicely. The boat can be placed in the water and transported really easily as it has a solid cloth and rubber handle located dead centre.
The boat is pretty visible, but only in the right places. A high visibility LED light located on the upper surface of the boat means that you can see it in all light (even darkness).
Losing it due to loss of power is impossible. When the charge of the substantial 5 hour battery gets to a low level the boat will stop moving forward and only allow you to use the remaining power to manoeuvre it back to the safety of the shore.
For bait boats under £200 this offers solid performance, and you’ll get a range of 300 metres.
Pros
Cons
3
Bilbear Bait Boat
Well, you won’t miss this one out on the water. Fortunately, the bright orange surface is only visible when viewed from above. This bait boat has a range of 200m but with a maximum speed of about 2mph you will be out at that distance in no time.
It has an interesting feature to ensure stability, in that it keeps itself level using gyroscopes. These have to be calibrated to ‘level’ up on the bank, but once it is done you are good to go.
Don’t worry about charging the batteries as you can use a mobile phone charger in order to ensure that you never run out of juice!
Pros
Cons
4
Elikliv RC Bait Boat
Bait boats under £200 don’t normally come this advanced, so for a bait boat under £100! you are in for a treat. In this boats substantial hopper, you will be able to fit a whole 1.2kg of bait, use the money you save on the boat for bait, as you’ll be using lots!
The boats surface has two bright purple LED lights, this can help in being able to see the orientation of the boat at distance.
Stability is not an issue with this boat. The hopper is mounted bang in the centre and to supplement this there are two solid booms on either side of the boat, meaning that even if it is a bit choppy that the bait boat will stay right side up.
The range of this boat is 300 metres and with two powerful twin motors it will get your bait out to where it needs to be in no time.
Pros
Cons
5
DYJD Rc500m Wireless Bait Boat
Running out of batteries and watching your bait boat drift into the distance is a nightmare. Fortunately, this boat has an integral alarm system that monitors battery power and will give advanced warning. The dual motors provide a lot of power, which you are going to need with the 1.5kg bait capacity.
The hull is constructed using tough material so bumps and maybe even the occasional collision won’t compromise its integrity.
The power does come at a minor cost, you will get two hours running time out of a single charge, however this boat is seriously quick so you’ll be using it half as much.
Pros
Cons
Conclusion
Whilst bait boats are a new technology, they are fast becoming the best way to get to those hard to reach places and ensure utter precision. If the day is going slowly you could always attach a fish finder and map out your entire swim.
We’ll be honest, they are also pretty good fun and a novel way to increase your catch rate, why not give it a go?
All of the fishing tackle featured in this article can be found at one of the following online shops...
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