New Boat Suggestions

[huntnfishnguy2014]

Alright folks, hope everyone is having a great day! I am in the market for another fishing boat...had a Nitro NX750 and also a Sprint F/S 267 bass boat as my previous two boats, loved them! Problem being, both were bass boats and kind of a pain to carry a third person if a third wanted to go fishing with me...which typically ends up being the case because both the wife and the father in law love to fish as well.

So here is what I am thinking about for the next boat...looking at deep v's and so far the one that stands out the most to me for the best money right now is the Tracker 175WT from Bass Pro. We all know that when the wind blows in Kansas the water gets rough, which is almost like an everyday thing during the summer time. Personally, I believe the deep v is going to offer a much smoother ride during the rougher conditions. Also, it will provide more room as far as moving around and able to accommodate a few more people. The thing I personally like about the Tracker that I have looked at so far is the fact it has two live wells, one in the front and back of the boat with both of them having a spot for bait buckets....score!! No more tripping over the *^(& bucket while moving on the bass boat or sharing the bucket!

Yes it is brand new and I know once you buy a brand new boat it loses value off the lot blah blah blah...got it. Only reason I am looking at brand new is the last two boats I have purchased seemed to be the inheritance of someone else's problems. Not really wanting to deal with that again. So might as well drop the money and go new and get something that has warranty on it and will hopefully last a long time.

I plan on doing a lot more crappie fishing than I have in previous years which obviously I was doing more bass fishing than anything else. Plan on Crappie, Walleye, and still doing some bass fishing. What I am asking from anyone willing to read this lengthy post (which I do appreciate and I apologize I am a bit of a talker) to post some opinions, recommendations, thoughts, whatever you might have to add as far as a good deep v that would be good for the money. Keep in mind budget is important. I am looking to spend no more than 25k-30k on a boat. Really don't want to spend that much...would like to keep it down around the 20K mark as I am planning on paying cash for most of that. Also electronics...had the lowrance HDS 5 with LSS-2 setup and loved it! Throw an opinion out for a good setup if you'd like. Looking to drop a good amount on electronics...at least 4-5k. I appreciate y'all taking the time out to read this and share your thoughts and opinions! Have a great rest of the day folks!

[crappieslinger]

I bought a brand new Tracker Targa Walk Through a few years ago. It had plenty of room and would take just about any wind here in Kansas. I could fish 3 adults and one child fairly comfortably out of it. I sold it due to the quality or should I say lack thereof. The dash cracked all the way from the windshield to the passenger floor the second year I had it. If it was rough I couldnt leave the live wells running as it would fill up the boat. The water sloshed over the top of the live wells and ended up in the bilge. I had to keep the bilge pump most of the time when it was rough. I also had a non stop problems with the Mercury 90 on it but that is not the fault of the boat.
I sold that boat after owning it for 3 years and bought an Alumacraft. The difference in quality is like night and day. I had no problems at all in the 4 years I owned the Alumacraft. It was a great boat and they are generally a little less expensive compared to the Tracker boats.
I now have a pontoon and can take just about as many people as I want with me.

[Kansasoutdoorsman]

I have been eyeing the new G3 boats… not ready yet but I have been giving them a good looking at and I am really liking what I see for the price.

http://www.g3boats.com

[huntnfishnguy2014]

Thats good to know about the quality issues you were having. Is there an Alumacraft dealer in Kansas by chance or did you end up picking yours up used?

[huntnfishnguy2014]

Springhill, I have also looked at them. I for some reason thought they were kinda pricey to be honest with you...keep in mind I was looking at them from boat trader.com as well so that could have made a difference. I will say they are very nice boats though! I just wish they had two live wells with the bait bucket slots in them ya know. At least I personally didn't see them when I was browsing through some of the models...I could be wrong:/

[clfarms1]

Lund if your looking for a deep V. Ifyou are going with a terrova ipilot link then you need to do with HB for electronics.

[crappie_hunter15]

I've owned a couple boats (currently own a 19' Basscat probably similar to your last 2 boats) Before that I had a modified V bass tracker. My fishing partner has a deep V Lowe (aluminum cabelas boat). As far as a ride across rough water the deep V is hands down the better boat. As far as fishing out of the bass boat is by far more enjoyable and easier. As long as the wind isn't blowing 30 mph we take the bass boat which is about 95% of the time because we don't like fishing in the wind! We haven't taken his boat "crappie fishing" in the last 2 years only walleye. Now that being said I occasionally have more than 2 people in the boat (probably less than 25% of the time) and on those days its generally a 2 or 3 hour outing after work or in the evening. I have done some all day trips with 3 but prefer not to (2 in front and 1 in back and everyone trades places every so often). Another boat that I have spent some time in is a Boston Whaler center console fiberglass boat. Now if I had the funds this or similar style center console fiberglass boat would be my boat of choice. Here are the way I look at the pros and cons. Deep V (Pros) Rides smooth, holds more people, safer boat (cons) Hard to maneuver in standing timber, hard to maneuver in shallow water, EXTREMELY hard to control when the wind is blowing (that high side acts like a sail in the wind) also the light weight contributes to this as well. I won't give you my thoughts on bass boats as you are probably capable of making your own since you owned one for several years. For me one key component to a successful day of fishing is boat control. I'm not that great at controlling a boat to start with (I just don't get as much practice as others) so the Deep V makes it that much more difficult. I literally cannot hold a brush pile in the wind with a deep V and cannot maneuver through standing timber in the wind without hitting every tree. As far as I can tell the center console fiberglass boats give you the benefits of both. I think Ranger made one for awhile that was a "crappie edition" or something. That will be my next boat. As far as electronics I'm not familiar with Lowrance but if that's what you know stick with it. Side imaging is a must in my mind if you are going to be fishing anything but the bank and visible structure (it just saves that much time on the water, and I don't have much time to spare). I added a terrova Ipilot link to my boat to go along with my humminbirds last year (all setup on Ethernet now) and it was the best purchase I made outside of the boat itself.

