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Hello, I'm looking to purchase a Tracker 1542 Jon Boat. For one of my local lakes, I want to be able to go under a bridge that sits pretty low to the water. Before I purchase, I want to be sure that won't be a problem. For those of you who own this boat, do you know how high it sits above the water? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I had just recently obtained a Jon Boat which I believe to be 10 ft. It seems pretty old. I am trying to figure out the model of it, but all of it is pretty worn. It did have a serial number of 00410. Here is a picture of it. If anyone has any clue as to what model it is I would appreciate it. Ill try to attach a picture of the serial number as well.

Hey all, Looking for a reliable, PORTABLE (tired of running a drop cord 100+Ft to my lift) marine battery charger that will work well for a 12V deep cycle trolling motor and a cranking motor. I've seen the Minn Kotas that run from $50 to $80, but hoping you guys and gals have some cheaper options for me. Thanks!

So I'm looking to upgrade my 1232 jon to something a little more stable. Have had my eye on a 1448 jon. Wanted to put a basic deck on it and add some seats, nothing to crazy. My question is would the 45 pound bow trolling motor and the 55 pound transom motor from the 1232 be enough to push the 1448 with a deck? With people, gear and deck most likely in the 500 pound range. Any input is much appreciated!

I need a cartop setup for weekends with the woman. She lives in an apartment complex with no room to park a trailer. Tried a canoe and a kayak, didn't care for either. I could maybe go for a shorter wider canoe but kayaks are definitely out for me. Currently I am using a very narrow flat bottom Jon boat that I haul on top of my Jeep Cherokee. It's very light, easy to load, easy to row, comfortable to sit in and was very cheap. My only problem with it is the stability when standing. The floor is only 24" and it's 12ft long. Thinking of getting a 1236 or wider if I can find it. Need to stay under 12' so it can be used at the cartop launch sites that are limited to <12' or canoes. So while I deliberate about what I want... I would like to know if any of you have had a cartop jon boat or similar boat that you liked. Tell me what you liked about your rig and what you didn't. Thanks for sharing.

I am 15 years old turning 16 next year and I might be able to get a small boat for Christmas or my birthday but am not sure what I can get for around the 600 dollar or less range, anything I shoukd know about this process or more importantly do you know of any small boats that fit that price range Most of the time it would be just me but I would like to be able to take someone with me and I’ll mostly be fishing small lakes.

okay so the season is close to opening up here and i am really looking at how i store things in my boat. i have a 14X36 V jon boat and currently i keep everything in my 2 duffle bags which consist of 10 regular 3700'S 2 deep 3700's and 1 regular 3600 and a few other bags of soft plastics and clam shells of swimbaits. my question is how do you guys organize your tackle in a smaller boat i am exploring the idea of basically having a footlocker with all of my trays in it but i am still kind of lost as far as the soft plastics go

okay im looking to add some electronics to my jon boat i have an old shakespear trolling motor and i want to add a helix 5 di my question is what kind of battery should i be looking at to run all of this if i only want to have one on board? or should i be getting 2 and running the helix off the smaller one?

Hey guys I'm new here. Been visiting the page for a long time for fishing tips and pointers. I need some advice on boats. I fish a lot in east TN mostly Norris lake and the Clinch river if anyone is familiar with the area. I'm getting burnt out on bank fishing, there's only so many good spots you can get to. I'm looking for a small boat for 2 people to fish. Depending on who I take but I'd say around 400-420lbs together no matter who I take with me. Like I said it would be for fishing the lake and river. I'm wanting something at least 14' I think 12' would be a little too cramped. Since I have minimal experience with boats I want something somewhat stable, I know flat bottoms are stable but don't pair well with choppy water from reading other post. I'm not sure what is considered choppy. The river doesn't flow extremely fast and Norris is a huge lake but I would say it was too choppy I guess. I'm on a budget and having to buy a used boat, I've found many good deals on Craigslist but I'm not sure what kind of boat would be ideal for me, a flat bottom, v hull or semi v? All the used flat bottoms I've come across are 14x36 I've not found any wider ones. I'm not sure if this matters but I would like to put a casting deck in whatever I get, nothing too high for I want to keep a low center of gravity so I'm thinking no higher than the average bench seat, but those questions can wait since I haven't even got a boat yet. I'm just excited to start a new hobby. Thanks guys ~Austin

