Hey everyone,
If you have any info on different brands of fishing boats I would be interested in your personal experiences or preferences I'm just trying to find out how big brand and material I want one in
Thanks
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I used to own a dealership and to be honest, I don't have a preference to one fishing boat or another based on your question. I also service a ton of fishing boats and to say the least, none are made the same. Aside from having sold fishing and pleasure boats, I still help many people buy boats.
Brand can be important to some, while it isn't important to others because each person has different likes, dislikes, fishing preferences, the lakes they fish on, family use, and so on.
For example, I have a customer that started out with a pontoon boat to fish from and loved it. Tons of room, livewell, trolling motor, the works. The only problem was that his family wanted a boat that they could play from also (i.e. tube, ski, etc.) and the pontoon didn't fit the bill. So what did he do? He bought a deck boat, which offer the best of both worlds for him.
If you could be more specific, I could help you narrow down your search. Answer the following questions and you'll spend less time looking.
1. What is my budget?
2. What type of material do I want? Aluminum or fiberglass?
3. Do I have a family? What do they expect?
4. How many people do I want to fish from the boat?
5. What time of year will I fish from the boat? Spring and summer? Spring, summer, and fall? Or all four seasons?
6. What type of fishing will I do? Will I troll at all?
7. Will my wife or girlfriend be going with me very often?
8. Will a fish n ski type boat be practical for me?
These questions are only to start out with. You then have questions regarding what type of motor you should go with. There are a lot of opinions out there and in most cases, these opinions are based on limited experience and have more to do with preference than what is best for you.
Good luck!
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1. 20,000
2. Aluminum
3. Fishing vessel with good comfort
4. 5-8 people
5. As much as possible most likely spring summer and fall
6. Troll casting fly-fishing
7. My wife will be going with me
8. No skiing
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5-8 people trolling, casting, and or fly fishing?[shocked] You need a 50-footer! I've never seen a boat with 8 people fishing on it in freshwater in my life.[:/] Five is overloaded in most "fishing" boats.
Sounds like you need a party barge, better known as a pontoon boat.[
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The big three in aluminum are Lund, Crestliner and Alumacraft. Probably in that order. Lunds cost a little more feature for feature but have a higher resale. 5-8 people means a 20ft or bigger. For 20k you are going to be looking at the used boat market. The deck boat idea might work. They are more of a pleasure than fishing boat and you would need to do some adapting if you wanted to run a kicker motor for trolling. FYI get a deep V hull. Drier and tracks better in the wind.
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That's more of what I was liking for thanks stan55
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Usually its hard to manage more than 4 people fishing unless you are dangling bait. If you will have 4 or more frequently then indeed you will need a bigger boat 20' plus. If however your trips will usually be 2,3 or 4 people you may want to Look at the Tracker aluminums or the smoker craft aluminums. The are close to your price range, they both make a deep hull. Both boats have a bass boat type deck lay out with 4 removable chairs and places to put chairs in bow, fish finders and live wells. Both come with a decent sized primary motor an usually a electric trolling motor. Both have livewells and rod storage. When your budget permits you can add all sorts of goodies, but these boats have all the basics. It is pretty easy to add a kicker motor to either boat. Might want to go to the boat show this year they sometimes have some good show prices
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The information you provided is great. Based on you feedback, you should be looking for at least a 20' boat in order to be comfortable with 5-8 people in it. Additionally, you will be wanting something with an outboard and since most aluminum boats come with outboards, that won't be a problem. Yamaha and Mercury are the most widely serviced motors here in Utah, so I would stick with something that has either one of those motors on it. Although Honda is an excellent brand, there aren't many shops that service them.
You may also want to consider a pontoon boat if you haven't already. If you plan on fishing 8 people from a boat, that's a lot of rods flying around and for the money, it's a great way to go. Otherwise, you will be looking at a limited number of brands that sell boats that will be comfortable to fish that many people from. I have also seen plenty of boats get tickets for having too many in their boat because the boaters don't pay attention to the coast guard capacity sticker.
As for brand based on your budget and size requirements, you will be looking at those that have bigger boats such as Alumacraft, Lund, or Crestliner. You will also want to max out your HP as much as possible. Since your price range is around 20K, you will also looking at a used boat and finding one that has been well maintained is critical. You may find a clean boat, but the motor has been poorly maintained or the other way around.
As for pontoons, Bennington has been the best for years, but so is Crest and Lowe's Suncruiser Series.
What you may find is that when look around, your requirements change, and as they do, consider your options.
Hope this helps.
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My average company will most likely be 2-4 people on a boat
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check out triumphboats.com I have been looking at alot of boats, I settled for a triumph. go to the website and look at the bubba tests, none of the boats mentioned would hold up....
