Skwerl

:'(

Keep in mind that those lil plastic botes are fine when they are in good shape, but the sun will tear them up and if left out unprotected they will get brittle and/or soft after a couple years. That one looks in good shape. Get yourself a cheap tarp and some bungee cords to protect it when you're not using it. After you've been out a few times, you will start envisioning the modifications you wish to make. Make it comfortable and functional for you.

Yup, you're limited to the lure on your line or possibly a spare hooked on your hat. Certainly no place to secure a tackle box. I'd be wary of high quality crankbaits with extra sharp treble hooks as well. Inflatables and treble hooks don't get along so well.

As far as 'automatically switching from one battery to the other when the first one goes dead', I think you'd have to hire a midget troll to sit in your battery compartment and switch the connections when he hears you cussing the dead trolling battery. ;D In order to keep 12 volts you would hook up the batteries parallel. Positive to positive and negative to negative. Just like putting jumper cables on a car. If you hook them up in series then you'd have 24 volts (think of flashlight batteries and how they stack in series with positive to negative).

Boat Trader Online. http://www.boattraderonline.com/newadsearch.html Scroll down the menu on the left side and click on 'Price Checker'. Type in the year, make and model of the boat you're looking at and it will bring up all current ads in the country matching your criteria. That way you can compare against what others are currently asking for the same boat.

You'll spook the fish that close. I seem to have better accuracy when I have some distance to cast, like 50-60'. Fifteen feet is only double the length of your fishing pole. Are they using cane poles?

Go out with a tape measure and see how much you draft when sitting. You can do this by measuring from the waterline to the ground, then measure from the bottom of the outboard to the ground and subract that number from the first number. This will tell you how much water you need to float without raising the motor. You can measure from the bottom of the hull to see how much you draft with the motor raised also. To get an idea how much you draft when on plane, you need to have an idea where your waterline is when on plane. You can do the same measurements in your driveway to get an idea how low your outdrive is when on plane. I have a deep V center console 'Bay boat' and my draft is about 24" sitting and about 18" on plane. Most bass boats will draft less than that.

Do you want a boat or do you want a building project? I bought a boat hull once. It sat in my back yard for 3 years and I managed to dump about a Grand into it before hauling it to the dump. If you want to fish then find a boat, not a construction project.

The cheapest option (one I used for 2+ years) is a big rectangular Igloo cooler from Wal-Mart and a plastic iced tea pitcher. I used to catch my own live shiners and this setup worked very well. I'd go the night before my fishing trip to catch shiners, fill the cooler 3/4 full of water and take it home where I had an old cheapo fishtank aereator that I dropped in the cooler overnight. The next morning I'd unplug, load up and head for the lake. As soon as I was on the water I'd use the pitcher to swap out a bunch of the water in the cooler. My cooler had a double lid so I only had to open the smaller part and rarely had shiners jumping out. Depending on how many shiners I had, I'd swap out a few pitcherfuls of water every hour or so. From there you can get as fancy and expensive as you like.

Looks like a wonderful 'first boat'. You can find all kinds of things to customize or fix up the way you like as you get the extra money. One thing you need to know, the registration tags/ stickers are a tax paid by the other owner. When you buy the boat, the registration stickers arte no longer valid. It doesn't matter if they don't expire for another year, the minute you buy the boat the registration expires. You will need to register it in your name (or your parents if you're a minor) and pay for your own registration.

Go to the auto parts store and pick up 25'-30' of 8-10 gauge wire and make some extensions for the trolling motor power leads. Put your battery all the way up in the very front of the canoe. This will help balance and keep the nose in the water enough to keep it from blowing around so much. A 30 lb thrust is plenty for your troller. I fished out of a setup like that for several years.

Thanks Ben. That's what it was, and it was pretty rusted up so I picked up a new one at NAPA along with a new battery. It would trip just by dropping it on the countertop so I assume it was bad/ weak/ whatever.