Hi, my name is Brooks. I've enjoyed fishing here and there most my life but decided on bass fishing as a hobby about six months ago. I live in MO and fish little ponds around the Eastern part of the state. My fiance and I are near Kentucky Lake this weekend and want to rent a Jon boat to fish. There are so many options I have no idea which to choose and where to fish and would greatly appreciate any help. Thanks!

Hi Folks, New to this website. But have enjoyed reading posts by other people. Have had a few different boats in my life. But have always wanted a small boat to carry in my pickup truck. I want the convenience of having a boat on hand. If I happen to see a ditch or a slew that I want to access, I just want to be able to do it without a boat ramp. Have recently found a small jon boat at a local dealership. It is a Lowe 3210. It is 10 feet long and 32 inches wide. Has anyone ever been in a boat that small? What are your thoughts and experiences if you have. They are asking $599.00 for it and I'm getting spring fever. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks, Lonnie

First time posting in a while! [edit: I guess this is my first post under this name! all of my other posts came from the alias Castamasta] I might be the most excited I have been for fishing in a long time. Primarily because i will have my first boat! But, as the title of this forum explains, it is a small jon boat...........still a boat though! First, I wanted to see what you guys have done with your smaller jon boats. Especially with regards to how you rigged your electronics and organized your batteries. I know there is the thread with "show your ride", but I wanted this to be solely smaller craft / jon. Second, id like some input on what I am currently thinking of doing for my configuration from all your small boaters / jon boaters out there. Any advice (even if it is..."come on man, get a bigger boat!") is welcome! Here is what I am working with: tracker 1232 riveted jon (http://www.trackerboats.com/boat/specs.cfm?boat=3829) two 12V batteries 2x battery box 55 lb minn kota trolling motor humminbird helix 5 si gps 3 amp fuse 2 x rotating foam seats w bench clamps 1 x bait monkey Concerns / inexperience: Weight balance - I am thinking of putting one battery in the mid section of the boat and one in the back to balance the weight a bit. Do you guys see this as necessary due to how small the boat is? I want to be clean with cable management, but there aren't too many locations to hide the wires (just stuff it in the box is what I am thinking). Wondering if this baby will sink if I put two people in it.....from the specs it kind of seems that that will be the case. Battery charging - I am thinking of buying one of the portable chargers for like $60 at bass pro. Anything that I could put on board that someone would recommend? Ideally, I would want to just keep the batteries in place and be able to run an extension cord to my boat to charge the batteries, but that seems expensive ($150).....but kinda worth it. Transducer mounting - If I am going to be using the trolling motor as my main thrust, I was thinking that a TM mount would not be ideal due to how much error steering will cause. Is this the correct thinking? Instead, I was going to get some silicone sealant and just drill the transducer right into the transom and seal it up. Other option would be to suction cup it....which might be good as well. Again, I want to see what you guys have out there first, so I can potentially steal some ideas. if you can steer me in the right direction with some of the stuff i have outlined above, that would be great too! Thanks, Casta

New to this forum. I am looking to rebuild a 12ft Polar Kraft Jon boat. It is is a flat bottom boat and I am wondering if anyone has removed the bench seats to lay down flooring and pedistal seats. I want to know if that is a difficult process and what it requires. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Hey guys I currently have a JK Big Tuna and I want to add a fish finder to it. I think that I'm going to pick up a Garmin Striker 7sv. I plan on using it on both the kayak and my friends jon boat. I want to use a Ram Transducer Arm so that I can switch back and forth from both boats, but I don't think that the transducer will mount properly to the arm. The transducer number is GT52HW-TM. It is similar in shape to the Lowrance LSS but is not exactly the same. Does anyone have ideas about how I could get this to work or how I could rig up a transportable system that will get the transducer deep enough in the water for the sidevu to work properly??

whats the best budget fish finder for a 14 foot jon boat to bass boat conversion??? something thats under $300 -thanks

Not too familiar with Weld-Craft jon boats and need a little advice. is $2000 too much for a 1993 Weld-Craft 1548? Do they really hold their value for that long (20+ years)? The deal only includes the boat and trailer - no motor.

