Further North

I'd pay cash for the upgrades - they will do more to improve your fishing than the new boat...unless the old boat is a complete PITA to fish out of. The biggest reason: take the electronics with you when you eventually move to a new boat. My 101 Terrova has been on three different boats, my 360°,1198 and 798 have been on two. Since I buy used boats, I just swap the electronics off what I buy onto the old boat and out the door she goes. I probably would not upgrade the motor on the existing boat unless I planned to keep it a long time, you'll never come close to getting your money back when you sell...again, unless the existing motor is a complete PITA.

I fish out of an 18 1/2 ft. Crestliner now...honestly don't want bigger. Too much of a PITA to get into some of the water I fish.

Same here on the Pro-V Bass. If something happened to my current rig, that'd be my first go-to.

We may only be a couple degrees of latitude apart...but that darned lake is is in the way (if you mean MI). I'm in NW WI, Chippewa County...and we just got ice in our backwaters and puddles for the first time today. Tomorrow will be the first day with a high below freezing this year...it's been nuts...I had to cut the grass two weeks ago...

Late winter, 2014...I was at a sports show in the Twin Cities and bought a few Doctor Spoons because some guy I was talking to said they worked great on pike and muskies in Canada... June of 2014...Lake of the Woods...water is the highest it's been since the early 60s...3 ft, maybe more above normal...the 1 1/8 oz., red and white Doctor Spoon begins to produce toothy fish like crazy. A big, silver, toothy fish swims off with the first one on day two. Daredevels work...but nowhere near as well...I've got one left...can't tell you how many pike it caught...I don't have that many fingers and toes...even if I were quintuplets...and a bunch of musky...even a few smallies... The other thing I can't tell you is the number of times we beached the boat to get out and pull that spoon out of trees, bushes, crevices in on-shore rocks...to catch fish that week you needed to be right next to shore...late Friday...maybe an hour before dark, I zing that spoon into shore a little too hard, it hits a rock and bounces up into the bottom branches of a cedar tree. I's pretty stuck, but I get a good angle on it and finesse it out, onto the big rock and twitch it into the water about 6 inches off shore...count it down to about 3 feet, give a soled twitch...and stick it solidly into another cedar that is underwater. Fought with that SOB for 20 minutes, and eventually broke the line and watched that spoon pop out and flutter to the bottom in 15 ft. of water.... I took a dozen up with me this year... F@#$%^& cedar trees...

Nice work...I hope to get out this weekend, and maybe over Thanksgiving...that 45th parallel you mention in your location runs a couple miles south of the house...but i'll keep going until it ices up. I'll fish in blaze orange this weekend and next...

Condition is more important than age, IMO. In the spring of '14, I bought a 2005 Crestliner CMV...with 3 hours, 34 minutes on the big motor. The carpet inside the compartments was so clean it sparkled. You could eat out the bilge it was so clean. I had it double checked by a dealer I selected and plunked down cash.

Humminbird 798 @ bow, 1198 @ console. I use 'Birds because I like the interface...it makes sense to me. The other brands are all great and work well...I always advise folks to go play with the display units at the store, see what they like best. All the wizz-bang features in the world aren't worth paying for if you don't like how the interface works.

I get why some folks want a radio on board...but the last thing I want while I'm on the water is noise from the world. I've got plenty of chances for that.

Got a chance to look at them tonight - I like the idea...anyone have an idea what they cost?

WIGuide - thanks - good input. Looking at that Sterling...I'd raise the floor on the sides up level with the deck...I think that'd allow room for controls and wires back to the motor, under the deck.

Close - see above. That looks like a great boat, pretty close to what I'd described.

Have you considered one of the TMs with a remote?

Interesting - very...how would you characterize how they were cumbersome? Not a challenge at all, I am very interested in how you felt they were hard to get around in.

That's an interesting thought. In my head the side rod lockers would cover that, but this is sure a viable option too. I like it.

The center console boat's I've been in have a higher console than a bass boat does - those can definitely get in the way.

Bob, I've looked at it - it's a heck of a rig and very close to what I'd build if I could do it myself. The only real change I'd make would be to shove the consoles closer together to make that space down the sides wider - I'd like to be able fish from there instead of just walk through. If something happens to my current boat (a Crestliner CMV) the new Lund would be one of the boats I'd look hard at.

They bay boat topic got me to thinking... I'd start with a bass boat layout...for me, it'd be 18 - 19 ft long, 150, 200 HP. 4 stroke...or maybe 2...I want quiet, good on gas, low operating costs. I don't need, or want more than that in the water I fish...don't need to go 70+ in a boat either, not on the NW WI, MN and Canadian water I fish. It'd be set up to run shallow...but not be a PITA on big water like LOTW. Aluminum hull for me...to many BAMF rocks where I fish...and it's lighter to pull with a smaller vehicle...which saves me $$$ on MPG for the 90% of the time I'm not pulling my boat. I'd take the two side consoles, shove them into the middle so I could easily work around the outside of the boat for both casting and lading bigger fish. This would sacrifice a center rod locker, but it'd open the potential for really long rod storage along the outsides of the boat...I fish for Musky...and I fly fish a lot...so 9 ft. + rod storage would be good. Seating for three or four? Don't need it. Rather have the under-deck storage. That would move the outside storage to the center...and there'd be more of it, because rod tips don' take up that much room. I'd rig the boat for 36 volt trolling motor...go 24 if you want, but I fish too many long days in current to give up my 36 volt system. Three batteries, low and center would get it done for that. Two more batteries, one for the motor, one for the electronics would round out the batteries...too bad they don't make a 5 bank charger...so a 3 bank and a two bank would get that done. No live well for me, I don't keep fish (this isn't a life-style statement or a criticism, I'm alergic). Convert that space to storage. Electronics...big screen at console, mall one up front. Big stuff stuff grabs fly lines. That's bad on my boat. Retractable or collapsible rope cleats, see above, re - fly lines. A shallow water anchor on one side at the back, Humminbird 360° on the other. No kicker...I don't care for trolling. Trailer...single axle, bunk style, side guides, two spares, steps as far around the outside as I could get. 15" wheels, minimum. I'd love to see what others would do...let's not bash other guys' choices, just talk about what trips our triggers and why.

