My Custom Fishing Machine 18'-0" Flat Bottom

[Badbagger]

Outstanding job and you've got some great skills.

 

[huntinfool]

Last time I fished the salt we fished at the end of the Texas City dike. Off the pier on the end there is a hole. We anchored just up current of the hole and drifted shrimp. I had 4 guys on the boat with me and we limited out. Best day in a long time. We were catching them on every drop. Then everyone else started coming over and trying to get in the hole. They started casting over our lines and tangling us up. THEN one guy actually came right up to our boat and tossed his anchor towards the back of our boat and HIT OUR BOAT!!!! I was so pissed. We started hollering at each other. I could not believe what he had done. He has the whole bay to fish and he had to come right up to our boat and drop his anchor and hit our boat. We caught our last two fish and one had tangled up his line. We drug the fish in to our boat, cut his line, pulled the anchor and left.
I guess I am just about ready for another try in the salt. I went back to Fayette co. res. and caught 10-12. Had some fun. But I sure could use a meat haul.

 

[Poormans Boatright]

Badbagger, thanx for the compliment. Does your screen name mean you ride a "bagger"?, I've got a 2004 Harley Roadglide bagger.

Huntinfool, Yea I know what you mean about idiots like the ones you describe, I've had more than my share of these kind of fishermen. It's unfortunate that grown men act this way. The pier on the end of the Dike is no longer there due to Ike, but the pilings are still there which still hold good fish.

 

[SlowRollin']

Hey Rod,

I'm close to Pearland High School. I've got vacation finally coming up at the end of this week so I'll take you up on that offer.

T.

 

[huntinfool]

Never fished the piers. They were always full of people. But I would be there are a lot of fish around the piers now. Great structure. I have been working on my boat. I am debating on what I want to do for my livewell. I don't fish the salt much anymore if ever. So I really only need a live well for fish. So I am thinking about getting a livewell system with a pump and a recirc. switch. I need to weld in some gussets. I noticed when I am running my boat is rocking back and forth, side to side. With some gussets that should stop it. I have the part I need on order for the outboard. So once I rig the livewell and get it fitted, I can put the rib in and fit the floor and then I can install the center console.

I am getting excited.

 

[Anonymous]

"We'll have to do a meet and greet."

Do I hear a Texas / Southeast Texas chapter of TinBoats.net in the works?!?!

hahaha. Anyhow. I'm in Houston. I'd be down to meet up with some peoples.

 

[Poormans Boatright]

Yea, a Texas / Southeast chapter would be cool, think we can get one going? I'm game.

Slowrollin', look me up when you go on vacation, maybe we can go fishin.

Huntinfool, sounds like your on the way to a good project, keep us posted with some pics.

 

[huntinfool]

PB, I have a question. Why did you add the sponsons on the back? (or pontoons, what ever you want to call them) How did you figure out how big to make them?
I posted up about starting a Texas chapter, but I did not get any responses. Having said that I am IN!!! I would love to start up a club and do some fishing. A meet and greet is a must. We just need to find a time and a place. Do we just want to meet up for dinner/drinks or do we want to make it a fishing trip, or BOTH!!!

I am starting to struggle with my livewell. I thought this plastic tank I had would make a great livewell, but now I think it might be too small. I think I might build on out of fiberglass. How big is your livewell? Is it insulated? What type of aerator system are you running?

 

[Poormans Boatright]

Huntinfool, I added the pontoons to the boat for 2 purposes, 1) To give more flotation to the rear of the boat to help support the 80 hp Merc., the pontoons are also filled with spray expanding foam to give even more bouancy. 2) To aid getting in and out of the boat on the water, which is why they are stepped.

There was no real design I went with as far as how big to make them except to allow for side to side movement of the motor while steering (which determined how wide they could be). When I was building them they looked big on the fab table, but on the boat they don't look as big, I kinda wish I made them a little longer than I did.

Starting a Tin Boats Club around here would be cool, just don't know how many guys around this area would be interested? Meet & Greet could get things started. I am game for either.

When you say livewell, are you talking for bait or fish? I don't use a permanent livewell system mounted on my boat, In my opinion they take up too much room for a Jon Boat, I use a cooler like the one in previous posts with either the oxygen system or the aeriated system as described. We sometimes use my rig to just go riding around / pleasure cruising so I dont need to haul a livewell cooler all the time, just when I am fishing, plus this cooler doesn't take up too much room on the boat. If you choose to make a onboard permanent system I would insulate it somehow, every little bit helps to keep your bait fresh.

 

[huntinfool]

P knew about the aerator system, I guess I just brain farted when I typed it.
I do not fish live bait much if ever. Maybe some minnows for crappie and even then I put them in a minnow bucket. However I do not want to put the fish on a stringer, it is a pia when moving. Nor do I want to put them on ice as sometimes I only catch one or two and would just rather let them go. As for the carrying around the weight of the livewell, I will rig mins so I can empty it and keep it empty and not have whe weight of the water in it. I fish an occasional tourney so I need to keep fish alive. So I guess I need a livewell, not a baitwell. I am trying to keep my nose down. I have some weight in the rear, but not much in the front. Would the sponsons help?

