Alumacraft 1448MV - Catfish, Casting & Bowfishing

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

27 mph is awsome on that rig!!!! great job!!!! I have enjoyed your thread on the build a great deal. It was like a good, short book I couldn't put down.....very solid job. I wish you and Lorretta lived colser, I'd take you guys out on the Missouri and Mississippi to chase some monster Blues. Lorretta looks like a sweet fishing partner.

Kudos to you!!!! you should be proud of that build =D>

I bet you guys do have some monsters! I am fortunate to have Kerr Lake (home of the World Record Blue cat) in my back yard.

Loretta's just getting her first tastes of life on the water. She's only 5 months, but so far she is enjoying it. I lost my old and reliable fishing partner last year. My Boston Terrier, Sophia, was attacked in the yard by a neighbors dog. :-( Now, you want to talk about a fishing dog!! She was crackerjack!

I appreciate the kind words. Sometimes I feel like I don't get as many questions/comments as others because my boat is not built with bass fishing in mind and doesn't have any wood/carpet. Woe is me... hahaha.

Here's why there's no wood and carpet....Here's a pic of the bildge draining after a nice day of bowfishing...that ain't water draining from the bilge.

 

[Biggysmalls]

Sweet!!!!! I love the last pic, we have some very good bowfishing available right down the street from me at a couple of dreged out holes in the Meramec river. The Asians are thick in there and the water is somewhat clear, there are so many spotted gar at times of the year you can walk on them practicly. I just started bowfishing last year and always still shoot to high.

You are deffinitely in gods country as far as Blues go beeing on Kerr Lake...very nice I think you would like fighting a 50 to 70 pound Blue in some real solid current, then it becomes an adventure.I also use smaller epuipment than most my competition around here, it makes it a little sketchy at certain times and you loose a few, i've been spooled a couple times.

sorry to here about Sophia.......I have a best friend Sadie(Bluetick Hound) who is in the last stages of here life and it will be dvistating when the day comes

Oh I also was considering putting a rack on the back of my boat like yours. I already have these rod holders https://monsterrodholders.com/ and was looking at their rod rack,https://monsterrodholders.com/shop/rms8/ I know they are pricy but their rod holders are second to none IMO. I'm a little worried about the deck space getting taken away by the rack........torn as what I should do.

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

New decal on the boat. Almost time to make some fish holey...

 

[JonBoatfever]

Looks good, are those water stains on the bottom of the boat?

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Looks good, are those water stains on the bottom of the boat?

Yea..that brown is a water stain...most of it would probably scrub off.

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Mounted my new Hummingbird 798ci with SI. Man, that thing has a brick for a transducer. I had a 7ft roostertail behind my boat. :shock: I think I either have the ducer mounted too low or the angle on it wrong....or both. So, I'm playing with it. After I get the roostertail under control I will route the cabling through the transom all pretty like and take some pics.

I have to say that I was torn between DI and SI. After lots of research I think SI is far more advantageous than DI and I'm glad I went with it.

Also bought a removable bait tank from Grayline. It is an 11 gallon tank and is super-duper nice. To hell with using coolers to keep my bait in. I think this tank is big enough to fit my personal needs.

Living The Life

Big Fish In A Little Tinny

Pic of my bait tank that I snapped. If you want to see the real deal check out https://www.graylinebaittanks.com. I called them with a couple of questions and they were really nice. Good customer service. Tank is built like a tank...errr....like a tank that goes boom!

 

[Ictalurus]

Dude, that is one sweet set up =D> =D> =D>

From the custom front deck, nice seats, 25 Yami, graphics, to the rod holders, well done sir! =D> =D>

I'm still debating the DI upgrade this year, glad to hear you like the SI.

 

[fool4fish1226]

Nice catch and a real nice livewell =D>

 

[mfreeman451]

Love the way the boat is coming along. Which driftmasters did you buy, I was concerned that they wouldn't hold some of my bigger catfishing rods, but yours look like they fit all your poles nicely.

