Want to buy a new fishing boat and looking for recommendations.

[Delw]

Unless your going up north , or on a weekday  or in the winter a semi flat bottom alum boat is not ideal for az. Lund what throphyhntr mentioned is a good choice.

Heres the reason against a small tracker for the lakes in AZ

pleasant sag rosy apache and canyon get lots of traffic. which means lots of waves big f'n waves. then you have the monsoon and winds you have to deal with. its not really fun in a small under 20 foot fiberglass boat either. I fished out of small alum boats before I got into the bigger fiberglass ones, The smaller ones are great for one thing and one thing only Puddles and smaller lakes up north..

I used to fish between 5 and 6 days a week for years here in the valley almost every day of the year, night fishing in the summer and day fishing in the cooler months. all the lakes are packed 24/7 even at night. what people dont expect is the wind as you cant plan on it. good be perfect flat water when you go out then turn into a nitemare 3 hours later with NO warning. easpecially when your in the back of a canyon fishing.. Spent many nights sleeping on the boat tied in tucked into some cove for cover with my kids and I had a 22 foot deeper V bass boat at the time. 2-4 foot swells are common even bigger at times. Longshooter and I had lots of fun fishing in rough water and seeing whos boat could handle it better. one year at lake mojave was fishign in a tourny and all of a sudden we had 6-10 foot swells before we hit the big part of the lake. out of almost 200 boats a dozen sunks, 40-50% were Damaged in some way shape or form. 3 people were airlifted to the vegas hospitol after being found in the water. broken bones and one guy lost an eye from hitting the consol and his sunglass's coming off.

I sunk mine we figured the swells were 6-8 feet tall. but I got lucky and mine managed to stay semi submerged. we sunk it at about 9am made it to shore and pumped it out and then made it back to weigh in 1 hour late on a trolling motor. funny thing we went into a cove to hide, there were so many boats in that cove you couldnt fit another one. a few of us decided to go back to launch ramp. none of us made it very far. we were riding waves in our boats like  surfboard just idling and hitting the throttle to keep from spearing waves. The parking lot looked like a wrecking yard of boats, consoles tms missing electronics. big motors hanging off etc etc.

so keep in mind when you plan on using it and where before you pull the trigger,

 

 

 

 

 

[Ringer]

I had a 175 Tracker Pro with a 115 Merc. I found it a little too tippy for me. Decent boats but not the best for any kind of big waves. I have a Champion 203 with a 250 Merc and it is a great boat. Stable and fast. Had some huge waves at Powell last week and made it home. You have to look for rotted transoms in any older glass boat. Hairline cracks, brown ooze from the water and bolt holes and a dull thud when you tap on them. My Champ is a 2004 and had only 260 hours on the motor when I bought it. Great boats but hard to find a good one. Good luck.

[azbirdhunter88]

Sounds like he wants a boat for woods canyon lake not the desert lakes. HP and bigger boat will be your friend on the lakes down here. Rosy can get fuggin nasty at times. 

[Roosevelt Mark]

On 5/16/2020 at 5:11 PM, Delw said:

Long answer short

BUY USED  but newer years. get the motor checked out by a reputable mechanic they will hook it up on there computer and let you everything.

Best merc mechinic in the state is brent at performance marine in glendale.

A new boat is great for a pcs of mind and the warranty. boat motors are the main cost of a boat.

A used boat if you cant afford a new one. I wouldn't buy shoot from Cabelas or Bass pro boat wise let alone have something worked on by them.

any boat either way your going to spend money on them ie break out another thousand is true. that being said I know guys with boats that havent had any issues with 15 year old boats. when they sit you have issues, run them once a month you wont have issues. Change the impeller min of every year and if it sits more than 3 months in with out running change it before you go out to the lake.

I worked on 2 strokes for a good chuck on years turned into a good side job but like any hobby I couldnt stand it after a while.  4 stroke is your best bet for a motor. 2 strokes are basically a race engine and if they dont get ran they break and dont run right. kinda liek the old Dirt bikes back in the day you always had to dick with them if you didnt ride them.

This.

[Roosevelt Mark]

15 hours ago, PRDATR said:

Way too many ponies for a boat that size on our lakes. I'm past the age for the need for speed. Back in my teens my buddy had a 13' Carlson Contender with a 3/4 tunnel hull and a 125 Evinrude that had bigger reeds in it and was good for 135 HP.

 We would go out after work in the Great South Bay of Long Island and in the evening the water was like glass. We didn't have a speedo and GPS wasn't around in 1969 but I can tell you that boat from a dead stop would do a propstand and was probably good for 60mph or better. The posted speed limit just past the canal was 30MPH and after partaking in the herb of the day he opened her up to about 3/4 throttle. Out of a cut in the marsh be comes Johhny Law in a Boston Whaler with a 135 Merc on it that had Power Trim/Tilt, which was fairly new back then. Well with his blue lights flashing and siren going he came up on us fairly soon.

I looked at my buddy and said what does he think he is going to do? He let him get to withing about 50 feet and mashed the throttle throwing a huge rooster tail on him and we put about 150' between us. We then slowed down and when he got closer we did it again. Laughing our nutz off. Over the next few minutes we did this three of four more times and he eventually backed off and we went on our way. Nowadays we would probably have gotten shot.

