things we are doing to our boats for this years fishing season

[SuperDaveMT]

I bought my boat (crestliner canadian 165) when it was cold and figured out last spring when it thawed that the floor was rotting out. I muddled through the summer, but pulled it out recently. I ordered the marine grade plywood, stitched it together (floor's 56" wide at the widest point), used the old floor for a template and cut it out. Now I'm just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit so I can seal it in bed liner (durabak) top and bottom and reinstall. I'd like to add some slide in tackle storage, but the area I have to work with isn't really big enough for the commercially available stuff so I'll have to see what I can come up with.

[SuperD]

dave, while you have the floor out, is there any room for a floor hatch or is it all foam and fuel tank?

[SuperDaveMT]

There isn't much room under the floor - a center channel for the livewell intake/drain and the rest is foam. If I could put a gastank under the floor, that would open up a great spot at the transom for the storage I'd like to have, but I don't think the floor space is deep enough.

[dragonfly]

ok every good wacker needs a scabbard! I was going fishing this morning and my budy had to work so I was looking at my wacker and remembered how I keep it in the side tray to keep it from rolling around or hang it from the cooler and thought, I got to come up with a better way so I thought 'scabbard' so I found some aluminum tig welded the bottom and drilled a drain hole, cut and arched the top and made the back so it will clip to my fish tray or the lower lip on the side trays on the boat. so its handy but out of the way. here are some pics. dfly

[autorick]

I am hooking up a Humminbird 788cidi tomorrow for when i am on the back deck i wont have squint into the cabin to see what is happening.

[kokanee_slayer]

I am hooking up a Humminbird 788cidi tomorrow for when i am on the back deck i wont have squint into the cabin to see what is happening. Very Nice!! I have a Hummingbird 597 ci hd and love it but only have a 16ft boat so I don't have to look too far to see it. LOL

[Kokanee-Toni]

I am hooking up a Humminbird 788cidi tomorrow for when i am on the back deck i wont have squint into the cabin to see what is happening.

That is really cool!

[eenakoK]

I am hooking up a Humminbird 788cidi tomorrow for when i am on the back deck i wont have squint into the cabin to see what is happening. Very Nice!! I have a Hummingbird 597 ci hd and love it but only have a 16ft boat so I don't have to look too far to see it. LOL

You are going to have a fish killing machine.. Can't wait to see it!

[Winterun]

I am hooking up a Humminbird 788cidi tomorrow for when i am on the back deck i wont have squint into the cabin to see what is happening. Very Nice!! I have a Hummingbird 597 ci hd and love it but only have a 16ft boat so I don't have to look too far to see it. LOL

I have the same unit! 788 CI HD Combo. It has more bells and whistle's on it than I can use. But the color screen is excellent to look at and in bright sunlight no problems at all, well unless you have polarized sunglasses on. Just keep updating the software, it's expandable, and has an extra card slot for transferring those secret spots from your unit to your computer!!!

Now I gotta go find something to do to my boat!!!

Winterun

[Kokanee-Toni]

I have the same unit! 788 CI HD Combo. It has more bells and whistle's on it than I can use. But the color screen is excellent to look at and in bright sunlight no problems at all, well unless you have polarized sunglasses on. Just keep updating the software, it's expandable, and has an extra card slot for transferring those secret spots from your unit to your computer!!!

Now I gotta go find something to do to my boat!!!

Winterun

You could come and work on mine. I have lots to do?

[T K]

4 years ago, got married, had two kids and bought a POS fixer upper house. Been a little too busy for fishing. Things are calming down a bit now. Got my boat from my brothers house last week. Lund WC 14, Honda 20 hp. Been cleaning and going over everything. My Cannon down rigger power cables were dry rotted. Replaced those. Oil change. Batteries charged. New trolling motor wired up.
Going to try to hit up Berryessa Friday and see how it goes. I feel like a teenage girl waiting for a Justin Beeber concert.

[Steelheadin360]

Started my pre-spring boat repairs on the livingston this week. i used it for crabbing last year so i had a few things to fix from banging it off rocks. Had to re fiberglass part of the middle keel due to it just rotting out for some reason. pulled the main keel strips off and filled in the screw holes and ordered some new keel strips from livingston. sanded down the hole bottom of the boat and shot it with black gelcoat yesterday. my little 4horse kicker was running a little ruff last time so i pulled it apart and found the problem, float bowl was rusted out. trying to find parts for a late 70s kicker is almost impossible. but google didnt fail me and for the price of $45 bucks i got a new float and float bowl heading my way. im also gonna cut out the top of one of the back "seat" but leave enough around the outside to put a carpeted plywood top and install my battery inside of it and mount my fish finder on top. im also thinking anout doing the same thing under my seat and putting my gas tank under it. just gotta find a more square shaped one.

