Inside Elite Boats: Justin Atkins

Justin Atkins is in his 10th season as a professional, and he has had a very successful career, including a Forrest Wood Cup victory in 2017.

Atkins runs a Skeeter FXR 20 and has been running this model boat for the past four seasons. After many years of running boats, Atkins says this is by far his favorite. “Throughout 36 years of living, I’ve been in a lot of them. I’ve owned a lot of different brands, but as far as speed, ride, fishability and floating shallow, it’s for sure my favorite boat I’ve ever owned.”

On the front of his Skeeter, Atkins runs a 45-inch Minn Kota Ultrex Quest.

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For his front graphs, Atkins opts for two 16-inch Humminbird Apex units. These are mounted on a dual Bass Boat Technologies mount.

A closer look at the Minn Kota Quest trolling motor.

MEGA Live 2 is his choice for forward-facing sonar, which he runs on one of the Apex units.

The MEGA 360 transducer can be installed and uninstalled very quickly, depending on whether Atkins wants to use it or not.

He’s back and forth on whether he uses MEGA 360. For non-FFS tournaments, he always has MEGA 360 hooked up. He will also use it in tandem with FFS when fishing structure.

If he’s mainly focused on fish on FFS, he’ll opt to take 360 off. His top unit is always Mega Live 2 or MEGA 360. The lower unit is used primarily for mapping and 2D sonar.

When he wants to sight fish, he’ll remove one graph to give him more room.

The Ultrex Quest foot pedal.

Atkins shows off the massive storage in his FXR 20’s front deck.

He keeps a wide variety of rods and reels in the rod box. He averages 20 rods most of the time.

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Atkins shows off a couple of his favorite setups.

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The center compartment holds a number of Plano 3700 Deep boxes.

The right side compartment holds various necessities, including rope, a throwable cushion and a dry bag for jerseys, hats and raingear.

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Keeping tools handy is a must when out on the water.

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Trash piles usually end up in a few different areas after some long days on the water.

A couple of Atkins favorite boxes are his flatside crankbait boxes.

These boxes contain Fritside 5 and Fritside 5 Jr. lures.

“I keep both boxes, just depending on the forage for which one I’m going to throw. That’s a bait I’ve won a ton of money on.”

A new Plano 3700 box holds all his termianl tackle.

The additional slots and organization make it easy to store all the hooks he needs. Atkins mentions it’s a huge improvement from the six different terminal boxes he used to use.

Atkins always keeps a handful of line spools in this mesh Plano bag.

In his day box he stores things like rags and cleaner for graphs as well as Lakemaster GPS chips.

Let’s take a look around the console.

A Humminbird Apex 16 is his sole console graph mounted on a Bass Boat Technologies graph mount.

Atkins keeps a Minn Kota Raptor control fob next to his steering wheel for easy access.

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The command center panel on the Skeeter displays all the important motor, battery and livewell information with controls.

A cooler between the seats allows for easy access to drinks, or it can be used for extra trash.

Skeeter’s large back beck provides lots of additional storage.

These livewells have held some big fish for Atkins this season.

Extra life jackets get stored in the back compartment.

More tools and a flare gun are more just-in-case items Atkins keeps on hand.

The other side he leaves open for AmBASSadors or cameramen. He also keeps a SuperStick push pole mounted for shallow water tournaments.

A closer look at his Superstick push pole.

The back of Atkin’s rig is loaded with Amped Outdoors batteries.

A day tray in the back holds an extra weigh bag, a motor transom saver and tools.

He runs two Amped Outdoors 36v 60 ah lithium batteries for the trolling motor, as well as two 12v 130 ah batteries that run everything else. “That’s been my favorite setup of all time, having two 12 volts that run everything just works.”

The whole boat is rigged with Sonar Pro’s wiring harness. Atkins has been thoroughly impressed with the performance of the wiring over the past several seasons. “They go above and beyond in doing the little things and making sure everything stays waterproof.”

The charger is an Amped Outdoors three-bank charger that has one 36V bank and two 12V banks.

Another toolbox is kept in the back that contains the items needed to fix just about everything that could go wrong. Prop nuts, pins, zip ties, screwdrivers, just to name a few.

The Skeeter FXR 20 is powered by a 250 horsepower Yamaha SHO on a 12-inch Bob Machine Shop Hydraulic Jackplate.

Atkins choice for shallow water anchors are 8-foot Minn Kota Raptors.

A Yamaha T2 24-pitch prop is what propels his boat.

The Leash is an important addition to any boat to keep you safe on the water. It prevents the motor from flipping onto the boat if you strike an underwater object.