Short bass boats to consider

[casts_by_fly]

23 hours ago, Koz said:

OK, I just took a look at your profile and see you’re from NJ so that makes a lot of sense.

 

I see that I’m spoiled here in the south with easy access to tons of big lakes.

 

Have you looked into adding a stern mounted motor to your kayak? You can get 6-9 mph out of some of them.

I thought about it. Speed isn’t the issue. Sure it would be nice, but more so I want a little more space, a rod locker, and dry storage. I want to have the boat loaded and ready so when I pull down to the ramp I pop off the cover, undo the straps, and drop it in. It’s getting tiring having to load everything in and out every trip. Lifting the boat in and out of the truck every trip. Not having dry storage so any time I fish in the rain all of my tackle bag gets soaked through and needs to be laid out when I get home.  Having to choose just 5 rods or so.  The light kayak that gets blown around if I’m trying to scope fish. Never having the ability to take someone else with me, even if it’s once or twice a year. Having to make the choice if I’m going to carry rain gear that day because it’s too hot to wear it but I don’t want to leave it in the rear well. 
 

The autopilot has been great for me. It’s a fishing machine.  I’ve been out in 3’ waves, 36 degree water, 30 mph winds, and weed beds so thick that I wouldn’t have been able to walk through them yet the AP just grinds through. I would definitely miss it to get rid of it and I’d probably keep it a while after a new boat. But, given the opportunity for something a little bigger, drier, and more versatile, I think I will take it. 

 

20 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

@casts_by_fly the other issue is you do not want a 9.9 jet. You always want to be maxed out with the horsepower rating foe the boat. I wouldn’t go below a 60/40 you’ll never get on plane or it will take forever to get there.  You can only run in 3-4” of water on plane. 
 

the other realization you are going to have to live with is you are going to hit stuff with your boat. Possibly damaging it. 

I wasn’t thinking about a 9.9 jet. If I did end up with a jet motor it would be a full size like you mentioned and then I’d either just use the trolling motor on the 9.9 lakes or I’d try to squeeze a 9.9 tiller on the same transom. Or, in the rare case I found a tiller jet boat I’d swap motors in the garage. Though a 60/40 jet has to be over 200# and not a simple swap without a hoist. 

[Susky River Rat]

@casts_by_flyid day  it’s pick your poison. Look at what the jet opens up for you and see if it’s worth it. I had to make the personal Choice as well. Get a jet and give up the electric and HP restricted waters but, give me access to rivers. I didn’t do what was closest  I did where I thought I’d enjoy fishing the most. 
 

if you do decide to go the jet boat way and have any questions feel free to PM me. 

[Koz]

5 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

I thought about it. Speed isn’t the issue. Sure it would be nice, but more so I want a little more space, a rod locker, and dry storage. I want to have the boat loaded and ready so when I pull down to the ramp I pop off the cover, undo the straps, and drop it in. It’s getting tiring having to load everything in and out every trip. Lifting the boat in and out of the truck every trip. Not having dry storage so any time I fish in the rain all of my tackle bag gets soaked through and needs to be laid out when I get home.  Having to choose just 5 rods or so.  The light kayak that gets blown around if I’m trying to scope fish. Never having the ability to take someone else with me, even if it’s once or twice a year. Having to make the choice if I’m going to carry rain gear that day because it’s too hot to wear it but I don’t want to leave it in the rear well. 
 

The autopilot has been great for me. It’s a fishing machine.  I’ve been out in 3’ waves, 36 degree water, 30 mph winds, and weed beds so thick that I wouldn’t have been able to walk through them yet the AP just grinds through. I would definitely miss it to get rid of it and I’d probably keep it a while after a new boat. But, given the opportunity for something a little bigger, drier, and more versatile, I think I will take it. 

 

I wasn’t thinking about a 9.9 jet. If I did end up with a jet motor it would be a full size like you mentioned and then I’d either just use the trolling motor on the 9.9 lakes or I’d try to squeeze a 9.9 tiller on the same transom. Or, in the rare case I found a tiller jet boat I’d swap motors in the garage. Though a 60/40 jet has to be over 200# and not a simple swap without a hoist. 

I absolutely get it. Previously I had posted here on BR lamenting that I probably should have bought a boat instead.

 

Two things helped change that a bit for me. The first was adding a winch to my trailer as it makes it a million times easier to load up.

 

The second was entering a few tournaments this year. Next year I plan to enter a lot of national and regional tournaments.

[Susky River Rat]

@Koz still need to come to the dark side with a boat 

[Koz]

58 minutes ago, Susky River Rat said:

@Koz still need to come to the dark side with a boat 

I think about it now and again. But for me it’s not just the cost of the boat. My Bronco Sport has a towing capacity of only 2,200 or 2,300 pounds.

