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2024 Smoker Craft Phantom 20 X2 Offshore

Boat Reviews

Boat Review by: Rick Layzell

smokercraft phantom 20 x2 offshore layout

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Let’s be clear right from the start: If you’re in search of a boat filled with frills and fluff, Smoker Craft has lots of those in their arsenal, but the Phantom isn’t it.

If your dreams take shape on big water, fishing from an open spacious cockpit with tough flooring, diamond plate everywhere, a massive windshield and canvas package that gets you on the water early so you can chase your catch, either early or late in the season, then please read on.

Welcome to the Smoker Craft Phantom 20 X2 Offshore. This is a monster fishing machine aimed directly at the big open water, hardcore, angling crowd.

My advance research left little doubt that this package would be impressive. That being said, I underestimated just how impressive she would be. We arrived at the test site and she was on shore having just had a final wipe down ahead of test day. I stood beside her on her trailer feeling dwarfed by the sheer height (big water windshield) while openly admiring the white hull and how our dealer had prepped her with a white Yamaha 225 HP engine.

I moved on to other duties, but when I saw her next she was down the ramp settled into a slip about 50’ from my position. Wow, does she look tough. The white exterior combo leads into the greys on the wide gunnels, diamond plate leads onto the stern and up in the bow, and the two tone white and grey seating stands out. To heck with my other responsibilities, I practically ran down the docks for a closer look.

OK, let’s break this down from the transom to the bow:

First up – swim platform – huh? Yup, this is wicked engineering that allows the engine to be mounted off the back of the platform, which means more interior space for you. Oh, and the platform is also covered in diamond plate (you have to see the engineering under the platform to support the outboard rigging position, its brilliant).

Next – fishing features – it’s a long list.

Two livewells – one in the stern and another up in the bow. Catch ‘em, keep ‘em, cook ‘em for dinner.

Two tier IGTS – Integrated Gunnel Track System throughout the cockpit (plus one tier up in the bow section). Add your preferred accessories and mounts, move them around with ease to accommodate your day and achieve your catch goals.

By the way – if you’re looking for cup holders….add those to the IGTS as well because you won’t find any in this machine anywhere else. I said it was hardcore.

Optional side jump seats – the crew needs to sit somewhere folks. Our test boat had two of these 36” beauties, they can be moved to wherever you want them and they provide a ton of storage. Very smart.

Flooring – Lifetime warranty on the fully treated vinyl floor. Not to be missed is the full interior toe kick – very handy when you are netting or fighting to bring that monster on board. The floor has a built-in drain feature to clear the water into the bilge where your dual automatic bilge pumps will take care of business.

Interior washdown system – you know you’re going to need this. Under the port side gunnel at the stern, there is a toggle switch ready to activate. With the flip of that switch, the inevitable mess from success is cleared off the floor and you can get back to the battle.

Rod storage – under the gunnels on both sides. Simple yet functional.

The helm – lots of room to mount your preferred sonar or graphs behind the huge welded windshield. Our test boat was hooked up with optional dual wipers – just do it.

Canvas – you want to fish in both the early and late seasons. The Phantom has an optional stand-up canvas set that includes a stern walk thru, side, and drop curtains.

The bow section offers up four diamond plate covers – livewell, large storage, anchor locker, and up on the forward bow. Coolest thing ever – drainage system in the bow – think big water. Why? Because they engineered a bow drainage system up here. Check out the awesome bi-fold door that closes off the walk thru windshield and creates an incredible wind and water barrier while you run to your favourite fishing grounds.

Did I mention the white 225XB outboard also includes Yamaha’s fly-by-wire technology? No throttle cables here— steering is smooth and supple. We eased away from the dock, took a slow 10-minute poke through a marked and controlled channel out onto Georgian Bay (part of Lake Superior). Our test day was hot and the waters were relatively calm – meaning I knew it would be up to me to find open water and create my own wake to put the Phantom through her paces.

Running solo with a full tank of fuel and nothing but safety gear onboard, I found seemingly endless cruising speed options. She will hold on plane right around 20 mph. I liked 23 and 32 mph as she felt solid in both ranges. Underneath the hull is Smoker Craft’s VPS system – Vertex Performance Strakes – which is all about acceleration, handling, and ride quality. I would call each of these three as critical game changers in big water boat handling. Acceleration results proved strong as she consistently was up and on step in 4 seconds.

When it came to top speed there was time for me to run several safe trials and in the end, I smiled when the onboard gauges matched my speedometer app on my phone repeatedly. Anytime a 22’ boat will scoot across the water at 53 mph consistently is solid in my books.

The Phantom is not for everyone and I purposely noted that in the opening. There is a much defined audience in the angling community that seek to spend their mornings, afternoons and evenings on big open waters. These same anglers don’t seek frills, they hunt down their catch. And if that’s you, then the Phantom is an excellent choice that is absolutely worth a long look.