Free: Contests & Raffles.
Crestliner Sportsman 14 foot, lots of free board, flat floor, and great seat layout. These are well built boats.
Not a 14 foot flat jon with 6 inches of freeboard, that’s for sure lol
Quote from: wildfire on June 05, 2023, 08:13:25 AMCrestliner Sportsman 14 foot, lots of free board, flat floor, and great seat layout. These are well built boats.I run a 16' crestliner sportsmen w/40hp tiller. I fish it on Puget Sound and the Columbia and many lakes around the state. I also use it duck hunting though not as a blind. Great platform but you still need to watch the wind and head in if the sheep start to show on any big body of water. If I wanted a boat for the Columbia mainly I would not consider anything under 14'. I would also want something with reasonable beam/floor width and gunnel/transom height. Lastly I would want to put at least a 25hp motor on it.
I've had a 17ft lowe roughneck with 50hp mercury for 11 years and put it through the ringer. At certain times of the year it has downriggers on both sides for puget sound salmon and dungeness crab. In fall they come off and I attach a blind for Potholes and Eastside duck/deer hunting. We've fished all of the kokanee lakes in the state. Great boat, but as others have said, on really windy days I'd prefer to be in true V hulled boat with more depth and transom height. My buddy claims he'll never have kids because of the pounding his junk has taken while cruising on the bow. The roughneck is a "modified V" which is better than a flat fronted john boat. I'd say it's a good middle of the road that can do a lot. The welds have all held.
Quote from: Mfowl on June 05, 2023, 08:33:31 AMQuote from: wildfire on June 05, 2023, 08:13:25 AMCrestliner Sportsman 14 foot, lots of free board, flat floor, and great seat layout. These are well built boats.I run a 16' crestliner sportsmen w/40hp tiller. I fish it on Puget Sound and the Columbia and many lakes around the state. I also use it duck hunting though not as a blind. Great platform but you still need to watch the wind and head in if the sheep start to show on any big body of water. If I wanted a boat for the Columbia mainly I would not consider anything under 14'. I would also want something with reasonable beam/floor width and gunnel/transom height. Lastly I would want to put at least a 25hp motor on it.I had the same rig with dual batteries and a 40hp 4str Suzuki.With my heft on the tiller, there was not a lot of freeboard but that boat had a lot of great features.Probably the widest 16' I've seen. Where did you get yours?
What the heck is a self bailing transom, I must be behind technology? Is that where you get going and pull the plug? Congrats, best day in a boat owner's life.
Quote from: Stein on June 06, 2023, 12:49:55 PMWhat the heck is a self bailing transom, I must be behind technology? Is that where you get going and pull the plug? Congrats, best day in a boat owner's life.I'm not sure what it's really called, but I'm talking about area in from of the outboard and transom that if water splashes past the motor it just drains out of the boat.
Quote from: MeepDog on June 06, 2023, 01:08:03 PMQuote from: Stein on June 06, 2023, 12:49:55 PMWhat the heck is a self bailing transom, I must be behind technology? Is that where you get going and pull the plug? Congrats, best day in a boat owner's life.I'm not sure what it's really called, but I'm talking about area in from of the outboard and transom that if water splashes past the motor it just drains out of the boat.Gotcha, those are nice as you are much more likely to take one over the back than front. At least from my experience.
I have two in my boat not including the manual tire pump style one.
Had a 15 foot smoker craft/Sylvan. Great boat miss it. Fished the columbia river for salmon ect. Pick your days. Big waves little boat not much fun
13' whaler with a 40hp. Biggest small boat ever made. 4 guys, gear and dogs duck hunting, run up the Snohomish to Monroe, run anywhere fast and sip fuel and go in skinny water aluminum duck boats fear. Wind kicks up just nose her in and take the beating and get home. Bad weather just pull the plug and keep the nose up. Not doing that in a tin boat
Gregor welded lightweight
Gregor definitely makes a good small boat, but good luck finding a used one in good shape. You don’t see many come up for sale around here. Having had several aluminum boats over the years I prefer welded. I also like their hull design which seems to work pretty well in the typical puget sound chop. Their design planes easy and the bow is not too high to see over when tiller steered. I had a 15’ bayrunner at one time with a 25hp tiller and it felt like you were running blind a lot of the time with the tall bow. It definitely needed a forward console. That would I’m sure help that design plane quicker too. Gregor makes a really good small fishing boat.
I picked up a newer 15 smoker-craft Alaskan I took it out first time it was horrible Put this onPerfect 25hp Yamaha