Ditto.

I think a center console boat makes a lot of sense...to be able to fish all the way around the outside of the, and to fight and land a big fish around the outside makes sense to me. ...but bay boats lack the storage of my current rig. I'd go for a hybrid, center console, high decks like a bass boat with storage underneath, low sides to bring fish over, lower dead rise for shallow running, but enough for bigger water.

It's probably a safe bet that there are NW WI, MN and Canadian waters that rival anything in California for clarity. I didn't claim the XI5 was bad, far from it; it works great. ...but the Terrova/Ulterra is nowhere near as bad as portrayed. If, for instance, the bow is pointed into the wind, the Terrova/Ultera will not swing 180° when deployed...I do this multiple times a day, every day I fish. ...and I'll stand by the the idea that while the turning motors do make noise, if you use it like it's made to be used that is virtually eliminated, and has less effect than prop noise or sonar pings. I've fished the same water at the same time as folks with XI5s...it's a heck of a piece of equipment...but no one who had one caught more fish because of the trolling motor they used. Some days it was the XI5 boat, some days it was the Terrova boat. Heck...some days it varied by the hour or the minute. People should buy what they like, and not trash other folk's choices, IMO.

For me it's "horses for courses". Boat for bigger water. Can't fish Lake of the Woods, or even a local, 6 mile long lake effectively from a kayak. Even a 200 acre lake would have a lot of down time from something I had to paddle. Canoe (Don't have a kayak) for small lakes and rivers. Wade for the really little stuff.

I've been beating the snot out of a Terrova since they first came out and I have had none of the problems other folks claim...my current one (a 101) is 4 years old, gets fished all day when I am in the boat, has been installed on three different boats, has been run into rocks, muck, a few piers... Does it make noise when it turns? Sure. But... I don't believe that little bit of noise effects my fishing. If it does, so does the prop noise...and all trolling motors have that. And it's surely no less disturbing than a sonar ping. if you let the Ultera handle boat control rather than trying to drive it like a cable steer all the time) there's little of that going on anyway. I get that using an electric steer trolling motor would be a PITA if I tried to use it like a cable steer...but I changed how I fish to use the tool and there's no way I'd go back to a cable steer at this point. I probable don't touch the pedal or the remote more than a couple times every 5 minutes unless I'm in an area that requires a lot of input (going around a sharp point, for instance). Other than that, I let the motor do its thing. Last weekend, I went to sunken island, set the motor to follow the 10 foot contour line and fished for 40 minutes without touching the pedal or the remote once. Caught 4 smallies, two decent pike and had a 40"+ muskie on for about two minutes. Wonder what I woulda had if it weren't for all that steering noise!

I stopped fishing from a a canoe as my primary method several years ago for the same reasons as in the original post. The biggest reasons were: Can't get to the far end of a decent sized lake in a reasonable amount of time for the amount of time I have to fish. What takes 5 minutes in a boat would take at least a couple hours in a canoe or a kayak...and as long on the way back. I can't imagine fishing something like Lake of the Woods in a canoe... Sitting down all day killed my back and knees. Loading the canoe is much harder than loading the boat. Done right there is no lifting, or much cranking. I load in a big river with plenty of current often, side guides on the trailer and plenty of practice will make this easy pretty fast. The first part of the first season can be a PITA...after that - easy as pie. Couldn't fish with winds much over the 10 MPH noted in the first post. Can fish all day in that weather with a good boat. Had to spend more than half my time controlling the canoe rather than fishing. Not an issue at all with a good trolling motor. No storage for my gear. Current boat holds all my rods and tackle, below deck, out of my way. I can't do that in my canoe. I still have my canoe for small water and rivers, where it works great. On cost of operation: Boats cost more to buy, maintain and sometimes, store. If you go big, a tow vehicle can add to the cost. ...but my gas bill for this season has been very reasonable: I topped off the tank last fall, cost about $50. Topped it off again in International Falls before our Lake of the Woods trip, $45. Ran over 165 miles in 7 days up there, topped off the tank when I got home (no reason to tow gas), $55. Fished on that (at least once a week, often 2 or 3 days a week on local lakes, topped it off again about a week ago, $62 and change. I run a Crestliner 1850 with a Johnson (Suzuki) 140 4 stroke and tow with a Ford Escape which gets me high 20s MPG day to day, and about 17-18 pulling the boat. Boats can be done at a reasonable cost if that's the gaol.

I've been busy catching pike and musky on bass baits... ...they work consistently around here, often equaling or out-producing "musky" baits.