Buying first boat

[Jerryj33]

 I'm going to be buying and setting up my first boat this offseason. Something that I can load in the back of my pickup. I was leaning towards a tracker 1236 from the local bass pro, but there's an abundance of 12 foot used aluminums in the classifieds for about half the price. I've heard riveted boats tend to leak eventually so I'm concerned about buying used. I'm on a pretty tight budget, but I just don't know if it's worth the risk. I've fished from plenty of aluminum v-hulls and my uncles little bass raider and I was curious how the stability compared to a Jon.

I plan on powering it with a trolling motor this year, but upgrading to an outboard eventually. I'm not sure what size TM would be ideal for the small lakes that I fish (300-500 acres) and I'm undecided between the Minn Kota and the bps store brand. And do the larger motors take up significantly more battery?

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

 

[Jm526]

I would buy used because you do save a lot of money. There might be a small leak but it's super easy to fix. There's a lot of vids on YouTube. Just make sure you test before you buy. For trolling motor I would buy a minnkota, I haven't had luck with BPS. also bigger is better. Remember, it might be bigger but it will use less effort to push the boat causing less battery usage. For stability I'm not to sure about it, I fish vhaul and flat bottoms and they seem pretty similar. Good luck. 

[fishnkamp]

Lets start this conversation a little different. I have owned 11 boats over 40 years and usually changed my boat based upon what was either needed or what operated in the type of water I fished most often.

Based on the area around Tacoma Washington it looks like you have mostly bigger rivers feeding into Commencement bay and then a few lakes dotting the map down towards your Bass Pro Shop i and south of that as well.  If I was going to fish those rivers a 12 foot cartopper would not be safe in my mind. It is fine if you intend to fish just the lakes I see there. I would look for a used Alumacraft, or G3  or one of those. Even new  an Alunacraft would not cost much more than a Tracker and the Lowe or alumacraft should be wedded.  You could look for a 14 foot V hull instead. It might be safer in the more open rivers I am looking at.

 

 

 

[Jerryj33]

18 minutes ago, fishnkamp said:

Lets start this conversation a little different. I have owned 11 boats over 40 years and usually changed my boat based upon what was either needed or what operated in the type of water I fished most often.

Based on the area around Tacoma Washington it looks like you have mostly bigger rivers feeding into Commencement bay and then a few lakes dotting the map down towards your Bass Pro Shop i and south of that as well.  If I was going to fish those rivers a 12 foot cartopper would not be safe in my mind. It is fine if you intend to fish just the lakes I see there. I would look for a used Alumacraft, or G3  or one of those. Even new  an Alunacraft would not cost much more than a Tracker and the Lowe or alumacraft should be wedded.  You could look for a 14 foot V hull instead. It might be safer in the more open rivers I am looking at.

 

 

 

I fish the lakes south of the Tacoma area in Eatonville. Lakes Tanwax, Ohop, Kapowsin, Rapjohn and Silver. They're all around 300 acres and pretty low traffic. Some even have a speed limit. I also fish a 30 acre pond near me. None of the rivers around me hold bass and I'm not into salmon or steelhead so I'm not too worried about a bout that can't handle them. The biggest lake I fish is a reservoir about 1k acres and I don't go there often 

[fishnkamp]

Fine that eliminates fast current and big hp wakes from the equation. Money will make your decision or at least impact it greatly.  For your purposes the first decision is can you tow a small boat or is cartopping your only option. If you can tow it will cost a bit more but a 14 to 16 foot semi v hulls are easier to find.  Take a look at this whole thread petes67bird posted and has been updating for as while. He is a great person to ask about this subject since he did this very thing.

If you can tow but still want a jon boat 1448s are much more stable and can be safer. Many of the boats of this size out there are welded hulls.  If you need to cartop then I would look at G3s, Lowes, Alumacrafts etc both new and used.

[Jerryj33]

4 hours ago, fishnkamp said:

Fine that eliminates fast current and big hp wakes from the equation. Money will make your decision or at least impact it greatly.  For your purposes the first decision is can you tow a small boat or is cartopping your only option. If you can tow it will cost a bit more but a 14 to 16 foot semi v hulls are easier to find.  Take a look at this whole thread petes67bird posted and has been updating for as while. He is a great person to ask about this subject since he did this very thing.

If you can tow but still want a jon boat 1448s are much more stable and can be safer. Many of the boats of this size out there are welded hulls.  If you need to cartop then I would look at G3s, Lowes, Alumacrafts etc both new and used.

A larger boat sounds great, but I'm not sure if it's really feasible for me. Installing a hitch, buying and registering a trailer and buying a larger boat sounds like it would quickly add up. From what I've been able to find, the Lowe 1236 is also riveted and the Alumacraft website didn't specify. They are between 100-200$ more than the tracker, which is definitely reasonable. The cabelas 20 miles from me carries both of those, so I can go take a look at them soon for a visual comparison 

[fishnkamp]

If your Cabelas carries the Alumacraft go check them out. Their boats across  the lineup are better built than the Trackers are.

As for a trolling motor, my preference is Minn Kota. I actually owned a 15 foot Polar Kraft that I turned into an all electric powered boat for reservoir fishing. I used 4 group 29 marine deep cycle batteries ( wired so each pair fed one motor).  The trolling motors were Minn Kota Endura series 55 pound thrust motors. They were terrific.