This boat would be perfect for my pond IF I had a dock that wasn't made of pallets and beaver-felled trees:

 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/647670908372474?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3Adbb13d64-9a01-4c0b-923a-2f04dc92c7a1

 

If I had a metal dock with a winch and ramp, I'd buy this boat.

Why do you need a dock? Curious about this. Here in Florida we just pull 'em up on shore, but then again sandy shores are easier on the hulls than some northern rocky shorelines. Some of the guys with new fiberglass boats don't want to scratch up their nice gel coatings tho' but for us tin can boaters sandy shores work just fine.

 

I checked craigslist in your area and you have quite a selection of close by available old aluminum boats very similar to the one you found for quite a bit less money. The primary difference is age of boat and motor.

 

https://maine.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=aluminum boat#search=2~gallery~0

 

A metal dock, winch and ramp? I'd say don't let any of that stop you or, slow you down! Always some workarounds like you can launch small lightweight boats from a good shoreline fairly easy, but what is the dock necessary for?

 

Save some money on the boat and trailer, and put the rest towards that spot lock you are dreaming of! 😉 Don't let anything slow you down!

2 hours ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

Some of the guys with new fiberglass boats don't want to scratch up their nice gel coatings tho' but for us tin can boaters sandy shores work just fine.

 

I wouldn't care about scratching a boat. I just don't have a shoreline. Well, I do, but then there's wetlands which consist of a floating soil. It's like walking on a waterbed. So, I had the boys cut some trees girdled by beavers lengthwise. Then the laid the two halves side by side and screwed pallets to them. Lastly, they milled some oak and screwed the oak on top. All that sits atop the floating soil. 

that would be a nice little boat for you and something to think about if you ever get to a point where a canoe is too unsteady for you.  A little 35# transom mount motor and a 10# lithium battery and you're set.

 

You'd be surprised how little actual water you need for one.  They are really light (probably 300-400# total for that boat) and it would only draw about 6" of water.  You might need to clear a couple more bushes from the channel in and out but it isn't the worst idea.  

1 minute ago, casts_by_fly said:

that would be a nice little boat for you and something to think about if you ever get to a point where a canoe is too unsteady for you. 

 

I would LOVE to be able to stand some while fishing.

 

2 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

You might need to clear a couple more bushes from the channel in and out but it isn't the worst idea.  

 

I'd love to do this too, but wetlands are soooooo protected. I'd end up in big trouble if the state discovered that I widened my canal.

 

If I do buy a little motorboat, I'll need some help launching it at the beginning of the season and yanking it out come fall.

On 10/6/2025 at 10:59 AM, Swamp Girl said:

 

I would LOVE to be able to stand some while fishing.

You need a Sportspal/Radisson canoe… if I make it up that way next year (it’s a goal) maybe we meet up and you try mine.

 

If you can tolerate my language there’s a lot of clips of me standing and fishing on my YT channel.. I am not particularly graceful or athletic and have never felt uncomfortable standing in it. I even frog fish and rip gnarly hooksets.

6 minutes ago, TheSwearingAngler said:

You need a Sportspal/Radisson canoe… if I make it up that way next year (it’s a goal) maybe we meet up and you try mine.

 

If you can tolerate my language there’s a lot of clips of me standing and fishing on my YT channel.. I am not particularly graceful or athletic and have never felt uncomfortable standing in it. I even frog fish and rip gnarly hooksets.

 

That's a cool canoe, for sure. I've owned two Grumman Sportcanoes and they have some similarities. However, I now own two canoes, one hybrid, and one kayak. My fleet is maxed out. 

 

 

You could moor it for the season and take a canoe/kayak to get on it

 

I have an inflatable to row out to it. 

That would work IF my shoreline was actually on the pond. It's not. My shoreline is fringed by wetlands. So, I couldn't haul it ashore before winter. 

Ahh...Well that idea was as helpful as a pocket on the back of a t-shirt @Swamp Girl

8 minutes ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Ahh...Well that idea was as helpful as a pocket on the back of a t-shirt @Swamp Girl

 

For a sec, I thought, "What a great idea," and then I imagined myself trying to extract the boat from the pond without a solid shoreline, much less a ramp. I would look so very pathetic. 

2 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

For a sec, I thought, "What a great idea," and then I imagined myself trying to extract the boat from the pond without a solid shoreline, much less a ramp. I would look so very pathetic. 

I probably should have read all the replies and would have figured out that you had wetlands but sometimes the elevator gets stuck between floors. 

