Looking for a do-it-all boat

[gmcman355]

I currently have a 1448 lowe big jon. It has been great and will not leave. However as my family has grown I've found myself in need of a larger boat that can hold five people and gear for overnite camp outs. boat will only be on 2 different small lakes and the east fork of the white river in southern IN. I have been looking at 18 and 20 foot jons as they seem to fit the bill but the price jumps considerable when going from a 16 to 18 footer and even more so for a 20. I also have not found one built exactly like I would prefer with a shooting deck for bowfishing and a blind setup for waterfowl hunting. I have a friend who is trying to talk me into building either a large jon or a pontoon boat for us to bowfish from. Both of us can tig weld and we have access to a machine shop. He built a small 10 ft jon for running some small ponds and river inlets but neither of us are sure on needed design for a boat this large short of going and measuring one. I'm kind of stumped and not sure which way to turn. Start kickin ideas at me and lets see where this goes.

 

[BR1]

My son has a Tracker Grizzly 1860 he got through craigslist. He bow fishes, duck hunts and catfishes out of it. It's got a seat in the back, deck up front and all open in the middle. It has the slide track on the rails that help a lot on mounting stuff. We've bow fished three guys on the front deck and the boat is very stable.

 

[thill]

That 1860 sounds good.

But another idea, is to find an older aluminum hull and modify it the way you want.

I recently saw a 19' Starcraft runabout hull. The aluminum was excellent, but those seats and so on inside were junk. Same hull as their center console. That looked like such an easy conversion, that I thought about trying it, but I am NOT able to TIG at this point.

My point, is that hull would be sweet, if you gutted it out, maybe saving the steering console if you wanted, and added a full-width front deck, smaller back deck, and storage as you like.

That is what I did with my little 14', and I am VERY happy with the end results!

Just a thought...

-TH

 

[Woody!]

If your willing to trailer a small pontoon boat around that would be your best boat for storage and stability. And will go in very shallow water. I regret selling the 20' we had. But I didn't have a trailer. You can find a old pontoon on Craig's list and build it the way you want. A 15-20' will hold a lot of people and gear. You can have a top on it for bad weather and even set up a grill for cooking on it for camping. my 02