BigTerp's Tracker Sportsman 16' O/B Jet build

[huntinfool]

Looks great. Heck of a transformation.

 

[BigTerp]

Thanks!! Getting a pretty good feel as to how I can run this boat. It gets a bit scary at times, but I guess that's part of running a jet. Here is another video my wife forgot she took with her phone the other day. Again, it's not the best due to it being a cell phone, but it shows even better how shallow I can run and and how the boat handles. I was running a back channel, inlet/cove (whatever you want to call it) of the Potomac River. You can see my excitement/surprise at the end of the video that I made it through that last shoot. Was just a few inches of water :shock:

[youtube]Pewo2z4upaM[/youtube]

 

[typed by ben]

i bet the guys that live that way were about surprised as hell to hear an outboard that far up!

 

[BigTerp]

typed by ben » Today, 8:59 am[/url]"]i bet the guys that live that way were about surprised as hell to hear an outboard that far up!

There are a lot of jet guys in my neck of the woods. I saw 6 out just yesterday morning while I was out trying (and failing) to catch some fish.

 

[BigTerp]

Installed my rod holders yesterday that I got from from https://www.metalrodholders.com/. Tyler was great to work with and the rod holders are top notch!! I ordered 4 - 45 degree holders along with 4 bases. I'm going to order 6 more bases so I can have numerous options as to where I want my rod holders setup for a particular night of cat fishing. Can't wait to use them!!

These are powder coated black. I painted the bases myself to match my boat. They are currently installed with blind rivets, which work ok, but I'm going to have my buddy tack weld them onto the rails to keep them secure.

 

[depp2291]

How much asper grit did you end up using?

 

[Djknyork]

Nice rig... Fellow jet runner here.
If your fishing for smallmouth bass now get some 3 inch 1/8 oz tubs n jig them slowly along the banks. The bite will be subtle just a little added weight or a small thump n set the hook. Killing them here in PA right now.

 

[BigTerp]

depp2291 » Yesterday, 8:52 pm[/url]"]How much asper grit did you end up using?

I got the quart size sifter bottle and used a little more than half of it.

 

[BigTerp]

Djknyork » Yesterday, 9:00 pm[/url]"]Nice rig... Fellow jet runner here.
If your fishing for smallmouth bass now get some 3 inch 1/8 oz tubs n jig them slowly along the banks. The bite will be subtle just a little added weight or a small thump n set the hook. Killing them here in PA right now.

Thanks!! We've been struggling with the smallmouth. Was out again Saturday afternoon/evening fishing tubes in the manner you describe, with no luck. Did get the chance to break in the rod holders and catch a few catfish though. My wife outfished me 4-1, but it was nice to FINALLLY get the skunk off my back and some fish on the boat.

 

[Metal Rodholders]

Great looking boat you can tell a lot of hard work and planning went into that.

 

[BigTerp]

Metal Rodholders » Yesterday, 2:40 pm[/url]"]Great looking boat you can tell a lot of hard work and planning went into that.

Thanks!!! LOVING the rod holders!!!

 

[surfman]

Nice build, just use a battery tie-down for the battery it is supposed to be secured anyway.

 

[BigTerp]

surfman » 7 minutes ago[/url]"]Nice build, just use a battery tie-down for the battery it is supposed to be secured anyway.

Thanks!!

Batteries are in a tray and tied down with straps. Haven't had any issues with either one arching or anything so far. Did have one of the battery strap buckles break recently on my trolling motor battery. Not sure how that happened, but it's since been replaced.

 

[BigTerp]

As I've previously mentioned, I needed to figure out a way to reinforce my bow seat mount. After talking with bassboy1 (Fish On Fabrications), who made my hatches, I went with some 1" x 1" tube to attach beneath my deck to the front 2 mounting holes of my seat mount. I still get some flex, but nothing like I did without the extra reinforcement. I'm 6'8", 275#'s so it would be tough to get it completely solid.

