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Posts: 615
Location: Bloomington, MN | This is probably not the site to ask this, but rumor has it Lund sales in Forida are just about non-existant, and I'm sure someone here had the itch to be warm and in a boat that doesn't cost them $400/day. If I take my aluminum Princecraft with the unpainted hull, and plop it in salty H2O, is it going to start fizzing like an Alka Seltzer tablet? I do not have a bilige or a live well, and would spray it and the outboard down with "fresh" water at a car wash every night. Am I just looking for problems? I've caught Cuda's in the Keys, but my second love next to the elusive muskellunge are Snook. I've never caught one over 36", but have seen some tanks. 30+ years ago I decided to bring my muskie gear down to Florida along with an old wooden gaff hook in case I hooked into something bigger than swing status. I caught enough small fish while tossing a Mirr-O lure that I finally decided to toss a blue Suick for a while with my 5 1/2 foot Brunswick style rod. with hopes of triggering a big fish. Within a few casts I had schools of Jacks doing their traditional circles arond the lure. I did eventually have one do enough of a "swipe" to foul hook it, but that was the norm even when twitching a Mirr-O. I was about to give up and go back to the "traditional" way when I had a Snook come up from under the dock I was fishing off of to take a peek at the plug. This was the biggest Snook I have ever seen. It was a minimum of 48" and thick (est. a min. of 38 lbs.), my memory almost include Remoras hanging off of it. We all have done trips and not boated a fish, but the thought of tossin' Bulldawgs, big cranks, Cowgirls at night for what I think is the Saltwater version of the muskie, might just be the ticket to sticking these fish along with those over grown minnows (Tarpon), but I'm concerned about my boat disinergrating on me. Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks, Clark |
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Posts: 716
| Clark if you rinse it off well you'll be fine.............let us know if the DCG works on Tarpon, I have wondered the same thing. |
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Posts: 1764
Location: Ogden, Ut | We use aluminum hulls for our work boats on Great Salt Lake (Approx 10x more saline than seawater). Short term you should have no problems. The sacrificial zinc anodes on your motor may have to be replaced sooner than normal though. The key is rinsing it off good. Rinse at least 3x as much as you think is enough, then go over it again (be sure to soak the trailer bunks really really good). Make sure you flush the motor w/ fresh water; it's more likely to feel the effects of seawater than the hull is.
S. |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | Aluminum is fine in salt water. The last nine years of my life I've lived in Alaska and Washington, and aluminum boats rule. They won't rust, but they will oxidize. You do have to wash and rinse them, and when you think you have enough fresh water throug your motor at the car wash, put ten more minutes through it.
Come to think of it, I've only fished from one glass boat in the salt, and everything else has been tin. |
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| Big problem might be the trailer. I have heard that steel tube trailers don't last very long in a salt environment.
Glavanized ok
Welded aluminum much better |
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