[crappieslinger]

Thats good to know about the quality issues you were having. Is there an Alumacraft dealer in Kansas by chance or did you end up picking yours up used?

I bought my Alumacraft from Cabelas in Kansas City. Cabelas was great to work with and they will work hard to make a deal with you. The mechanics at Cabelas are some of the best I have dealt with although I have not had anything other than set-up and tuning done there. I believe there is also an Alumacraft dealer in Salina.

[zummy]

I bought my Alumacraft from Cabelas in Kansas City. Cabelas was great to work with and they will work hard to make a deal with you. The mechanics at Cabelas are some of the best I have dealt with although I have not had anything other than set-up and tuning done there. I believe there is also an Alumacraft dealer in Salina.

I had the exact opposite experience at Cabelas. Went in there and was ready to write a check. Only thing the guy really did was show me how much better the Alumacraft was compared to Lund. I had him spec out a boat for me. Didn't want to do much but put a Merc on which I didn't want. Finally got it spec'd out, but was more than I had seen elsewhere. Left my name and number and a year later almost to the day have never heard anything back.

I researched them all.
Tracker- Horrendous customer service if something goes wrong. There are a lot of them out there because of the price point. I owned a Tracker Pro Team 175 at one point. Fit and finish was not great and my trailer was junk. However I got it cheap, had fun with it, and sold it at a profit.

Lowe- No splash rails on it. Also standing on an Alumacraft deck which was solid vs the Lowe that had some give made me ask myself how long it would last. Straw that broke the camel's back was they would only sell it with a Merc. I asked if they would order one without a motor and rig the motor of my choice and it was a negative.

Lund- Really intrigued me. One of the top Lund dealers in the country is in Pittsburg, MO which isn't far from SE Kansas. They had some Lund 1775 Impacts with 115 Mercs on them very competitively prices. Talked to them on the phone. They really wanted to earn my business. Turns out they are a Mercury platinum dealer and weren't interested in hanging anything but a Merc on the boat. That ended it for me. Lund has great fit/finish, big splash rails for a dry ride, and pretty much everything I wanted except for the motor I wanted.

Alumacraft- Really liked the boats. I went to Cabelas to look at what they had and try to work a deal. They apparently weren't very hungry, and I don't think the guy believed me when I said I would write the check right there for the right deal. Alumacraft makes a nice boat.

StarCraft- Had an 88 deep v starcraft that I really liked. However to get a StarCraft I was going to have to drive quite a way to find what I wanted. Found one I liked in Pennsylvania and darn near hopped a plan to Pittsburg.

G3- This is what is sitting in my driveway. I had been looking and found it on ebay. Its a 2010 V172C with a 2013 90 hp Yamaha on the back. He had it listed as a factory demo. I had priced some new G3 boats previously before finding it. Drove to Plainville, KS to take a look at it. Negotiated what I felt was a good deal, wrote the check, and came back on my next day off to pick it up. It had a couple carpet stains and some scratches in the decal, but I have since added more of both. I love the Yamaha outboard. I did have one warranty issue that Shady Creek handled with no issues. Fit and finish isn't Lund quality, but its a nice boat that has a good dry ride. If you want to check it out or take it for a drive one day let me know. The boat was bought from the Plainville Boat Shop. Its kind of a hole in the wall, but I felt I was treated fairly there. I have it serviced at Shady Creek, and have had nothing but good experiences dealing with them.

[warhawk]

I recently had the same decision to make. I had a Stratos 176XT bass boat. Great boat, but I didn't care for the 2 person seating and never felt comfortable on it. I have a bad back and some balance issues. I never felt comfortable on the decks of the bass boat, always felt like I was going to fall in.

I wanted a boat that I could feel more secure in, like I was "IN" the boat instead of on top of it. So I did a lot of research and shopping around. I thought seriously about a Stratos 1760DV, the multi species version of the boat I had. Unfortunately there are none of these in my area. All my research kept pointing to Lund, and I'm sure they are great boats. But we don't have any Lund dealers in Arkansas and the closest one (Pittsburg, MO) only sells Mercury motors. I wanted to go with a Yamaha, Honda or Suzuki. The closest dealer to me is a small dealer that sells Alumacraft, and I started looking into them pretty seriously. I decided on a 175 Voyageur, a new model for 2014. This dealer also sells Suzuki motors so I was all set.

When I got down to pricing things out, the Voyageur was going to be almost $5K more than a leftover 2013 Competitor 165 on the dealers lot. Long story short I ended up with the Competitor 165, it's the Sport Model with the Limited package.





I went with a Suzuki 90 motor, and can't say enough good things about it. It's got plenty of power, easy on gas, and is so quiet that I sometimes have to look for the water "peeing" out to know that it's running. I was against the Mercury motors because the 40-60 horse four strokes are made in China. And the vast majority of the Tracker boats I've seen have either a Merc 40 or 60.

I am extremely happy with my decision to go with a deep v, it's far more comfortable for me, and the only thing I give up in terms of "fishability" is pitching, which I don't do anyway.

If you buy an Alumacraft, spend the extra $1000 for the Limited package. The seats are upgrade, along with air ride pedestals, more storage, a stereo, and flip up jump seats.

I am completely satisfied with the Competitor 165 but would probably have gotten the Voyageur 175 if the prices had been closer.