Boats You Miss

[rps]

In my life I have owned 7 boats. Some of you have owned fewer and I bet some of you have owned more.

Of those seven boats, I recall some more fondly than others. The first, in 1975, was an aluminum flat bottom upon which I hung my inherited early 1960's 18HP Evinrude.

Since then I have had a Lowe, a Tuffy, a Supreme, an Xpress, an Alumacraft, and now a Lund.

Of these I can say good things about all but that first one.

Still, out of all of these, I miss one. My 2010 16.5" Alumacraft with torque control tiller steer and a 75 hp Evinrude now lives in Canada. Frankly, I  wish I had it back. As good as my present Lund is, the Alumacraft suited the way I like to fish better than what I have now.

I understand that many of you have never fished from anything other than a bass rocket sled or a toon, but do any of you wish you could go back?

BTW, I just upgraded the tm and electronics on my Lund. Going to be great.

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

I kinda miss miss my 2008 Tracker TXW. started with a 60 4 stroke.   Then i put a 75 opti on it and had it flashed to 115.    it was fun rig.  I saw so many of the same boats out there and it was fun hauling past them. Love my Pro Craft more for actual fishing though.

[Gavin]

Never have been into motor boats. Have bought & sold a ton of paddle craft over the last 25 years. Pretty happy with what we have at the moment. 17’ Wenonah Spirit II tandem canoe In Royalex, 15’ Mad River Slipper in fiberglass wood gunwhaled replaced this year, Jackson Coosa SOT, Perception Pescador SOT, 17’ Landau Paddle Jon with trailer, 2 8’ lifetime SOT kiddo kayaks, and a ginormous swan floatie in my swimming pool.   8’ lifetimes need to go, have paddles for both but the need new spring clips, Kids learned to Flat water kayak with them. 50 for both, pick up in the 63119.

[Dutch]

I took some time to think about each of them and why I didn’t keep them.  In all honesty I don’t miss any of them.  I like bells, whistles, and do dads.  Most of what I have now, wasn’t invented when I had those other boats.

[kjackson]

This is an intriguing topic, Randy.  Thanks.  

Of the boats I miss--  I had an 8-foot pram that would be perfect for some of the areas around here, and I'm seriously considering building one this fall.  A pram,  IMO, is better for fishing than a kayak for a lot of reasons.  Then, when I got bored with hardcore salmon fishing, I sold my fiberglass tiller mooching boat and bought a Sears Gamefisher 14'. I put a 15-hp Suzuki on it, and it was a great boat. If I could convince my bank account that I could have a second motor boat, I'd find another. It was fiberglass tri-hull design that was stable and only needed a higher transom and splashwell to be seaworthy.  

The boat I really miss is a Lund 16' Predator, the forerunner to the 1660 Pro-V. It was a tiller boat with a 45 Mariner four-cylinder that would troll extremely slow while burning tons of gas. That boat had issues, though-- a leak somewhere and a soft spot in the floor, but it did everything I wanted, and i ran it everywhere from the mouth of the Columbia during the Buoy 10 fishery to the far end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. 

When I worked for Bass & Walleye Boats magazine, I got to test a number of different boats. The one that really stood out was a 1650 Crestliner Fish Hawk. There was another, smaller 16 Crestliner tiller that I ran for six months as a project boat. It would be a better boat than the Gamefisher...

Since I'm now in the market for a boat and have a depleted budget to work with, this topic has made me focus on what I need to look for. Again, thanks.

 

[Terrierman]

my worst boat selling regret ever.  Yamaha Pro 50.  Tilt and trim SS prop, it was perfect. It was on an 18'`6" x 54 semivee that I had built a nice deck for and had a good floor in it. Took out the middle seat and had ribs welded in to keep it stiff.  Big open floor that was really good for catfishing or waterfowling on the Missouri. That boat's worst feature was the astroturf.  No way to get the sand out of it ever.  And on the Missouri, there is no end of sand getting in everything.

Great Taneycomo boat too and would have been fine on the White too.  Sold it in a silly fit of anger and wanting to get rid of as much stuff as I could after a not pretty divorce.  Wish I hadn't been such a hardhead.

[Gumboot]

1 hour ago, Terrierman said:

my worst boat selling regret ever.  Yamaha Pro 50.  Tilt and trim SS prop, it was perfect. It was on an 18'`6" x 54 semivee that I had built a nice deck for and had a good floor in it. Took out the middle seat and had ribs welded in to keep it stiff.  Big open floor that was really good for catfishing or waterfowling on the Missouri. That boat's worst feature was the astroturf.  No way to get the sand out of it ever.  And on the Missouri, there is no end of sand getting in everything.

Great Taneycomo boat too and would have been fine on the White too.  Sold it in a silly fit of anger and wanting to get rid of as much stuff as I could after a not pretty divorce.  Wish I hadn't been such a hardhead.

My best bird huntin buddy went through a horrible divorce years ago. I happened to drop in on him one day and he had all his guns loaded in his truck heading to the pawn shop.  I bought them all from him right there and slowly sold him back all of them over the next few years...except for the 20 ga Superposed, he let me keep that one.  Come to think of it I bought a really nice Miller bred pointer from him at same time.  He got the better of me on that one as I fed it and paid vet bills for 7 years, and me and my friend pretty much hunted together all the time.

Sorry for the hijack, memories.

[kjackson]

2 hours ago, Terrierman said:

my worst boat selling regret ever.  Yamaha Pro 50.  Tilt and trim SS prop, it was perfect. It was on an 18'`6" x 54 semivee that I had built a nice deck for and had a good floor in it. Took out the middle seat and had ribs welded in to keep it stiff.  Big open floor that was really good for catfishing or waterfowling on the Missouri. That boat's worst feature was the astroturf.  No way to get the sand out of it ever.  And on the Missouri, there is no end of sand getting in everything.

Great Taneycomo boat too and would have been fine on the White too.  Sold it in a silly fit of anger and wanting to get rid of as much stuff as I could after a not pretty divorce.  Wish I hadn't been such a hardhead.

If you're interested, I have a similar boat that I'll be selling fairly soon.  No astroturf, though. It has the Yammie 50 tiller with tilt and trim, SS prop, wide open floor, casting deck.  

[Flysmallie]

In my early twenties my dad had a black and red Champion with a 175 mercury. I loved that boat. It was great to fish out and would absolutely fly. I drove it hard. The power it had was not good on cylinders or props. Pops "upgraded" to a newer, slower, Champion. Part of the reason was it was expensive keeping that Mercury running for me. But I think the real reason is he thought I was going to die in that boat. I sure would love to have it now though. 

[Terrierman]

1 hour ago, kjackson said:

If you're interested, I have a similar boat that I'll be selling fairly soon.  No astroturf, though. It has the Yammie 50 tiller with tilt and trim, SS prop, wide open floor, casting deck.  

Thanks but I'm not in the boat market right now.  Actually just sold my pontoon boat that was in a slip on Table Rock.  Good luck with selling.  It's a great time to sell anything outdoors related.  Price it high and advertise on Facebook Marketplace.  Sold mine in three days.

Yours sounds like a very nice unit.  Thankfully, the Shawnee I have fills my needs pretty well.