I have a Sea Ark MV1860 with a side consul and am looking to go up to a Sea Ark MV2072 but have seen some of the newer boats out now that are going to the center consul. Do any of you out there that have the center consul have any opinions as to why the center consul might be better than the side consul? I have used a jon boat for the last 50+ years and have always had a side consul. Most of my use is on the unchannelized portion of the Missouri river where there are snags and sand bars to look out for while fishing and and running set lines and wondering if using a center consul would give me more of a view ahead?

side console gives more open floor. In my next boat I'm going to go with a stick-steer and get rid of the console completely. Mine's only a 1751, a little smaller than yours but I want as much open floor as I can get. The only real purpose my center console serves is to give me a place to mount my VHF and chart plotter. I'll find another place for those to get more room.

I do have two side lockers for storage. I won't give those up on the next one.

By the way, Sea Ark is my dream boat. Maybe the next one.

How about a front consul ? Always wanted one a 28 ft Jon Boat. Way up in front. Right be behind a short front deck. Might be crazy for wanting one ? MD

Why be a pansy? Get a tiller!

I would also like a far forward console

I have side console and my boat is small

my dads boat is a walk around but it has about 10 feet of deck behind the wheel the way we fish it is primarily trolling planer boards on each side and down riggers.
boards go in a rod holder tower on each side

room behind the wheel is a premium in a boat your trolling.

the way I see it if your boat is very wide center can work but when you only have 72 inches to work with it doesn't leave a lot of room on either side and you put a console in the middle it doesn't leave much to go to each side

if it was farther forward and side you gain a lot more room to fight fish

so if you cruise around like the warden and always have 2 people for docking sure center or if you run vertical jigging with a boat full of people and you want them spread all around center

but if you want room to fish and net and plan to dock and load and unload yourself side

it all depends if you fish and how you fish

how do you fish?

I usually fish by myself, set lines or limb lines and if I am jigging I will sit on a pedestal up front.

sounds like you need lots of bow access

seaark puts many of their side consoles very near the rear

being that you need to drive then hop up front to check bank and set lines and go alone

as well as use a bow mount trolling motor and casting deck

I would think starboard side console and give yourself as much room up front to do your stuff

it is also nice to put a big cooler down the port side you can still walk up the middle

I've had them all, center, side, side controls with tiller steer, and I've gone to a straight tiller now.
If you need something to hang on to, use a console, otherwise a tiller gives you the most room and unobstructed access to the whole boat, no matter what you do with it...
That's my opinion from a commercial fishing aspect and over 50 years experience....YMMV

Front console will beat you to death in choppy water. I run a southern skimmer with center console for both casting and commercial gill netting . Works for me. Our bay gets choppy/ rough at times, I like standing while running .

John