Boston Whaler’s new 345 Conquest is so damn big that, even with a six-line trolling spread, it looked like we weren’t fishing. There were two rods in each gunwale, plus another pair of lines running through the long riggers from one of the three wing rocket launchers on each side. That left two empty rodholders per side, plus three along the transom. Want to pull a dozen ballyhoo from an outboard boat? Then this is your ride.

Hip Trip. To run a boat this large out to bluewater takes gobs of power. The 345 Conquest delivers, thanks to triple Mercury Verado 250s on the transom. Worried about the triple-screw fuel consumption? Hah! Cruising through the inlet at 32 mph, we burned 38.5 gph. That equates to better than 0.8 mpg while pushing 14,200 pounds of boat plus four guys, full gear, and fuel and water. And if you start feeling frisky, you can juice it up and run close to 50 mph. Want power of a different kind? Whaler includes such big-ticket items as an 8kW genset and a 4kW bow thruster. Other goodies that make the list include cockpit and cabin air conditioning, a windlass, the hardtop with wiper/washers, spreader lights, integrated speakers, a power vent, and rocket launchers. Make sure you crunch some numbers before doing a price comparison, because many other builders charge extra for these items.

Take the Hydra-Sports 3300 Vector. It lists for about a quarter mil with twins, but its standard equipment list is much shorter. The Hydra-Sports goes faster with equal power and lists a 61-mph top end, but it weighs several thousand pounds less and has a 10'4" beam, which makes for less fish-fighting room. Grady-White’s 330 Express puts more emphasis on the fish and less on speed. Rigged with twin 250-hp Yamaha four-strokes and measuring the same as the 345 Conquest, it also costs about a quarter mil with a long list of standards, but the bow thruster is an option. The 9,500-pound Grady-White isn’t available with triples, but performance doesn’t seem to suffer too much—it achieves a 35.2-mph cruise and a 44.1-mph top end