Modified jon boat

[samurai361]

I'm brand new to the board.  

My ride is posted on this site:

http://www.myjonboat.com/armentrout.htm

I generally fish salt water, so I didn't want a glitter rocket bass boat that would sit in my driveway most of the time and just cost me money.  I bought a 14' Lowe MV 48" bottom jon and didn't enjoy fishing from it.  I had an old Mercury 7.5 and a T/M mounted to the gunnel.  If it was hot outside, the metal would scald your skin, and I didn't like climbing over the middle seat.  I'd done a conversion on an old boat that turned out badly, and decided to do my homework and commit to making something that would be enjoyable.  I had 1300 in the new boat and I spent 700 on a new trailer.  I ended up going a little overboard and spent about 2000 more on the rest.  If I wanted to save some money, I could have cut what I spent by about $700 and still have a boat I'd be very happy with.  I got a 15 Ev from my dad and that was pretty good.  It pushed me and him both around 20 mph, and me alone around 23.  I got his old 25 and that moves us both close to 30 and me alone around 32.  No glitter rocket, but it's great to fish from and I like the way it turned out.  I have lots of ideas about how I could have done better, but it's too late for some of that now.  I have added a few things since I sent the pics:  A rod hold down (it actually goes fast enough that small rods try to blow out), and a recirc. pump with timer for the livewell.  Take a look and let me know what you think.

Bobby

[MattStrykul]

hey welcome

I have seen your boat a few times and it is awesome! I'm planning on doing that soon as well. Where abouts in VA do you live? I live in Arlington but often travel down to gaston to fish. I'm going on saturday for the whole weekend actually.

Again, extremely nice boat.

Matt

[=Matt 5.0=]

Looks great

[Tom Bass]

Nice boat.  8-)

[KU_Bassmaster.]

Nice job.

[Catt]

That's cool  8-)

[Grey Wolf]

WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great work on that boat.

[Daniel My Brother]

Very clean looking mod. Sounds like you built a boat you'll enjoy for a long time to come.

Well done and welcome to BassResource.com

[samurai361]

Thanks for the nice comments, guys.  I've stopped at McDonald's on the way out and had people ask where they can get a boat like mine.  If I thought they had the money, I'd make the boats for them as a side gig to go with my day job, but it really is pretty expensive.  I really enjoyed doing that.  I started in Oct. of 05 and was done sometime in January with it as it is in the pics.  

A few people made comments when I was getting info to build it about it being a "tugboat" or "barge" because I wanted to use wood.  For one thing, wood is much cheaper and easier to work with than aluminum, and I'm glad I went that way.  For another, the extra weight has been a blessing.  Before, the boat got blown around by the wind a lot, and if you stood up, it would almost slide from under you.  It's not my dad's Ranger, but it is very stable.  

[JT Bagwell]

Nice rig...

I am going to try to get my neighbor to sell me his jon boat this spring. If he

will sell it cheap enough I want to do something similar to yours.

I have a Triton TR20 with an Optimax on the back, but we have some areas

that you can not use the big motor (even for trailering). After a long day on

the water it really sucks having to crank that big boat up on the trailer. I thought

a jon boat with a 74lb thrust Minn Kota on the front would do the trick.

I basically just want to put a casting deck on the front and that is about it. For

the most part, I want to keep the weight as low as possible.

Once again, nice job on the boat.

JT Bagwell

[SteveFinMD]

Looks very nice.  Should give you many hours of fishing pleasure.