Alright, so yesterday while in the midst of a new project on my Jon boat I found that the foam in my boat was completely water logged. It was so bad that I could cut a chunk of it out and squeeze the water out to the point where it must have lost like 20X it's weight. I then realized that it was the reason my 1448 seemed to weigh 600 pounds and the reason that the tongue weight on my trailer was just more than 25 pounds. I concluded it absolutely needed to go. The problem is that I don't just want to replace it. All over online people seem to just hate foam weather it is closed cell or not, and I can now say that I share that hatred. Point of the matter I just don't know what to put in instead of foam. I thought that maybe instead I would get some big inter tubes at Fleet Farm, and just inflate them with like 5 psi every season. I thought that maybe I would fill the compartments with milk jugs and small plastic pop bottles, and I also even considered filling one of the compartments with some orange life jackets. I don't know what I am going to use yet, so I just want to know what you guys think would be the best alternative to foam. I realize that foam has great sound dampening quality's, and that is the sweet spot I'm trying to find. All help is appreciated, and 'bad' ideas are welcome too; some how I seem to like them more anyways.

I have a 1648 flat bottom Jon boat that I am looking for ideas of where to put a few cleats on it. I would like to see some picture of where anyone has them located throughout the boat. Especially in the front and back. Also, what style cleats are better to use and are the grip one worth getting. The cleats will only be used to tie the boat to the dock. Thank you in advance for any pictures or advice you can provide.

Hey everyone, i'm Jon. I started using bass resource about three months ago after seeing BassResource's YouTube videos, but decided to check this place out before joining . I decided to create an account a few weeks ago, and just now found the Introduction section. Just like the title says I live in southern Wisconsin about an hour south of Madison. Something you also might want to know is that I am/was a pretty big kayak fisherman. Since I can't drive I created a kayak trailer that I can pull behind my bike to get to the local lake, and that was pretty much the start of my kayak modifications. I have since then created a bow mount trolling motor for my kayak out of a stern mount trolling motor, a homemade kayak rudder system, and a few other small things here and there. The reason I say I 'was' a kayak fisherman, is because this fall I purchased a 1448mv jon boat, and I don't know how much I'm going to use my kayak now. That's pretty much it, can't wait to contribute!

I have just purchased a used jon boat that has leaks I bought it for 100$ is it worth it to use rhino liner to fix the leaks?

Heyo I just got a new trolling motor and have a quick question about the wires on the unit. My battery is in the rear of my boat for my lights, depth finder, and transom mounted trolling motor. My new motor is a bow mount and I have 2 choices. One: I could splice the wires and extend them to reach the rear of my boat. Two: I could move my battery up to the front of the boat and my depth finder's wires should be long enough to reach it. The choice I PREFER is to splice and extend the positive and negative wires from the unit to reach the end of my boat... The biggest reason I'm asking about this is because I was wondering if extending the positive and negative would make the unit lose power. It would be about 13-14 feet from the unit to the battery. That seems like a lot of wire for the power to travel through. Do I run the risk of under-powering the unit or any other risk that could devastate my battery or the unit by using wires that long? If you'd like to see a picture of the motor housing and the wires in question, you can go to my album "My First Boat" they're all in there.

Hey my name is Daniel. I have started up a jon boat trail (aluminum, plastic, or modified boat) we have expanded from Georgia and now are in Alabama and North Carolina. Where at the end of the year we will take our top seven guys or 3 teams to compete against Ga NC top 7 for the chance of a Carolina Skiff and Coleman Outboard plus much more. But we still have two tourneys left if anyone is interested in fishing with us just come on out and fish with us! I just completed the 2013 schedule check out the club web site. http://lwbbama.com/schedule/2013/