fish tanks aint the only thing i spend money on :-P

[exhumed07]

Well I picked up new toy today. bought myself a 1979 polar craft 16 foot flat bottom. it has been used as a duck blind for many years and I need to take it off and clean up the hull and get new tires and rewire the trailer and the boat. rebuild the transom. but nothing I can't do over a couple weekends. but this summer I will be chasing flatheads on beautiful moonlit nights

 

[Mawade1984]

When and where do I need to meet you? Haha

 

[FreshyFresh]

It's good to have a project toy!

Not into boating anymore, but used to be. I've always lived close to Lake Erie and Ontario and we'd take yearly trips to the St.Laurence river (1000 Islands area).

With the kids and the cost of everything anymore, I have to go easy on my aquarium hobby even.

 

[exhumed07]

mawade u can meet me in a few months on the mississippi river lol.
Freshy i been looking for a boat for a few years now and finally i found one that was the price i was ok with and had a totally open floor plan. there are no seats or anything in it. so it leaves me free to build decks, and storage, livewells, and baitwells how i want them. just not sure if i want to do tiller steering or build a console and do a steering wheel. but the boat is a totally blank slate to make it the boat that i want. going to cost a bit to do but well worth it I will update as i do this boat so yall can see the progress.

I am a bit excited if u can't tell lol. finally got my own boat and once i'm done with it i can go out on the river any time i feel like it. never was able to do that before. my dad wouldn't let me steel his boat for a day here or there cause it's to expensive. lol but this boat i can run up on a log jam or a wing dam and not worry about a thing. which running a boat up on a log jam is a very effective way of fishing them. u run the boat up on top of it and then drop your bait straight down into the center of the log jam. don't want to do that with an expensive fiberglass Ranger walleye boat lol.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Good times!

My oldest brother still has a 16-17 foot 4-seater with a ~50hp Evinrude. He only uses it a cpl times a year at best.

Not sure if we've still got'em, but we had two old (1950's) Evinrude small outboard engines for years. A Sport twin 9.9 and a Fleet twin 18hp. The 18 was hysterical on tiny aluminum boats. Throw it right up on plane like a speed boat.

 

[Mawade1984]

Lol. We have our old John boat, great for fishing the river. Then we store a friend of ours fiberglass bass/ski boat, we take that to the lake a few times to fish. The river is the best though! There is some great fishing near my house... If you ever venture to georgia!

 

[Thyra]

When I was a kid in WI is seemed like we fished to eat and ate to fish, but I have never fished out here and it seems like most of the fish is catch and release - that's not why I would spend the time fishing! We have a friend who scuba dives and he has brought us some ling cod that he speared and that is very good.

 

[exhumed07]

this is my first boat freshy. I got alot of work but got to start somewhere. i also need to find a motor for it. i don't want anything less then a 30hp. my local dealership wants a grand for a 35hp johnson but the motor is a 79 and i realy don't want to spend a grand on a motor thats 40 years old. I don't need anything to big cause i want the boat half way light so i can pull it across shallow spots like sealed in sloughs. like patterson or shotgun slough. unless the water is high like right now hardly anyone can get back there unless they are in a canoe. the entrance and exit only have about 6 inches of water or less durring normal water levels but once in there the water is about 5 feet deep. still holds fish and big fish. so i want to be able to pull my boat into there or similiar places. so i don't want a heavy 90-100hp motor on it.

mawade, i would love to go down to georgia and do some fishing but thats like 1800 miles. I fish the upper mississippi between illinois and iowa. lots of fish here. catfish, carp, walleye, sauger, redhorse, sturgeon, paddle fish, bass, crappie, sunfish, gar, white bass, and about 200 miles south of here a bull shark was caught.