 

[Poormans Boatright]

Huntinfool, I see what ya mean by needing the live fish well, (like on bass masters when they wheel in the guys in the boat with their bass still flapping), on a serious note I understand what you mean by not wanting to retain just a few fish, when I just have a few I usually find someone fishing on the rocks or another boater who already has a few and give the fish to them. I don't fish tournaments so I just ice em' down. It should be easy to rig up a recirculating live well with either a thru hull pump or a thru hull fitting hosed to a pump then to the livewell with a discharge hose at whatever level you want the water to stay at. Or a tube type discharge that fits directly into the drain hole.

I believe the pontoons would help your boat greatly to keep the nose down and help with the floation where all the weight is, I fabbed my toons solidly, kinda like a box that way to mount them on the boat all you have to do is stitch weld them on, I've seen some that bolt on also, that might be an option too.

 

[huntinfool]

PB, do you have any idea on how much you might have in thos sponsons? I am seriouslyu considering some, but all the aluminum that I have is .085 and I do not think that I have enough to make them. Most of what I have left is small pieces. I am just trying to see if this is something I can afford.
I think I have decided that I am going to build a fiberglass livewell and install it in my seat. I think that I am just going to do a freshwater overflow system. I saw an aerator pump with two outlets. One to rum the live well and the other can be hooked up to a hose for a washdown pump! I think I might go this route.

 

[Poormans Boatright]

Huntinfool, When you say how much do I have in the pontoons, do you mean $ wise or material? I'll answer both. When I was first considering making these I called around for aluminum prices, I found the best price at the time was Tripple SSS Steel and they quoted me around $300.00 for a 4' x 10' x 10ga. (1/8") thick sheet, whoa that is high so I didn't bite at first. I waited a couple of months later and called back this time the same sheet was around $180.00 (big difference), so I bought 3 sheets. Steel prices have skyrocketed lately, you have to watch what they get for material because it kinda fluctuates frequently kinda like gas prices. I have no idea how much that same piece of material is these days? As far as how much material I used on the toons, out of one 4' x 10' sheet, I used at least 4' x 6' of it on the toons alone, it might not look like it but it takes alot of material to make these.

Good luck on the livewell, let me know how it comes out.

Speaking of a washdown system, I am currently adding one to my rig now, I'll post pics as the project progress.

Take care_ Rod

 

[huntinfool]

Thanks for the info Rod. If I can find the material I think I want to build some.

 

[Poormans Boatright]

So, I decided to go with a fresh / saltwater washdown system. I bought a Flojet pump on E-Bay for a reasonable price and a self coiling hose. I had a thru-hull fitting for the saltwater supply. What I plan to do is "tee" into the pump inlet with another hose and valve that go to a fresh water tank. Reason I plan on going with saltwater and not all freshwater is because I didn't want to run a big fresh water tank because of the weight. I bought a 10 gallon tank on E-Bay also that I am going to mount under the center console. The saltwater will be used to spray fish blood, guts etc.., the fresh water will be used to rinse off with after being in the salty water or just cooling off with. Anyhow here's a few pics of this part of the project, I'll take more as I progress.

 

[Poormans Boatright]

I was cutting grass today and got to looking at my 14'er and I thought to myself what am I going to do with this boat? Fixer up, sell it or just let it sit? I'll have to think about it. Anyhow I thought I'd snap a few pics and share with you guys my first Tin Boat build.

Like I said it's 14'-0" but its plenty wide. This boat started out by the curb near my brothers house so he calls me up and says a guy is throwing away a boat, do you want it? I'm like what kind of boat can be out by the trash, right? So I go by there and here is this wide jon boat full of leaves and beer cans, so I'm thinking hey there's some potential here. so I take it home and start to fix it up and it turns out to be a really cool little rig. I traded out a welding job for the 30 h.p. Evinrude with tiller, so basically the motor was a freebie also. Can't remember where the trailer came from? hum musta' been a freebie also? I dunno.

O.K. the first thing I did was add the front deck then the pontoons/sponsons whatever their called then I did the rails and the rear carrier for the generator. I added a side console because I wanted to convert it to a helm steering, but never got around to it. Then I painted the whole thing with the same paint I used on the "poormans boatright"

I used this boat probably for 8 years and it worked great, but moved on to bigger boats and now it just sits in the yard. I know the Evinrude still runs because I start it every now and then. It wouldn't take much to fix it up and it would be usable rig, I'm thinking if I keep it I probably will add an air motor on the back to flounder with,I can get a decent motor off craigslist for fairly cheap, the prop would be a little costly you can buy them from ArrowProp on line. With a new paint job this little boat would be jam up. What do ya'll think?

 

[fender66]

Looks like a great boat. Are the rails/cages removable? A new owner might not be interested in rails. Just a thought.

Would make a cool air boat though. How wide is it?

 

[Anonymous]

Niiice ... that's a perfect little back water flounder giggin' boat !

 

[Poormans Boatright]

Fender, The rails are all welded. The boat is 4'-0" at the floor and 6'-0" at the top. We stand up while fishing this boat, it is very stable.

Robbie, yea it is a good little boat to flounder out of, I haven't done any gigging in quite a while. The more I think about it, I just might get it up and running again, it would be cool to go stab a few flatties.

 

[Anonymous]

Looks perfect with the width, rails, and light set up.

It's also perfect, 'solo run' boat.

Robbie, yea it is a good little boat to flounder out of, I haven't done any gigging in quite a while. The more I think about it, I just might get it up and running again, it would be cool to go stab a few flatties.