Hunting / Fishing Boat

[Dustin L]

I'm in the process of researching a hunt / fish boat build. While there are a bunch of topics on there that are close, none that I found hit the mark exactly or are fairly dated. Apologies in advance if this is overly redundant.

So with that - I'm looking for a welded aluminum boat, 18-20'. Use will be out west, marshes, small to large lakes and maybe at some point putting on a jet conversion to access a couple of the rivers close. No saltwater planned for now. Typically it'll be 2-3 people, gear and a dog. Only interested in tiller steer, right now the plan is to put it on a hydraulic jack, maybe modify with a low water intake and see how that does for a year or so. But, a couple the places I'll be hunting are shallow w/ a lot of salad , so at some point it'll probalby be a necessity to put on a mud motor. BTW, anyone mount a surface drive on a hydraulic jack, thoughts? It'll need to have a decent enough size front deck to comfortably fish off of. Needs to handle moderately rough water with a little common sense applied.

As far as manufacturers, looks to me there is a SeaArk dealer in Idaho and an Excel dealer in Utah, but any options west of those would be better for me. Could always go with a Lowe/Lund/Grizzly but as of now those aren't real high on my list. Also, not really interested in a full custom build, there's a couple great ones close but they typically specialize in sleds / drift boats so I'm not sure my wallet could affort those shops for a one-off boat.

So with all that, I'm all ears on manufacturers, layouts, specs of the build and anything else this group would offer.

Thanks in advance everyone! If PM is better please feel free

 

[Carl]

Welcome aboard Dustin!
Lots of options in that size range in Aluminum hulls.
Lots of salad and jet drives doesn't really mix, so I'd think you are looking at a surface drive.
No experience with them, so I'll let others jump in.
BTW, which state, or states?
.

 

[Dustin L]

Welcome aboard Dustin!
Lots of options in that size range in Aluminum hulls.
Lots of salad and jet drives doesn't really mix, so I'd think you are looking at a surface drive.
No experience with them, so I'll let others jump in.
BTW, which state, or states?
.

Thanks Carl, if I have the time it'll be used from Central Wa to Central Ca but reality is most time probalby between the Sac Delta and Klamath. Hope is to replace the SD after season with an outboard for fishing. The jet conversion is really an afterthought that I'm just now researching, but it seems there are a kits where I could go back and forth from prop to jet to run a few of the rivers around here, not for use in marshes or lakes.

 

[Huntindave McCann]

The jet conversion is really an afterthought that I'm just now researching, but it seems there are a kits where I could go back and forth from prop to jet to run a few of the rivers around here, not for use in marshes or lakes.

Yes, one could swap lower units but is not just a matter of dropping one lower unit and bolting on the other.
I am researching a 1760 tunnel hull set up with a 60hp propped engine. Yes a jet will run a bit shallower, but one gives up HP and ability to run in vegetation, snow slush and even fall leaves. If you run much sand or pea gravel, you will be wearing out both the impeller and the impeller liner.

 

[William Reinicke]

Im a broke record at this point, but I would take a hard look at havoc boats. I run a mudmotor on mine and when I first bought my boat, I had every intention on fishing and hunting out of it and only having 1 boat. I run a mudmotor for 3 spots I hunt that you would absolutely destroy a jet or prop getting too. Sand would ruin a jet and 3-6" for 300-400 yard stretch would be hell on an outboard.

When i went through all the aluminum boat manufacturers, the weight of foam kept coming back as a negative for me because of the flat bottoms. I settled on the havoc MSTC because of the reverse chines and it acts just like a flat bottom but it has chines and they dont have to have near the amount of foam all the other flat bottom boats do in an aluminum hull. In turn, my storage hatches are 3x bigger than my buddies excel boats. I too wanted to fish out of mine, so I got the high deck and had them put in a trolling motor tray off the front. I since have bought a bass boat and covered it with an aluminum plate but it fished very comfortably off that front deck for quite a few seasons.

I know for a fact... you can run a 115hp on this boat. Its rated for a 75 hp (I think). My boat is a 1756 and I think if you get up into the 18-20 foot havocs, they are rated for a 90. The 90 merc and the 115 merc are the exact same weight btw. Just throwing that out there.

As far as a hydro JP with a mudmotor, not sure what you are accomplishing. The higher the hp on a mud motor, the more it likes being out of the water column. My first mudmotor, many ancient moons ago, was an 18 hp. The sweet spot was about 3-4" of the prop fully under water. My next was a 40 hp efi mudbuddy and it liked just being under the water surface. My current 5000efi mudbuddy, the prop is actually about 3" out of the water and it just moves that boat. I see 30-31 at the beginning of the season with a full load with a fresh prop. Usually my final run, at the end of the season, im seeing 27-29 on a pretty wore out prop. I run so much sand and silt, i go through a prop a season and in turn, will lose high end performance. Never have any issues jumping up on plane and get going, unless im real heavy. I can run 3 guys, a dog, and 3 doz decoys without any issue with the big blade. As soon as I put a 4th guy in the boat, I have to go to the hammer prop and best I see is 24 with that prop and thats if im loaded to the gills or absolutely empty. If I have that 4th guy in the boat, the big blade wont get on plane and I only see 11-12 mph.

My boat is fast. I took this mudmotor off an excel 20 foot and the guy could only get 22 mph empty and 18 fully loaded. I drove it many times and was discouraged. When he finally went the outboard route, I asked to try it on my boat. When we ran it and saw how good it did, it never came off and I sold my 40efi a couple weeks later. Mine sees much better performance and I attribute that to far less weight of the hull due to lack of foam. I even had my hull custom made with the .0125 aluminum vs the .01 that havocs are usually made with. So even then, I made it a bit heavier.

Reach out with any questions, I dont mind sending pics or video of my boat.

 

[William Reinicke]

As far as dealer, i went with greg orr marine. At the time, they had a delivery guy that would charge x amount per mile. I decided to meet him half way. Settled on a meeting spot, and I signed 2 papers and hauled butt home and got it done in a single day. Same thing for my bass boat. Bought that one out of tx as well and met that delivery guy half way as well. I think most boat places have these services, so dont settle on boat companies close to you. Theyll bring it all the way to your door if you are willing to pay the delivery price.

I meant to mention as well, Havoc has partnered with freedom outboard. So if you want that outboard feel, with the "supposed possibilities" of a mudmotor, you might get it all in one package. When my 5000 efi goes boom, ill be taking a hard look at the freedom outboards. I may just do another 5000 efi mudbuddy and I really like all the new features they put on the new mudbuddies. But i HATE how loud a mudmotor is.

 

[Michael McCord1]

What type of fishing do you do? I like a front and rear casting deck and wide open in between. I like the grip that cheap outdoor carpet provides on muddy boots. I built a mini-console on a ball mount for electronics and switches. It’s mounted on the gunnel but folds down out of the way of the blind.

I agree, tiller is the way to go for a hunt/fish rig.