Thyra i do alot of catch and release. i love to fish but am not real crazy for eating it. i'll keep a few catfish for the smoker or the very rare occation i'll keep one flathead. and if i keep a flathead it's got to be at least 30 pounds. i want to keep the fish in the water and growing. don't want to take to many big fish out of the system. biggest thing is when i go fishing it's usually in the evening or night and when i get home i realy don't want to clean fish so i don't keep them lol. think the biggest thing for me is i just like being on the water. listening to the crickets and frogs and then come morning i love sitting out on the foggy river thats as smooth as glass listening to the world wake up. I could be out all night and not get a bite, but still love every moment i'm out there. but thats just me

 

[Mawade1984]

Speaking of red horse.... I never knew of such fish until last year, and I fish a lot! Lol. Here's my roommate with the red horse we caught last year!

 

[FreshyFresh]

...i also need to find a motor for it. i don't want anything less then a 30hp. my local dealership wants a grand for a 35hp johnson but the motor is a 79 and i realy don't want to spend a grand on a motor thats 40 years old.

Is your transom rated to 30hp? Don't go over the hp spec on the transom name-plate or you'll tear the arse-end right off the boat from the thrust of the engine.

Keep your eye on Craigslist or eBay for small outboards. $1000 for a 30hp that old is insane. Maybe they just put a cpl hundred bucks into new rings, bearings and gaskets, but I doubt it. It prolly got a new water pump impeller and a spit-shine at best.

I haven't priced them in awhile now, but it's possible the older 2-stroke outboards are commanding a higher price because you can't buy a 2-stroke outboard anymore due to emissions standards. They're all 4-stroke and EXPENSIVE. A new ~30hp 4-stroke will cost $4000-5000.

 

[exhumed07]

a redhorse caught down stream of a dam what a shock lol. thats commonly where i pick them up as well. that or wing dams. if you fished for blue cats down on the lower end of the mississippi that one would be perfect bait. Trophy blue cat fishermen use whole live redhorse and carp up to 5 pounds. I just use the red horse for cutbait myself. fillet them and cut 2 inch wide 6 inch long chunks for big channels and flatheads.

have no idea what the boat is rated for. it no longer has the coast guard lable in it and i contacted polar kraft. they have no records for any of thier boats prior to 2001. so basically i'm just going to go by flat bottoms of the same size. also one nice thing is since they had a dog hide hanging off the back of the transom cause of the duck blind they did use a 3/8 chunk of steel on the inside and outside of the transom as well as a equally thick chunk of angle iron on the top so the transom is pretty solid besides the fact that the wood is rotting out so i need to get a new chunk of 2X12 marine grade plywood. but easy fix.

I have been looking on craigslist and 30-15hp motors on there go for about 800 and they do not guarente that the motor runs. I contacted one through text and asked if i could come and take a look at one motor and then they tell me it had no forward gear. i looked up the parts needed. they wanted 600 for the motor and the parts were another 300. around here in this very river related community boat motors are hard to find or expensive. but i do agree the pricing is insane.

Also i'm not sure if they are just older motors but my local dealer has alot of 2 stroke motors in the show room. i know alot of places have banned the sale and some places the use of 2 strokes. canada banned the use of 2 strokes i know. california banned the sale of 2 strokes and have a tax for residents or visitors using 2 strokes. I personally would prefer a 4 stroke but odds are i will be finding a used 2 stroke tiller steer for this boat to start off with. i am going to set it up with a consol and everything though so that later on i can get a jack plate and a better motor and set it up for consol steering.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Brother I'm sure you've got your list of reasons, but once you factor in the mods you want to do to that boat (console drive, etc) and the fact it needs a motor, you'd be better off buying another boat with the basic features you need.

The control cabling alone to convert that sucker to console drive could exceed what the whole rig is worth.

