The world’s biggest Jet Ski website – The Watercraft Journal – has created an illustration of a new wide-body Yamaha WaveRunner designed for fishing enthusiasts.
While the images were created using Artificial Intelligence (AI), they help outline the direction Yamaha appears to be heading with its top secret model.
The Watecraft Journal published a spy photo of a prototype watercraft in March last year (pictured below) that showed a wider hull and centre console-style controls.
To keep the final design under wraps, the Yamaha test craft did not have a top deck or proper bodywork fitted.
A year after the photo was taken it appears Yamaha’s wide body dedicated fishing WaveRunner is a step closer to reality.
While it is yet to have an official name – and Yamaha has refused to confirm such a craft exists or is even in the planning stages – Watercraft Zone understands options include JetFish or FS HO (instead of FX HO), with the ‘FS’ standing for ‘Fish Ski’.
Above: The 2025 Yamaha FX HO JetFish edition sold in Australia. Is this craft a stop-gap measure until something bigger comes along?
In his latest podcast and YouTube video, The Watercraft Journal editor-in-chief Kevin Shaw told his audience:
“We were sent a spy photo of a prototype Yamaha (in March last year). This is Yamaha’s launch ramp. This is Yamaha’s test lake (so to speak). It’s Allatoona Lake in Georgia.
“This is the same launch ramp (Yamaha) first introduced the FX Limited. It’s the very same dock (Yamaha uses).
“I know this place, I know it intimately. This is Yamaha’s test facility. This is where they bring new stuff out, they drop it in the water, they make sure everything’s working and they run out and ride.
Above: A computer generated image created by The Watercraft Journal, based on the spy photo it published last year.
“The picture is over a year old now. We talked about the size and width of the hull in comparison to what looks to be a (Yamaha) FX HO seat in the middle.
“When you measure it out – and we used AI to measure it out – we got this image.
“I believe (these images) to be slightly incorrect. I believe that there’ll be far less open bow real estate in front of the control console.
“But what’s going to happen is that we are going to see (a WaveRunner based) centre console craft dedicated to the fishing market.
“Yamaha’s play is going to be a giant, wide craft. It can’t be longer because if it’s longer than 14 feet (4.2 metres) it becomes a boat.
“It’s going to be wide and it’s going to take up your double trailer or hang over the fenders of your single trailer.
“Will it be supercharged or non-supercharged? We don’t know.
“Will it have a live bait well and a swivel seat (like the Sea-Doo Fish Pro Trophy and Fish Pro Apex)? We don’t know.
“Will it have a trolling motor? At the very least we suspect it will have a trolling mode.”
Whatever the top secret Yamaha watercraft is called – and whatever its capability – it can’t come soon enough.
Sea-Doo has run away with the fishing market and now it’s time for Yamaha WaveRunner and Kawasaki Jet Ski to reel them in.
While these images are a best guess for now – and the final version will look different – they do provide a glimpse into the direction Yamaha is heading.
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