Also, are you able to keep bullheads in your livewell, and if so how many? And where did you end up putting that thing?

I wish I had access to a good machine shop like you have..

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Love the way the boat is coming along. Which driftmasters did you buy, I was concerned that they wouldn't hold some of my bigger catfishing rods, but yours look like they fit all your poles nicely.

Also, are you able to keep bullheads in your livewell, and if so how many? And where did you end up putting that thing?

I wish I had access to a good machine shop like you have..

I have the Driftmaster Pro Series model Flatliner 250H. https://www.driftmaster.com/Rodholders.html

I just bought the livewell this week. According to the manufacture it can support Qty 55 3.5" shad. I fish with bream/sunfish, crappie & shad.

 

[Pweisbrod]

Nice work! Your build is great, really great customization for what you use it for. I hope to do a little catfishing out of my boat when I get it! Only two weeks until I pick it up....

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Did a little fishing today. Snagged one teeny stripper on cut bream of all things. Afters I pulled the wires for the black lights through the transom and conduit. Connected them to my switch panel. I love them.

Little stripper action.

A little before and after -but still not finished- pictures.

 

[bikeordie092]

on the non-skid, autozone sells some dupli-color spray on truck bed coating for like $11 bucks a can, and adheres very well with a coat of self-etching primer (about $7 a can) i coated the whole inside of my boat right after i got it last year with it and it works very well and hasnt come off at all yet, seems very durable and so far lasts pretty well

 

[TimRich]

Awesome boat! What a diffrence from when you got it and now. Keep up the good work and updates!

 

[deerslayer]

Boat looks real nice! Would like to know what you find out about the rooster tail from the transducer. I have the same problem out of my hummingbird transducer as well!

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

I moved my transducer as far up as possible with how it is currently currently fastened to the boat. I still have about a 3-4ft rooster tail and depth reads erratically at WOT. I will post pics soon of setup, get some opinions. I know that not reading at WOT is normal.

Manged to sneak in a little fishing during today's ducer test. Water is a little dingy.

It's a hard life, but somebody's gotta do it.... First Mate Loretta on duty.

24" Striper.....bad day fishing beats a....wait what the??? Any day on the water is a good day.

 

[Kochy]

Dang, You went fishing!? I live in Central Pennsylvania and it still pretty cold. I wish I could take my boat out, mine's still gutted. Your boats looking good.

 

[deerslayer]

I moved my transducer as far up as possible with how it is currently currently fastened to the boat. I still have about a 3-4ft rooster tail and depth reads erratically at WOT. I will post pics soon of setup, get some opinions. I know that not reading at WOT is normal.

Manged to sneak in a little fishing during today's ducer test. Water is a little dingy.

It's a hard life, but somebody's gotta do it.... First Mate Loretta on duty.

24" Striper.....bad day fishing beats a....wait what the??? Any day on the water is a good day.

Just an fyi I did a bunch of searching yesterday, try filling the gap in the bracket, from what I have been reading this is what causes the water spray. Humminbird apperantly knows about the problem and has some sort of rubber plug that will fill this gap now but you have to contact the customer service dept. I am gonna try and get an email today and see what happen's, in the mean time maybe try filling that gap with some tape or something and see if it helps!

 

[deerslayer]

Oh and nice job on the striper! Are you fishing fresh or salt? I am very impatient this year and wanna start hitting the stripers up here but they just havent started biting yet! Wont be long though now with all this warm weather!

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Oh and nice job on the striper! Are you fishing fresh or salt? I am very impatient this year and wanna start hitting the stripers up here but they just havent started biting yet! Wont be long though now with all this warm weather!

Thanks for the heads up on the HB part to fix the issue!!! I was really getting frustrated with this rooster tail.

I fish fresh water.....mainly Kerr Lake in Virginia and it's tributary rivers. Where are you at?