Wanted to run the tube the width of my deck, but had to cut them short enough to fit into my factory "access panel". Still ended up with over 3' of tube.

This is how they are oriented under the deck. Made a significant improvement.

 

[panFried]

Nice! I did the same thing ironically after reading your previous post. So I bought 1 " square as well for the front screws and left the back mounted to underlying bench. I'm hoping it will be enough as well. Great minds...

 

[BigTerp]

panFried » Yesterday, 8:37 pm[/url]"]Nice! I did the same thing ironically after reading your previous post. So I bought 1 " square as well for the front screws and left the back mounted to underlying bench. I'm hoping it will be enough as well. Great minds...

HA!! Like you said, great minds....

It certainly helped mine. I'm still going to run some rivets along the length of each tube (per bassboy1) which should help further stiffen up the deck.

 

[BigTerp]

That way when you hit something solid you'll pole vault out over the front of the boat and not get rolled into a ball on the bow.

Ranchero50 » July 29th, 2013, 5:16 pm[/url]"]

BigTerp » Yesterday, 15:00[/url]"]Don't you mean IF and not WHEN?!?! :shock:

You're not running skinny until you're reaching for the seat belts...

Looks like Jamie knew what he was talking about.........

Did this 2 weekends ago. Was running a cove off the main river that I thought was moving water, but it was dead stagnant. No riffles to indicate where the rocks were and I hit a decent size one that was sitting about 1" under the surface at full throttle. Already got a new foot, liner and impeller. Waiting on a few more parts to come in this week and should be back on the water by the weekend. Lesson learned!!!

 

[riverbud55]

Nice build,,,mite be time for a tunnel if ur going running that shallow,,,, mite think of getting a rockproof intake foot if they make the right size for your engine https://www.rockproofboats.com/UHMW.html ,,, got a tunnel on mine and have knocked a few(big) trees out of the water and ran her up and parked her on a sand a time er two,, foot still good as new other then digging some bark out

 

[BigTerp]

Thanks man!!

I looked into the UHMW foots when I destroyed mine, but they only make them for the large size pumps. Mine is a medium. A tunnel would be nice, but I'm not going to go to the trouble and expense of doing that. If I had a thicker gauge hull I'd definitely consider it, but mine is on the thinner side as you can see below.

Did this last weekend. It welded up nicely (thanks to Ranchero50) and I'm back in business, but man did the boat fill up with water fast!! About 1.5" x 1/2" size hole.

Repaired

 

[riverbud55]

oops guess n ya found out how shallow she runs,,,had a few of those on my old Gregor only has .080 er 090 hull,,,with a jet always running on the edge [-X ,,,,, was look n at putting 1/2'' uhmw bottom on the bottom on it,, think n back 7 years ago was like 3k,,, think rockproff mite still do it,,,, was a place up in WA or ID that does/did it,,,, would to have made a 1200 mile trip twice to have it done,,,,, gave up on that idea and went and bought a boat with a 3/16 bottom not not really a tin boat ,,, still had to make a 1800 mile round trip to get it,,,,, our biggest problem are trees, sand and gravel bars

dont understand them not having uhmw foot for the mid size engines, with all of the 40s 50s and 60s out there running jets you would think their would be a call for them,, was reading something that the folks involved in building them said their wasn't enough call for them :?: said something like if he had 20 prepaid pre-orders he could set up the CNC machines to make a run of them and be able to bust even,,, guess no one wanted to put up the $$$$$,,,,just wonder why specialty manufactures/outboard jet wouldn't have their own???

don't know if ya ever seen these little fins er not https://outboardjets.com/download/medium_series/Accessories.pdf not only help the performace but also helps protect the foot a bit,,, think the jet doctor makes ans sells their own, think their fins are longer giving more protection,,,, can make your own with a hammer a good vise and some 3/16 ss,,,, was trying to fine a better pic installed but out of time and got to get.