 

[exhumed07]

I've figured out with wood required to build a deck the floors and the console will cost about $250. I just talked to a guy today who has a junk boat and he is willing to sell me the steering components jack plate and throttle components for a couple hundred. just leaves the motor. also i've been looking for 2 years and all the boats i've been able to find have been 2500-5k for a similiar size boat and no motor. one local dealer had a 1968 lowe 16 foot jon boat and trailer and whole interior was rotten and needed replaced, no motor. wanted 2k for it. another had a 14 foot bare hull no motor no trailer. wanted 1200. boats are hard to find around here and when u do find them they are expensive. or they are total peices of crap liek one i looked at about am month ago. holes in the bow were fixed with fiber glass and bondo.

Is there alot of work on this boat? yes. BUT i will be able to make this boat 100% customized to what i want. i can build my livewell and bait well to the size i want and not just whats available. i can build custom storage and seating. also there is the pride factor. I can look at what it was and then when i'm done look at what i have. It's like taking an old 1940's ford and making a hotrod out of it. it starts out as a rust bucket but through hard work it becomes this beautiful piece of art. sure it can be cheaper to buy one then to build one but the pride of doing it yourself. thats one of those things that drives me to do the things i want to do to this boat. I don't disagree with u freshy. it's just i already got like whole floor plans figured out in my head and layouts. i'm to the point now that i'm to excited to walk away from it now.

 

[FreshyFresh]

I hear you.

I'm close to 2 of the great lakes and lots of small ones, but the boating season is so short in the N.East, that small used watercraft are a dime a dozen. Well.. not literally..

Something like an older, but decent 14' aluminum boat with motor and trailer @ under a grand is easy to come by.

 

[exhumed07]

14 is to small for the river and i wouldn't even dare taking one one the great lakes. we got caught in a sudden strong west wind out by port clinton, 9 foot waves, and we had a wave crash over the side of the boat. luckily we have a ranger which is "nearly" unsinkable. but we had about a foot of standing water in the boat after it crashed over and the bilge could hardly keep up with the water splashing into the boat. and here in the river we regulrlay get 3-5 foot waves including barge wakes. 14 is just to small. but i do understand what u are saying how they are pretty chaep. thing is out here there is ALWAYS someone looking for a baot and alot of people do not want to sell thier boats or they are over priced cause they know they can sell it for the price or close to the price they want. on craigslist and newspaper there are alot of 14-16 foot flats with no motor or trailer and they want over a grand for those. it realy does suck but thats tha nature of the beast in my area. We also don't have a short boating season. it can be january snowing -5 degrees with 20 mph winds and i would put my boat on the line that there are boats out on the river with die hard walleye fishermen below the locks. right at ice out there are people out hunting northerns, spring is crappie and walleye time, summer is obvious heavy boating time. fall u got walleye mostly again and got guys putting duck blinds on their boats for duck season. constant use year round.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Dude, the 14 was just an example.. I wouldn't want to be far from shore on Lake Erie or Ontario on a tiller drive small aluminum boat either.

16' makes a huge difference? No it doesn't. Still an aluminum bathtub.

 

[exhumed07]

really the 2 feet make a huge difference in ride quality. at least here in the mississippi river. instead of the bow dropping into the trough of a wave it more easily rides across the crests of the waves. also 16 foot tend to be wider and more stable. I wanted an 18 foot but for alot of the back waters it's to much boat. an 18 foot has a shallower draft so i can go in shallower water then with my 16 but my 16 is more manuverable. I've been out in 14 foot v bottoms and 16 foot jon boats and 18 and 20 foot plate boats. suprisingly enough every 2 feet longer u go there is a dramatic difference in ride quality and manuverablility. it's like a jeep vs a pickup. jeep is more manuverable which makes them great for offroad whereas the pickup is more stable with it's longer wider wheel base with a better ride quility.

 

[FreshyFresh]

A lot of generalizations there. I too have been around boats all my life. We've owned a bunch, but most were fiberglass deep-v hulls in the 20ft range. We've had a few smaller aluminums too. I've seen 16 footers with more free-board than a typical 18'. It all depends on the hull design, make/model, etc.

 

[Thyra]

This is my Grandson - see you don't even need a boat! Picture was just taken and so that water has to be very cold - glacier runoff.