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I should've covered motors. Minimum for a 20ft is 150hp either the Mercury Optimax or a Yamaha 4 stroke. Trolling motor 24 volt model at least 65lb thrust. For a kicker I like 4 stroke Yamahas but the Merc Bigfoot is a solid unit too 9hp should do you there.
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I've had my Lund 1850 Gran Sport Tyee since March of 1998. The outboard, a Mercury 150 HP EFI, now has 476 hours on it and it has been nearly trouble free the whole time I've owned it. In my opinion, you won't find a better built aluminum boat than the Lunds. Most of the major brand boat makers produce a quality product but I would not consider replacing my Lund with anything other than a new Lund.
As others have mentioned, your 20K price range is going to get you into a used boat. You will probably be looking at a boat that is around 5 or 6 years old. Take the time to carefully examine the whole boat, motor and trailer. Look for signs of hidden damage and don't even consider buying a used boat unless the owner is willing to put it in the water and take you out for a test ride.
A couple of features of the Lund that are not found on some of the other boats are the full size lockable storage compartments on both sides of the boat, two full size livewells and a choice of carpeted floors or vinyl flooring for easy cleaning. The Lunds also have very large fuel tanks for extended range. The models like mine have a hull design that takes rough water conditions in stride making this boat a great choice for big lakes like Lake Powell. You will probably want a boat at least as big as mine and maybe a foot or two longer. I can load my boat will all of our camping gear, coolers and fishing tackle and still have room for 4 people on a long on-the-lake stay. Remember a bigger boat means a larger outboard and therefore more money for the purchase and operation.
I would recommend you look at the newer direct injection outboards such as the Mercury Optimax or Johnson/Evinrude Fickt instead of the 4 strokes. The DI outboards get about the same fuel mileage, are lighter in weight and they cost thousands of dollars less.
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I put an hour meter on my boat when I bought it. If the boat you're looking at doesn't have an hour meter you are at a di
vantage in knowing how much use the boat has had. Ask the owner about any service work and find out if the regular maintenance has been performed as required.
Good luck in your search.
Mike
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If and when I replace my boat, it would be with a Lund 1950 Tyee and a 225 HP Merc Optimax.
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If you find yourself interested in a Tracker product check out Tulsa Boats. Com I bought an 18.5 ft Tundra from them 2 years ago for 1/2 of retail sticker. It was 2 years old but had never been sold. They sell alot of close out type boats and you can save some serious $. I would also reccomend getting the max horsepower your boat is rated for. You'll never wish you had a smaller motor, trust me![pirate]
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Hay dont mean to jump in but! Do i have a deal for you.No joke. 07 smoker 187, 150 merc optimax, 9.9 pro kicker with its own throtal. wireless remote stearing, Hummingbird 787c2 sonar (colar gps) + factory lowrence up front, Way nice boat!!! 36k+ new. Vary low hours.
Must sell. 22k o.b.o I have not listed this boat yet.
PM me if you are interested.
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If you are going with a straight aluminum, LUND !!. However, don't discount the pontoon craft. To get the higher performance, add a third log ( pontoon), it increases the HP on the engine and will give better performance. There might be a BFT'er out there that has a great deal of experience with these craft. Has a 32 ftr, with a 250, that will do 40+. Does everything that he wants, fish, ski, camp. Just another option.
I own a 1996 Smoker Craft 192 fazer with a 175 Merc EFI. The engine has been GREAT, very reliable and eazy to maintain. If you get the EFI model do not use the choke to start in cold weather as this motor is tuned very rich. I just pull up on the idle lever and it starts fine (you push the key in on mine to choke it and it just seems like too much fuel as it does not start as easily as just pulling the lever up slightly). The boat has been good but I would recommend a vinyl floor and not carpet. Carpet is too much of a pain in the butt to keep clean especially with kids, worm dirt, sunflower seeds, power bait, fish blood, soda spills etc.. One thing I have to do a lot is keep tightening screws as they work loose a lot especially after runs in rough water. As a few others have stated the more power you have the better, I really would be fine with less h.p. but the nice thing about more power is a higher cruising speed when you want it. A fiberglass boat will ride a bit better because it is much easier to form fiberglass into better bottom shapes i.e. chines,lifting strakes and more complex bottom forms. It is a bit hard to shape aluminum unless you use pretty basic shapes, although there is a newer technology called stretch forming for aluminum that is helping in more complex bottom designs. Fiberglass boats tend to be quite a bit heavier than alumium which is better for ride quality but it has it's drawbacks as well. If you do get a boat with a carpet floor try to get one that has snap in carpet. I loved the carpet in my boat for the first few years and now I wish I had vinyl!! I hope you find your perfect boat. Have a Wonderful Day Sincerely John R.[sly] P.S. if you get an aluminum boat check for electrolisys on the hull!! (little tiny holes) and remember to disconnect the battery if you store the boat for awhile to prevent this.
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