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Posts: 3870
| "my goal is to try to find something under $7k, top to bottom. nothing fancy, just a utility fishing boat that will mostly be kept in medium-sized WI and MN lakes for musky fishing with the occasional multi-species day"
You'll not get many responses from the regulars on the board, me thinks, because they all have much more costly boats. Why, Sworrall's prop alone costs close to $7,000, but then he runs a Merc 2,000hp SuperturboOptimax with nitros oxide so he can cruise at 190mph.
But maybe I can give you some ideas, as I have a poor but proud approach...
This is what I did on a very tight budget:
*started with a solid mid-70's 14' boat, 3 bench seats, alum semi-deep V with a OLD 18hp evinrude motor, OLD trolling motor and a decent trailer. cost = $2,000 and that was a bargin
*primed, painted the trailer, plus replaced the trailer bearings and tires
* pulled the middle and front seats, trimmed the front seat and mounted it toward where the front seat use to be.
*added a marine grade 3/4" plywood floor between the two seats and in the bow, no carpet
*rivited 10X10" 1/4" sheets of alum to the bench seats and added pedestals and padded, fold-down seats
*mounted a BPS battery box on the floor in front of the front seat
*built a fused switch box (bought the small panel from Cabellas, the housing box at a hardware store)
*added lights to front and rear of boat, wired into the switch box
*mounted a Humminbird 300TX (400TX is better, it has a bigger screen) on the left side of the rear bench seat, plus added the temp and speed sensor, an extra feature for that unit. also wired finder power into the fuse box
*upgraded the motor to a newer 15hp merc
*upgraded the old trolling motor to a 35# Minnkota Maxxum, then later to a 55# Maxxum (I can make a wake with my 55#Maxxum, amazing how little juice that unit pulls from the battery)
All of this was done over a number of years, of course, but the boat was water-ready the day I bought it. Looking back, I wish I had started with a "tall" 16'er as my 14' with a low transome is mighty small/scary when the winds come up. On windy days I'm limited to smaller lakes, but usually just head to rivers. Oh, an obvious benefit of a smaller boat is that you can sleuth around to find small lakes with unimproved landings - these are often unpressured waters that the big boys can't access. I have a 4X4 truck, used to have a Jeep Cherokee, and I can get that little boat into places where a larger rig can't begin to venture.
I fish by my losesome most of the time, thus the battery in the front of the boat, but the boat fits two musky hunters just fine when needed. By myself, with the wind at my back, I can reach 24mph with that 15hp motor. I dumped the 5gal gas tank for a 3gal to save additional weight, I just top it off with a 5gal can of premix (I keep in the truck) every time I'm heading out for a day's fishing.
The powerful but efficient 55# Maxxum is a GREAT feature, I use a simple MinnKota handle extension to manuever the boat as I stand and cast. Helps me greatly as the wind trys to push my little boat around.
Hope those ideas help! | |
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