The Dolphin 18 Backcountry Pro is one of those older skiff designs that just seems to have gotten a lot right. It’s not the lightest or shallowest 18-footer out there, but if you actually have to cross some open water to get where you’re fishing, that tradeoff starts making a lot of sense. The biggest thing about this boat is the ride. For an 18-foot flats skiff, it handles chop extremely well and is surprisingly dry. The deeper V lets you keep moving when the water gets ugly instead of having to beat your way across the bay at 15 mph. With a 150 on the back, it’s also a pretty quick boat. Depending on the motor, prop and setup, these boats can run well into the 50s. It’s also a really stable fishing platform. There’s plenty of room to move around, fish a couple of people comfortably and still use it like an actual flats boat. It’ll float in around 10 inches, so you can get plenty shallow for redfish, trout and most backcountry fishing. That said, it’s not a technical poling skiff. If your entire goal is floating in 5 or 6 inches and poling all day, there are better boats for that. Storage is probably one of the weaker areas, especially compared with some of the newer skiffs that have compartments stuffed everywhere. The boat also has some weight to it, but that’s part of why it feels so solid and rides the way it does. Overall, I think the Backcountry 18 is a great compromise between a flats skiff and a small bay boat. You can pole it, troll it, run shallow, cross a nasty bay and still have enough boat underneath you to feel comfortable when the weather picks up. There’s a reason you still see old Dolphins running around South Florida decades later. It’s just a really solid, proven hull.