The plate on the transom had a horsepower rating of "Unlimited". He bought it used and it had a gold metal flake paint job on it. On the front of the deck was a painting of a Fly with sunglasses on a pair of bongos between his legs. The boat was called The Beatnick Fly. It was very very fast and light. On weekends when the "Rich Folk" would venture out in their 40' Chris Crafts and Hatteras we would buzz them and sometimes spray them. We were just a couple of longhairs and one thing we would do is come up in their prop wash at 40MPH and about 50 feet from their transom veer off to the right and hit the throttle as we crested their 3 to 4 foot  wave. The Beatnick Fly would litterally "become airborne  for 50 feet floating side to side. Good old American Fun. 55 years later he and I are still friends since one of my brothers married his sister. He is quite the character. Everyones perception of an Italian American from New York. Loud and obnoxios who would give you the shirt off his back. Master carpenter who has done custom work in mansions on the north shore, despite never learning to read or write.

A 200 is to many ponies for our lakes? What?

Are you going to Tempe Town Lake or coming up here? Rosey is no joke for a small under powered boat. Especially latley with the wind. 2 drownings this month. 

[Coffeeman]

I have a cobra 201d with a 225hp merc optimax lot of boat but never been worried while on the water even in 3-4’ rolling waves. Worst I’ve ever seen was tournament of champions on lake mead 6-7’ waves crazy... we were in an 18’ champion with a less than reliable Johnson 175... I was 19 and invincible that was 20 something years ago. Now I’m not sure I’d really think that was as much fun. Anyway buy as much boat as you can afford and definitely don’t under power with the outboard 

[trphyhntr]

Delw was it really 10ft swells though? Or did you forget that A Perfect Storm is as a movie not your biography 

[360 0r Better]

8 minutes ago, trphyhntr said:

Delw was it really 10ft swells though? Or did you forget that A Perfect Storm is as a movie not your biography 

I’ve seen and been in them dang close to that at Pleasant Bartlett and Rosy and no it’s not the perfect storm it’s the holy crap storm. That’s when you find out you’re butt cheeks can hold onto vinyl.

[trphyhntr]

Just now, 360 0r Better said:

I’ve seen and been in them dang close to that at Pleasant Bartlett and Rosy and no it’s not the perfect storm it’s the holy crap storm. That’s when you find out you’re butt cheeks can hold onto vinyl.

I’ve been on pleasant and rosey and San Carlos etc in big storms also. Seen boats sank. but ive never seen 10ft swells.  

[Delw]

 it wasnt at pleasant as I said it was at lake  Mojave, I think in 2004 they were 6-10s kinda hard to judge when your at the bottom standing in your boat and cant see over the top of the wave. oh yeah I was wrong on one thing we did make it back to weigh in.

Kollar will verify it. Splitshot was there with his wife too. If I remember they lost a tm and part of the front of there boat where it ripped off.

 

rosy pleasant and carlos are kiddie pools compared to Mojave, Havasu and Mead wave wise. Longshooter and I been in pleasant and rosy in 4-5 footers easy that was a cake walk. I think the funnest one was when Longshooter and I were fishing the wednesday nighters at pleasant when a storm brewed up big one too. Him and I got to seeing who had the bigger set of  balls to go across pleasant to hit humbug. 4 footers easy both of us ran it wide open side by side. he had his big champion and I had that big 22 foot cajun both 200s. we get to humbug just laughing and shaking from the adrenaline rush. was some scary shoot but fun at the same time. one of us should have called it quits but guys will be guys. Actually the ride wasnt that bad if you know how to read waves. Both boats ran there fastest o top of those wave and was surprisingly smooth.

that was probably the best fishing day ever, every cast we had fish on whites and LM fishing was so good I dont think we ever made it back to weigh in either.

Lots of fun in bassboats with the nuts on AZBZ over the years, kinda miss it.

 

[Delw]

3 hours ago, 360 0r Better said:

I’ve seen and been in them dang close to that at Pleasant Bartlett and Rosy and no it’s not the perfect storm it’s the holy crap storm. That’s when you find out you’re butt cheeks can hold onto vinyl.

another buddy and I were fishing in the river when a storm brewed up during a tourny about midday. of coarse you cant see it untill its on top of you due to the canyons.

we ducked into a cove got out of the boat and tied it to a tree. he and I headed up to the base of a cliff for a little protection from the wind hail and lightning. that was some scarey crap. thats when one of those mircoburst hit that area the wind was so hard it was moving us on the ground it went of forever it felt like. No jackets just life vest hail f'n hurts

[Ringer]

Coffeeman- we fished the same Tournament of Champions on Mead and came back in that storm. The boat in front of me disappeared into every trough and the waves were huge. Scared the shoot out of us but we made it.

[lancetkenyon]

B reak

O ut

A nother

T wo thousand

[Roosevelt Mark]

1 hour ago, lancetkenyon said:

B reak

O ut

A nother

T housand

That's the old saying that is not true. 

Now it's 2 thousand....

[biglakejake]

definition of boat:  a hole in the water you throw money into.

 

and here i am fitting out my first boat in 18 years....

lee