 

So that means either getting a 17 foot or under aluminum boat (and even that’s pushing the load limit) or also buying a new truck.

 

At my age I really don’t want to spend that money. I’d like to be able to retire for a few years.

[Susky River Rat]

@Koz honestly unless you get a bare bones jon boat you’d probably be hard pressed to get a boat under 2000. I just have to tease you a bit. You need a bare bones yak and get up here to the susky! 

[casts_by_fly]

7 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

@casts_by_flyid day  it’s pick your poison. Look at what the jet opens up for you and see if it’s worth it. I had to make the personal Choice as well. Get a jet and give up the electric and HP restricted waters but, give me access to rivers. I didn’t do what was closest  I did where I thought I’d enjoy fishing the most. 
 

if you do decide to go the jet boat way and have any questions feel free to PM me. 

 

The jet would open up the delaware.  One of my hesitations in fishing it right now is the limitation of how much/distance I can fish from the kayak.  There are access points and launches, so I'd have to launch, fish my way upstream, and drift back down.  I love exporing, but just haven't had the time this year with a new job.  Going into the current with an electric would limit me so I haven't tried it (though with this year's low flows I should still).  With a jet, the distance/exploring constraint is gone and it opens up much more water (with the limitation of shallow stretches stopping movement).  

 

The downside of a jet would be on the 9.9 lakes.  I fish one now a decent amount and would fish it more with a 9.9 boat.  The second I don't fish now but would fish it a couple times a year in a 9.9.  The third I fish once every other year or so since its further out and that won't change, it would just change how I fish the lake a little.  The electric limited lakes are small enough that any of the options will cover them.  The unlimited lakes are the same.  

 

I'll think this one through and probably ping you some jet questions.

 

 

5 hours ago, Koz said:

I absolutely get it. Previously I had posted here on BR lamenting that I probably should have bought a boat instead.

 

Two things helped change that a bit for me. The first was adding a winch to my trailer as it makes it a million times easier to load up.

 

The second was entering a few tournaments this year. Next year I plan to enter a lot of national and regional tournaments.

 

there are lots of good arguments between a small boat and a big kayak.  For lakes under 500 acres or so and lakes that are electric only, an autopilot will keep up admirably to a full sized boat and even be better at times if that full size boat doesn't have a spotlock motor.  Obviously for lakes that are tiny the kayak might even be a better choice. The biggest differences though are the things I'm finding that are pushing me to a boat.  Maybe I get a boat and miss the kayak.  Who's to say.

 

Tournaments are a non starter for me.  I did consider a trailer, but that doesn't help the dry box, rod locker, and rigging out each trip.  I'd still pull the electronics, motor, and rods out.  Then its just the tackle bag that gets to stay in on the trailer.  Not much gain really for me.

[Koz]

26 minutes ago, Susky River Rat said:

@Koz honestly unless you get a bare bones jon boat you’d probably be hard pressed to get a boat under 2000. I just have to tease you a bit. You need a bare bones yak and get up here to the susky! 

If I decide to fish a river tournament I still have my Seastream Angler pedal drive kayak. 

 

Compared to the AP it’s lightweight and I don’t care if it gets beat up. If I did that I probably wouldn’t even put any electronics on it.

[Susky River Rat]

@casts_by_fly you can comfortably fish a 600 acre lake with a boat off a TM. Had a cheap Newport vessel 55thrust transom mount  I used to put on the back in addition to my bow mount on my tracker 160 to make big moves across the lake. Even though it was of lessor thrust it took a lot of strain of the bow TM batteries. 
 

my fishing and what I wanted to do changed ALOT from my first boat till now. I had a 20hp prop to fish the HP restricted lakes. Dabbled in some light river fishing.  I mainly fished musky than too. Now I am a smallmouth river rat. 
 

I also know the pains of loading everything in and out. For years I fished for musky out of a Colman scanoe with a trolling motor. I would quit before I went back to that. 

[casts_by_fly]

Related ask.  How heavy of a boat combo can you comfortably wheel around (with or without trailer dolly)?  I ask because my driveway and my garage are 90 degrees (maybe a touch more) oriented.  It might be possible to back it down the driveway and jackknife the trailer to get it closely aligned, but there is no way to use the truck to get it into the garage. I’ll have to take it off, move the truck and either hand push it or use a dolly. I think a dolly might be the best option in which case the weight isn’t critical (they all start at 5k lb total weight). But if I can make it work without then so be it. 

[MediumMouthBass]

3 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

Related ask.  How heavy of a boat combo can you comfortably wheel around (with or without trailer dolly)?  I ask because my driveway and my garage are 90 degrees (maybe a touch more) oriented.  It might be possible to back it down the driveway and jackknife the trailer to get it closely aligned, but there is no way to use the truck to get it into the garage. I’ll have to take it off, move the truck and either hand push it or use a dolly. I think a dolly might be the best option in which case the weight isn’t critical (they all start at 5k lb total weight). But if I can make it work without then so be it. 