Hi guys, Just hooked up a new trolling motor and it wasn't working. I checked the battery and there is a small rectangular module wired into the positive lead coming off the battery. It's about an inch long and has two terminals on it. The wire from the battery connected on one side and then the wire running to the trolling motor plug came off the other side. I bypassed this module and the motor worked. Obviously this thing is bad, but do I need it? I don't understand is it? Some sort of modulator or inline fuse? How soon before my bote explodes if I don't replace it?

Hi Zippy, Seems like the guys with center consoles and flats boats fishing inshore seem to lean towards the hand control. Less bulk on the deck. Freshwater guys in bass boats seem to prefer the foot control. I'm not sure where I fit in. Bought a center console but have never fished inshore salt water before. Don't think I need a foot control, I can kick the handle back and forth with my foot and can lean over once in a while if I need to change speed.

A 55 will be plenty for that size boat. But if it isn't, you can just send it to me and I'll find something to do with it.

Clean it up down to bare metal and then throw it in your truck and take it to somebody who can weld aluminum. It will be over and done with, fixed right and you will never have a leak in that spot ever again. A few years ago I had a 1963 14' aluminum V hull and I had about a dozen missing and loose rivets. Took it to a guy and we spent all afternoon sweating, cussing and replacing rivets trying to get that boat watertight. We did a fairly good job on it but welding would have been faster, cheaper and more effective. If I had to do it over again I'd skip the rivets and sealers.

Mention to Dad how much he needs a cover for his boat to help keep it from getting ruined by the elements. Hopefully he will feel guilty enough to take you out as a reward for working so hard cleaning it up.

Why not put a Swivel-Ease seat base directly in the bench? Then you can have the seat at bench height or stick the riser pole in the hole and put the seat on that for a raised seat. I'd build on to the bench rather than remove it.

My dad's reaction is always the exact opposite. Any time he gets a hit, he will say "It's just grass" or "Dam, I got stuck on the bottom" as his drag starts to sing and his pole tip bends over towards the middle of the lake. I love fishing with my dad and spending time with him doing something we both enjoy.

Use a tape measure to get your inner and outer diameters. Most trailer hubs are pretty universal in size so there will only be a couple options at the auto parts store or marine supply. Even Wal-Mart stocks a couple basic trailer bearing sizes.

Go for it! I think it would help make the boat more functional as a fishing machine. I'd also make a separate lid for the small front area in front of the forward bench so you're flat all the way to the bow but still have access to the small storage area. Is that a livewell built in to the middle bench? That needs a lid also, you can just use a tupperware juice pitcher to fill it and add fresh water every so often if you don't have funds to plumb it up with a pump.

Dunno but I'll guess caulk? I'd suggest the 'tub and tile' adhesive caulk such as what would be appropriate for use in a shower. Ask me how I know the other regular stuff will mold up in a year?

For something that small you may be able to use a jet ski trailer with some minor adjustment on the skids. Check around your local boat places, trailer places, classifieds, and even drive around some neighborhoods with lakefront properties on the weekends and look for unused trailers. You just might be able to buy one cheap if the owner no longer has a use for it.

Go to the tile department at Home Depot and buy a big fat grout sponge and throw it in the back of the bote. Much easier and more effective for mopping up small amounts of water. I had an old aluminum boat that took on about 3-4 ounces of water per hour and the sponge was perfect for keeping the floor dry.

On my jon boat and my first gas powered boat I used the Swivel-Ease seat bases and pedestals. Personally I'd skip the plywood and mount the seat bases directly to the bench. Carpet can be installed afterwards with a razor knife and spray adhesive/ contact cement. Just cut out where the seat posts drop into the holes. What I did in my 14" aluminum boat to eliminate stepping on the ribs in the floor was to use 1/4" plywood and wrap it in carpet after cutting it to fit the floor area. Made a perfect drop-in floor and eliminated stepping in puddles or dropping fish hooks down into the cracks. Made it very comfortable to go barefoot in the boat.