 

Oh well, we had a good morning laugh  

On 11/14/2025 at 10:43 AM, Swamp Girl said:

 

That's a cool canoe, for sure. I've owned two Grumman Sportcanoes and they have some similarities. However, I now own two canoes, one hybrid, and one kayak. My fleet is maxed out. 

 

 

 

Forget the Bait Monkey - you're now in Boat Monkey territory. Just wait until you start rigging that kayak!

48 minutes ago, Kayak Koz said:

 

Forget the Bait Monkey - you're now in Boat Monkey territory. Just wait until you start rigging that kayak!

 

I'm about to order two rods holders and a paddle holder. With four boats, I don't need a fifth. I'd only like a bigger boat with a motor if I had a place to dock it and a way to remove it and store it. 

Can you get a couple of strong people to help you twice a year?  In Alaska we would store dozens of aluminum boats on the shore for the winter all over Western Alaska.  In the fall we would drive full speed on to the tundra.  The kick up lock on the motor would be left open to allow the motor to kick up when we hit the shore, and would hit the kill switch at the moment of contact with the bank.  We would then take the motor off and put it in the float plane.  If we were at a location where we were afraid the spring high water would take the boat away, we would bring some extra people to drag the boat farther up the bank.  Then flip the boat over and wait until spring to put the boat back in the water.   Many of out boats were stored this way unharmed for 20 years.  I even new of one old man that would take the motor off and leave it under the boat.  He would retrieve and drive the same boat and motor over one hundred miles down river for king season for 15 years. 

 

It only takes three people to pull an 18 foot aluminum jon boat over boggy tundra for a few yards.  If you can find help twice a year you can store your boat.

37 minutes ago, king fisher said:

Can you get a couple of strong people to help you twice a year?  In Alaska we would store dozens of aluminum boats on the shore for the winter all over Western Alaska.  In the fall we would drive full speed on to the tundra.  The kick up lock on the motor would be left open to allow the motor to kick up when we hit the shore, and would hit the kill switch at the moment of contact with the bank.  We would then take the motor off and put it in the float plane.  If we were at a location where we were afraid the spring high water would take the boat away, we would bring some extra people to drag the boat farther up the bank.  Then flip the boat over and wait until spring to put the boat back in the water.   Many of out boats were stored this way unharmed for 20 years.  I even new of one old man that would take the motor off and leave it under the boat.  He would retrieve and drive the same boat and motor over one hundred miles down river for king season for 15 years. 

 

It only takes three people to pull an 18 foot aluminum jon boat over boggy tundra for a few yards.  If you can find help twice a year you can store your boat.

 

All great ideas and I leave three of my four canoes/kayaks outside already, so I have no issue with that, but if I were going to go this route, I'd go with a 12' aluminum boat, either a V-hull or jonboat. Just so much easier to move up into the woods.

And if I had a boat

I'd go out on the ocean

And if I had a pony

I'd ride him on my boat

And we could all together

Go out on the ocean

I said me upon my pony on my boat

^great tune

 

no boat ramp on the Katie pond ? 

You have a walkway that may need to be longer.

Pulling the aluminum boat out using a long rope is the easy part.

Launching you need to build a portage of logs to roll the boat back into the water with the help of the boys who made the walkway.

Hope you get the boat Katie👍

Tom

One of the boats I miss the most was a Basstender 11.3. We had it in the green and tan combo.

 

That would be a great little boat for your pond there if you could figure out a way to get it out of the water in the winter/spring. Can stand up front and in the back, rod storage, some gear storage, seats if wanted, 2 spots for motors.

Just a thought, the lakes I go to in Wisconsin have a combination of year round docks and seasonal docks.  The year round are attached to big wooden posts that are driven into the bottom and can withstand the heaving of ice.  The seasonal ones consist of an aluminum walkway held in place but thin metal poles which allow it to be easily removed and the boat lift/dock section is on wheels so it can be pulled up on shore.  

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

^great tune

 

no boat ramp on the Katie pond ? 

 

Nope. 

 

Thanks for all the ideas, guys. Having just purchased my fourth boat, I'm boat full just now. Maybe in a few years when paddling becomes harder. 

You have some time to build a dock😎

Tom

That’s a nice rig @Swamp Girl, it looks really brand new.

I fished out of a 12’/36 flat bottom Jon for years. I really like smaller boats, run shallow and get those places other can’t. A small step up from a canoe but a huge difference in fishing.  Other than you won’t have to paddle that one.
My boat now is a 15/48 mod-v…I can stand and walk around without in a problem.