Bass Boat to a Multi Species boat

[wpwarhawk]

Funny thing is these southern fish don't bite much until the water warms up to the low to mid fifties. The little lake I fished yesterday was 48 degrees.

[wpwarhawk]

I've had the new boat out 6 or 8 times now, everything from me alone in the boat to four adults and one 9 year old. I'm going to make a couple of minor setup changes.

With just me and a full tank of gas it will run 39 mph at about 5700-5800 rpm, redline is 6300. Loaded down it topped out at 36 at about 5200 rpm.

Trolling speed depends greatly on the wind, but runs in the 2.2 to 2.7 range (GPS speed).

The motor is mounted as low as it will go, I'm going to move it up a hole or two and see if I can get a few more rpm out of it. Also as it is now, I can't tilt the motor all the way down on the trailer, I lack about an inch or so.

I have an aluminum 19 pitch prop on it now, going to try a 17. Should help a little when the boat is heavily loaded and slow me down just a little when trolling.

I have a Humminbird 859 DI unit on the console and a 678 DI up front. Both transducers are mounted on the stern, the dealer suggested this as they fix a lot of broken transducer cables on the powerdrive type trolling motors. This works OK, but isn't ideal for fishing burshpiles for crappie. Also the 2D sonar performance leaves a little to be desired on these DI units, because of the DI transducer. I've got a spare 2D transducer I'm going to mount on the trolling motor and use with a switch on the 678 up front. I've also ordered a Cisco mount for the 859, it fits on the dash but just barely and I have no tilt adjustment for glare on the screen. The Cisco mount should be better.

I have six of the Alumatrac rod holder bases, I've rigged up all six with Attwood rod holders. I've got a couple of those cheap Attwood mini downriggers that I'm going to try, but I suspect I'll have to mount real downriggers to go after the deep stripers this summer.

[wpwarhawk]

I thought I'd post an update now that I've had the boat a little over a year.

The only problem I've had is a broken latch on the rod locker, actually it's the little chrome handle that broke. I haven't even bothered to fix it yet.

The Suzuki motor has been flawless and continues to impress. It uses very little fuel, I can make several fishing trips before I need fuel and even then I don't think it's ever been below a half tank.

I removed the flip up rear seats/casting platform. The seats are uncomfortable, and restrict access to the live well and battery compartment. Only used the platform once.. So I pulled it out, wrapped it in heavy plastic and stuck it In The storage room.

I added a pair of Canon electric downriggers. Haven't used them much. Lake Ouachita is deep, but also full of standing timber underwater. I spent more time getting un-snagged than fishing. I don't know how much I'll use the downriggers.

I found that the boat has a porpoising problem with a full load. I tried raising the motor, didn't help. I added a set of trim tabs and they completely solved the porpoising problem.

I made a few upgrades ...

- iPilot model on the trolling motor. Fantastic, the spot lock feature alone is worth it.
- Garmin 50s used as a chartplotter. Humminbird has very poor mapping for Arkansas, but Garmin has their new HD Ultra mapping for my home lake, fantastic.
- added a master cut off switch to the starting battery after I left a downriggers switch on and ran the battery dead. This is really just peace of mind, I can throw the switch and not worry if I left a sonar unit on, or anything else on.

Only a couple of negatives

I'm not crazy about the center rod locker. I may convert it to more tackle storage. I love the side road storage on the port side, and use it for the rods I use the most.

The porpoising problem I mentioned earlier. With the gas tank, starting battery, and 350# motor out back, the boats balance is to the rear which I suspect is the cause of the porpoising.

All in all I'm happy with it, and plan to keep it for a long time.

[JAK]

I did not track this thread the first time around, but read all the thoughts and replies. It seems like you made a good decision after giving it a lot of thought! Thanks for the update. As I was reading this and I saw you were considering a full windshield, I knew your wife would like it!

Like everything, there are always some things that we discover later that we would like to change. You are spot on about the weight balance and the porpoise issue. A different prop with additional cup may have also help to solve the issue, but trim tabs are VERY effective.

Can you tell us a little more about what you don't like about the center rod storage? It may be possible that someone here can offer a suggestion to make a "tweak" that can help address your concerns. I know I really like my center rod storage, but the rod length, reel style and space all worked for me (I needed to slightly modify the handle holders to allow a longer butt section)

Anyway let us know what the concern is as there are a smart group of people here that are willing to help.

[wpwarhawk]

As far as the rod locker ... Two things I don't like about it,

1 - With spinning rods, the "tubes" up front are hard on the guides.

2 - The plastic brackets for the rod handles is too far back. You have to slide the rods way forward to shut the cover.

Rod sleeves would probably be better, but I don't really want to mess with them either.

I really think I may just convert the center rod locker to carry more 3700 size tackle boxes. Ive decided that all that tackle at home isn't doing me any good when I'm out fishing. And I may start out crappie fishing, and end up going after stripers, walleye, spotted bass or bream.

I thought about trying a stainless prop, but read something that made me rethink that. We have a lot of rocky bottoms here, you never know when you'll hit one. I've already chewed up one aluminum prop, at least it was just the prop and not something in the lower unit. I plan to stick with aluminum props. I dont ever run the motor very hard anyway, so top speed is the least of my concerns.

[JAK]

Maybe a couple of pics with rods inside would help to understand the problems you are describing?

[JBhunter45]

I have posted this before on this site not sure if you looked at it.

http://www.lake-link.com/forums/boat...e-Modification

[wpwarhawk]

The center rod locker turns out to be slightly too narrow for 3700 series boxes, and would hold very many anyway. Not with it for 3600 boxes so I'm going to can this idea.

[Black98TransAM]

whoops. Did not realize this thread was old and a boat was already bought

[wpwarhawk]

Starting year #2 with the Alumacraft/Suzuki combo. We've had an unseasonably warm winter and I've already had the boat out a couple of times.

The Suzuki motor is just fantastic, I don't understand why they aren't more popular. Even after sitting for three months, it fired right up with just a tick of the starter. One day last fall I spent about 12 hours on the water, ran farther than I had run before and spent at least 6 hours trolling. I filled the tank before and after the trip, and used 2 1/2 gallons all day. I could never imagine such economy with any other boat and motor I've ever had.

The iPilot trolling motor has been the best upgrade I've made and I don't even know how to use half the features yet. I use the spot lock all the time, and frequently use the "cruise control" feature. I think I should get a commission from Minn Kota, everyone who fishes with me wants an iPilot on their boat.

Other than a broke latch on the rod storage compartment, I have had zero problems with the boat. And no complaints. I did add a set of trim tabs that solved 90% of my porpoising problem, and I can flip them down and drop the trolling speed to about1.8 mph.

I'm going to upgrade my electronics to a Garmin SI unit and will run a GPS map on one unit and the fish finder on the other. I'll have a Humminbird 859 DI for sale soon.

So far I've caught bream, crappie, spotted bass, catfish, white bass, stripers, and even a couple of walleyes in this boat.