List your Aluminum Bass Boat Ride (Gas and Electric Powered)

[Donald Garner]

Dave, congrats on getting your boat setup the way you wanted it.  Thanks for sharing the story and pictures with us also.  That is a really nice lookin rig you got there 

[Dog]

Nothing special but suits our needs. 2018 tracker Heritage 40th anniversary.
Put a hour meter on it and installed stereo. Removed the lowrance hook3 have Elite-7 Ti2 on console and bow. Love the seats in it super confortable.

[Pacific NW Ron]

I'm fishing out of a 14' Alumacraft MV1448NCS.  I bought the bare hull and set it up for the way I want to fish.  I'm fishing by myself and fishing smaller electric motor only lakes. 
I have a 40lb minn kota on the transom and a 45lb minn kota on the bow.  Depending on the wind I can  fish 6 to 7 hours on one battery and still have about 50% left.  This old man won't fish longer than that anymore anyways.
I have three pedestal seat mounts in various locations in the boat.  I have a Lowrance Elite 4 Chirp at the bow. 
I have two storage compartments up by the front that will hold all the tackle that I'll use. 
I've only fished this boat one season and will be making a few minor modification this winter. 

[ohiobass]

2017 Polarkraft 915/Suzuki 140A

[Donald Garner]

ohiobass

Really nice looking ride there.  I bet that 140 pushes that baby really nice.  Tks for sharing the picture with us also.

[Donald Garner]

Ron, what changes are you going to make during the Winter break?  I really like your boat and setup.

[ohiobass]

2017 Polarkraft TX195 Pro. Love it!

[Donald Garner]

ohiobass
Great looking rig you got there.  Tks for sharing the picture with us. 

[Mike the fox]

Well I tried to be a glass bass boat guy but it's just not my style. Coming from the north I've had lunds  for years now and traded the skeeter in for a new leftover'22 Lund fisherman 1875 with a mercury 150 and a terrova on the bow. So far I've put a helix 9 on the dash and will be ordering a 10 with mega live for the bow this week.


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[BassmanRudy]

Nice looking boat Mike. After watching in-fishermen for 25+ years the one constant is how much they love their Lund boats!

[Dark3]

That sure is pretty!! Lots of Lunds up here in upstate NY. I love the Deep Vs. they get pretty pricey fast tho.


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[Donald Garner]

Mike,
Tks for making the posting of your Lund boat.  That is a really nice looking boat there.

[Mike the fox]

Thanks for all the compliments. It definitely looks out of place in east Texas but I've gotten a pile of compliments from guys on the water. The wife likes having a windshield to hide behind as well. I called Johnson outdoors today and was getting the lowdown on what I'd need to pair up 2 screens and add mega live and he told me that if I wait until March 9 to order they are running a $500 rebate if you buy a screen and add mega live.


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[Goldstar225]

This is my 2018 Tracker PT190 with a Mercury 115 Pro XS.  Two helix 7 SI FF, 80# Ultrex.  This was my retirement gift to myself.  Had it for five years and couldn't be more pleased with it.

[Donald Garner]

Goldstar 225
Tks for sharing the pictures of your boat.  You don't see a lot of Dual Console Tracker Bass Boats.  I like it 

[Dark3]

20 foot lund predator/ Mercury 150. Getting close to 50mph out of it with 2-3 people which I dont think is too bad for a flat bottom non-pad boat but I think it has room for improvement. Very stern heavy, 3 batteries, fuel tank and the big four stroke all in the back. Its an absolute rocket out of the hole, literally instantly on plane, just drives right up on top of the water. Definitely a fun boat to drive, and fishes well.





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[Donald Garner]

Allen, great looking boat you got there    Tks for sharing the updated pictures and on the water shots with us. 

That's the kind of boat you need to run the Chattahoochee River and all those Oxbows  down there at Ft. Benning 

[J.W.]

Don asked me to post some more pics and details for my boat for the rest of the aluminati here.

It's a 2022 War Eagle Blackhawk 961 center console with a Yamaha 115 SHO.

Running a Minn Kota Ultrex 80 lb trolling motor. Electronics are mostly Humminbird, with two Solix 10s (one at the bow, one on the console), side/down imaging, 2D chirp, and Mega 360. I do have one Garmin unit at the bow for Livescope. Running the trolling motor on a pair of 12v 100Ah lithium batteries, the electronics on a separate 12v 100Ah lithium, and the motor is on a AGM. I'm charging the batteries with a Noco Genius 10x4 onboard charger.

She came under-propped from the dealership, so I re-propped to a PowerTech PTR-3 in 19" pitch. Made handling rough water a heck of a lot better. We ran probably 50 miles on Toledo Bend at our last tournament with big swells. There were some boats that speared waves that morning and took on a lot of water. If it had not been a TBF tournament in addition to school league, I'm sure they'd have cancelled it. We got wet from splash and spray, but I never felt like we were going to spear one. Just kept the bow up and trudged along. Not fun, but do-able. I would not have tried it with the old prop though, it just couldn't get the bow up enough.