My family and i didnt use our boat once this year, its a nuisance with our driveway and amount of vehicles we have. Its an hour long procedure, whereas our kayaks are loaded and gone in 10 minutes.

One option we thought of was renting a spot at a storage place and just hook it up to the truck before heading to the lake. We do it with the jetskis already, may or may not be an option for you if a dolly becomes too much work.

Or if you have a quad that would be a good way to get it to and from the garage to the truck. We would hook ours up to the quad after moving several vehicles and saved alot of pulled muscles by doing so. And this was a lighter boat, cant imagine a heavy one.

[A-Jay]

25 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

Related ask.  How heavy of a boat combo can you comfortably wheel around (with or without trailer dolly)?  I ask because my driveway and my garage are 90 degrees (maybe a touch more) oriented.  It might be possible to back it down the driveway and jackknife the trailer to get it closely aligned, but there is no way to use the truck to get it into the garage. I’ll have to take it off, move the truck and either hand push it or use a dolly. I think a dolly might be the best option in which case the weight isn’t critical (they all start at 5k lb total weight). But if I can make it work without then so be it. 

 

My boat goes into the garage about 1/2 way with the truck

and then the last 1/2 of fitment is done by A-Jay power.

After a year of battling that stock trailer jack wheel.

Seen below and is pretty useless.

 

I replaced it with this ~ ABT Lure Trailer Jack Skate

 

Needed a couple of 3/4" wrenches & about 90 seconds - tops.

This is totally the way to go. 

Designed to make tight space maneuverability much easier and it definitely does. 

Especially with a single axle trailer.

I can easily bring the boat to the truck.

Read that again.

 

 It's a Heavy Duty 11 inch Triangular Jack Skate System made of 6061 Grade Aluminum

with a 525 lb weight capacity.

 Sports Heavy Duty Urethane Wheels w/ swivel casters, zinc coated bearings & a locking brake. 

Highly Recommended.

A-Jay

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/193282-trailer-jack-wheel-replacement-complete/

 

[casts_by_fly]

1 hour ago, MediumMouthBass said:

My family and i didnt use our boat once this year, its a nuisance with our driveway and amount of vehicles we have. Its an hour long procedure, whereas our kayaks are loaded and gone in 10 minutes.

One option we thought of was renting a spot at a storage place and just hook it up to the truck before heading to the lake. We do it with the jetskis already, may or may not be an option for you if a dolly becomes too much work.

Or if you have a quad that would be a good way to get it to and from the garage to the truck. We would hook ours up to the quad after moving several vehicles and saved alot of pulled muscles by doing so. And this was a lighter boat, cant imagine a heavy one.

I have my kayak now and it’s a 10 minute job from starting the truck, backing up to the kayak (on a cart in the garage), loading everything, and pulling out. I don’t mind if the boat takes a little longer there because I’m saving it on the lake side with not loading and unloading every trip. And I can pull the boat out at 1030 in the morning between meeting for an afternoon departure time. 
 

No quad or lawn tractor. We also only have 2 cars.  My wife’s is in the first bay. My truck sits outside. Local storage is expensive. About $150 a month for an outdoor parking space. Garages only go to 20’ here that I’ve found and I have that at home. 

 

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

 

My boat goes into the garage about 1/2 way with the truck

and then the last 1/2 of fitment is done by A-Jay power.

After a year of battling that stock trailer jack wheel.

Seen below and is pretty useless.

 

I replaced it with this ~ ABT Lure Trailer Jack Skate

 

Needed a couple of 3/4" wrenches & about 90 seconds - tops.

This is totally the way to go. 

Designed to make tight space maneuverability much easier and it definitely does. 

Especially with a single axle trailer.

I can easily bring the boat to the truck.

Read that again.

 

 It's a Heavy Duty 11 inch Triangular Jack Skate System made of 6061 Grade Aluminum

with a 525 lb weight capacity.

 Sports Heavy Duty Urethane Wheels w/ swivel casters, zinc coated bearings & a locking brake. 

Highly Recommended.

A-Jay

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/193282-trailer-jack-wheel-replacement-complete/

 

thanks. That’s a good suggestion. Do you only roll it on concrete?  We have concrete in the garage but pavers in the driveway. And a 1” lip to get into the garage door. And an ever so slight incline. The more I talk it through the more I think I need a lawn tractor. 

[A-Jay]

22 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

thanks. That’s a good suggestion. Do you only roll it on concrete?  We have concrete in the garage but pavers in the driveway. And a 1” lip to get into the garage door. And an ever so slight incline. The more I talk it through the more I think I need a lawn tractor. 