Some pics:

Getting fish out of the livewell at the 2023 TBF junior state championship at Lake D'Arbonne. The boys won this one.
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Front livewell is the one we use for fish. There is another uninsulated livewell under the leaning post seat, but we use it to store our soft plastics.
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Pre-fishing Sooner Lake in Oklahoma for the 2023 junior world championship. Lake sucked for black bass but holy crap there were some bar-fish in it. Wipers, whites, and stripers everywhere.
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Day one of tournament.
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Those two poles near the gunnel in the left side of the above picture are my "power poles." Just some homebrew spud poles I made out of galvanized pipe. I cut the ends like shark teeth and then bent them together and welded them into a point so they'd penetrate the mud pretty well. I just jam one through one of the grab-handle holes on the duckbill up front and into the mud. If I need another to stay positioned, I'll do the same through a loop of rope I have tied to a rear cleat.
It works, but it makes me want some real PowerPoles.


"Fun-fishing" at Caddo Lake.
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"Fun-fishing" on the Ouachita River (Lake Catherine) in Arkansas.
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Shot of the console. I've done a bit of "customization." The boat does lack storage, so I installed a MOLLE panel and some soft pouches for things like scales, trash, etc. I also installed a homebrew recirculating aerator in each livewell using some bilge pumps and timers. Those are the two knobs on the top of the console.
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I also built some rod racks that mount to the T-track system on each side of the boat for rod storage, but I didn't have a picture handy.

 
Things I like about a center console:
You can see over the bow so much better. Bass boats have gotten to where the front decks are so big and the consoles sit so low, it can be hard to see the water. Add big graphs that stick up above the console, and it can be even worse. Being up allows you to spot floating logs and other debris that might be in the water. It also makes it easier to get your boat on the trailer if it's super windy. It also allows me to quickly get to a driving position without all the up-down business of a side console. Not a big deal if you're fishing by yourself or with one other person, but boating two kids in tournaments means there is crap everywhere, and it's easier to get to the console if I can get to it from either side and don't have to sit down.

The only thing I don't like is that the side console version of my boat is rated for a 150hp, but the center console is only rated for 115. I do love my little 115, but of course I'd rather have a 150.
The 115 will get me up to about 47 mph with a full loadout and 3 people, which is fine when we're just fishing for fun, but kind of slow for tournament take-offs when you've got guys with 250s and the hammer down right behind you on a boat road.

[Donald Garner]

J.W.,

Tks for sharing the pictures of your boat.  It's a really nice looking rig you have there.  What size fuel tank does it have I don't remember reading about that?

[J.W.]

J.W.,

Tks for sharing the pictures of your boat.  It's a really nice looking rig you have there.  What size fuel tank does it have I don't remember reading about that?

Thanks, Don. It's 16 gal. Not as much range as a bass boat, but good enough for most of the fishing we do. Toledo Bend can push the range limit if we have to do a lot of running, but for most every other lake we fish it's plenty.

[topdsm0138]

I'm shocked I've never replied to this thread. But, here's my 2022 Polarkraft Dakota 1670. I have a 2022 Suzuki 25hp for it, as well as a 1996 Evinrude 9.9hp and 50lb thrust trolling motor. 3 options to fish just about any body of water. Here's my most recent pic from an electric use only lake.

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[Dark3]

JW, rod storage on these boats is definitely the biggest challenge. Especially if you have nice rods/reels that you are worried about getting scuffed. You can see in the pics above what my solution was last season. That bak rak might be good to have in a hatch  of a bass boat for a coangler to use, but it's highly inconvenient as a primary rack. This season Im going vertical with the rods. Ive ordered some supplies to make a rod rack out of one of the longer type milk crates that I got in a custom color, and 12 flared rod holder that will be mounted around it. Im planning in mounting a 3/4 pin seat mount plate that would normally plug into a seat post, and Im going to mount it to the bottom of the crate so I can set it on the deck in one of my 4 seat bases. I will build it when I get back from deployment and share some pics if my idea works out.


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[Dark3]

Top your pic appears to be broken atleast on my phone. Im sure thats a sweet rig tho. Cant go wrong with polarcraft.


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[J.W.]

JW, rod storage on these boats is definitely the biggest challenge. Especially if you have nice rods/reels that you are worried about getting scuffed. You can see in the pics above what my solution was last season. That bak rak might be good to have in a hatch  of a bass boat for a coangler to use, but it's highly inconvenient as a primary rack. This season Im going vertical with the rods. Ive ordered some supplies to make a rod rack out of one of the longer type milk crates that I got in a custom color, and 12 flared rod holder that will be mounted around it. Im planning in mounting a 3/4 pin seat mount plate that would normally plug into a seat post, and Im going to mount it to the bottom of the crate so I can set it on the deck in one of my 4 seat bases. I will build it when I get back from deployment and share some pics if my idea works out.


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That sounds like it'd work.

I do have some "rocket launcher" rod holders on the back of my leaning post, but they get used to hold fishing pliers and other tools because vertical rod storage is pretty much a no-go down here. Too many low-hanging cypress limbs.

[J.W.]

Here's a shot where you can see my homemade rod racks. I just welded up a couple of mounts for each side and screwed some vertical/horizontal rod holders from Amazon to them. Hardest part was getting the angle right so they'd lay right up against the hull.

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