Yes.

Perhaps have your drive way re-done.

A-Jay

 

[casts_by_fly]

If only….  Some day we will. I hate the pavers. I have to reset them in a couple places every other year. They are a bear to use the snowblower on and the scoop catches every 15’ on a raised corner. However, it’s not a short or small driveway and I don’t want to consider what it would cost to replace it. Since it works perfectly fine for the most part, that’s money I don’t need to spend. 

[TOXIC]

You do what you have to do.  I have friends all with “full size” bass boats down to River Jon’s with jets and Kayaks.  Everybody has different challenges.  Of the big boats, out of 4 of us 2 have garages that work and 2 of us don’t.  Myself and my other buddy cannot fit our boats in our garages.  His is because he has converted his garage to a wood shop and me because my 2 and a half car garage is not deep enough for a 21 foot boat.  My options are to remove everything from the garage including vehicles and angle the boat in, or to expand the garage space.  Neither is a good solution.  I’m not putting the vehicles in the driveway and I can’t expand the garage because my house is built on a cliff.  What I did do was to expand the pad outside the garage.  It took 5 dump trucks of fill just to get it up to grade. I had an elaborate cover routine with poles to drain water, a fan to circulate air and evaporite rodent deterrents.  I worked well until my daughter got a farm with a Carriage barn.  I now store in in there but it’s 20 miles away.  My other buddy rents an uncovered space ant a storage lot.  

[DaubsNU1]

@casts_by_fly I picked up this trailer dolly from Amazon.

 

 

@A-Jay has a great set up, but I have a big lip going from driveway to garage, and needed something with bigger tires.

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, DaubsNU1 said:

@casts_by_fly I picked up this trailer dolly from Amazon.

 

 

@A-Jay has a great set up, but I have a big lip going from driveway to garage, and needed something with bigger tires.

Only reason I didn't go the same direction 

is I can get the trailer over The lip (yes I have one too), with the truck.

After that it's a cake walk.

A-Jay

[MN Fisher]

1 hour ago, DaubsNU1 said:

I picked up this trailer dolly from Amazon.

That's the exact dolly I have....still a pain going over grass and the large lip...gotta rock it several times to get it up and over. Which is why this winter's project is a powered dolly...I can probably use some of the parts from this one.

 

[casts_by_fly]

Thanks guys. 
 

@TOXIC- I wish we had options here but there aren’t any good ones. Uncovered outdoor storage is expensive and then it’s sitting outside for anyone to break into it, plus weather. it’s a hard no from my wife to store a boat outside at the house if I even had a space to do it.  The back wall of the garage is the wall to our dining room so I can’t do a bump out. I did consider consolidating two of the bays and their 8’ doors into a single double wide door. I don’t know if the wall between the doors is load bearing but I don’t think so. That would let me back in and angle across two bays with an extra wide opening to get it in. That’s probably the most realistic if I ever wanted a boat bigger than I can fit into a single bay. 
 

 At one point my wife and I discussed an addition. Before she passed, her mom was frail and had trouble with steps. We don’t have a downstairs bedroom. In the event that something happened to her dad, we would have had to take in her mom. The plan was going to be to convert the garage to an in-law suite and build a new garage where the pad in front of the current one is which would have rotated the bays 90 degrees and aligned them with the driveway. Had we done that, you can be sure it would have been 30’ deep with a set of 10-12’ doors.

 

@DaubsNU1. @MN Fisher- I’m pretty sure some form of dolly is going to be required. I’ll get the boat first and then see from there. 
 

 

At this point, short of finding a buddy with the same boats I am looking at, I think I just have to measure a couple and leave myself from room for error. As much as I’d love to shoehorn a 175txw in (the specs say I can probably do it), dealing with an inch of room on either side every time will get old fast. A pro 170 is a foot narrower and will give me room. Then it comes down to the motor on the back and how much it sticks out. Or maybe I just get the 16’ v bottom tiller and never worry about it….  

[Susky River Rat]

May I warn you if there is an incline and this isn’t all flat look out. The only waylay that boat will stop is when it hits something if it gets away from you. 

[Big Hands]

On 10/28/2024 at 4:29 AM, Catt said:

Tracker & Alweld offers viable options 

 

This is the boat I have with a 40 hp tiller. It's been a great boat for me. I found one with 2 hours on the motor for $6,800, but I had to drive to TX to get it (I honestly didn't mind, LOL).

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Since you mentioned rod locker being something you'd want, I suggest taking a looking a look at the 1654 Sportsman T. It's got a rod locker built in one side, and a general purpose locker that IIRC is removable on the other side. 

 

 

Not sure if they sell it sans motor. It is nicely rigged and laid out IMHO.