I also sold my 25 horse jet drive, it came off my little john boat and just didnt work on the livingston at all, it took one trip to figure that out. so im in the market for a 2 stroke 20-25 horse short shaft. or a 15-20 horse 4 stroke. order a new prop for the minnkota, spooled the downriggers with braid instead of cable.. pretty much gonna be ready to kill some few in a few weeks

[Scrminbanshee]

Well, I just wired in a new lowrance elite 7hdi. While i was in the process i had to move around the scotty rod holders and then i also added some rod holders to the boat. Up next is going to be another down rigger, been debating on electric or manual. The electric would be nice but is so expensive. I am also going to add an i pilot to minn kota but the guy at cabelas that i bought my sounder from said to wait till march cause there should be a sale going on then.

Hey steelheadin360 good idea on going with a 15 to 20 horse i had a 14ft livingston before the lund and put a 25hp prop on the back and planing that thing was a bit intense. The bow would come up so high i couldn't see so i would find a clear path and then hope none would get in my way. It did have a 15 on it and was a bit underpowered but would still run at about 17mph but i think the 20 would be the way to go unless you want to add forward controls but then it get expensive.anyways just my two cents.

[Steelheadin360]

Yea im going for the 2 stroke 20 route I think. Thanks for the input. I usaully try to put the fuel tank up front if im by myself in the boat because of the planning problem. i put my dads 15 horse on it and his prop i think is pitched a little weird, took a bit to get it up on a plane and get the rpms up but when it did gawd dang did that boat move out. i dont usaully use the gas motor for trolling so the high speed option would be nice :)

[kokanee_slayer]

I used to have a 12ft Lund with a 15hp 4-stroke and to help it plane better I installed a Doel-fin Hydrofoil Stabilizer on the outboard and put 120 lbs of ballast in the bow when fishing by myself. It plane out well and at WOT it would do 18 to 20 mph.

[Scrminbanshee]

Yea im going for the 2 stroke 20 route I think. Thanks for the input. I usaully try to put the fuel tank up front if im by myself in the boat because of the planning problem. i put my dads 15 horse on it and his prop i think is pitched a little weird, took a bit to get it up on a plane and get the rpms up but when it did gawd dang did that boat move out. i dont usaully use the gas motor for trolling so the high speed option would be nice :)

I also ran the hydrofoil on the motor.when i went with a new motor i put a 25hp etec out back. I would think that a 20hp two stroke would be the way to go. Doesnt the plate say no bigger than a 20 without a remote steer? If so they nailed it lol.

[T K]

Up next is going to be another down rigger, been debating on electric or manual. The electric would be nice but is so expensive.

When I was rigging up my boat I asked a friend of mine about down riggers. He had two manual. I asked if he did it again what would he wished he would have gotten. He said," electric motors". "Cranking those manuals up and down all day gets old real fast". I took his advise and got electric downriggers (Cannon Mini Mags) and have been soooo glad I did. I can hear people from across the lake cranking theirs up while I just hit the switch and wait for mine to come up. Think about how many times your stuff goes up and down in a day. The extra money is well spent.

[kokanee_slayer]

I also ran the hydrofoil on the motor.when i went with a new motor i put a 25hp etec out back. I would think that a 20hp two stroke would be the way to go. Doesnt the plate say no bigger than a 20 without a remote steer? If so they nailed it lol.

It's been a while and I don't remember the HP limitations but it did make quite a difference in performance. Agree the 2-Stroke has a much better power to weight ratio. However, the 4-Strokes are much quieter and lot more fuel efficient. Obviously, it just depends what you are looking for.

[kokanee_slayer]

When I was rigging up my boat I asked a friend of mine about down riggers. He had two manual. I asked if he did it again what would he wished he would have gotten. He said," electric motors". "Cranking those manuals up and down all day gets old real fast". I took his advise and got electric downriggers (Cannon Mini Mags) and have been soooo glad I did. I can hear people from across the lake cranking theirs up while I just hit the switch and wait for mine to come up. Think about how many times your stuff goes up and down in a day. The extra money is well spent.

I agree on the electric downriggers. I fished with manuals for years which weren't too bad for lake fishing with 8 lbs weights and typically running no deeper than 50ft. However, when fishing the Salt and cranking up 13 lbs weights from depths of 100+ ft, it got old real fast. LOL

[dragonfly]

T K are you mountimg them mid way,in between, or at the rear ? good choice going electric saves a lot of time, also something to consider is having them set up with ball retrivers makes life a lot easier too. dfly

[T K]

T K are you mountimg them mid way,in between, or at the rear ? good choice going electric saves a lot of time, also something to consider is having them set up with ball retrivers makes life a lot easier too. dfly

Mine are mounted off of each side at the back.

[dragonfly]

OK I am doing some minor overhaul work to my electrical to get ready for my 2 scannons I am modifying. I will be adding 2 group 27's to the starboard side cleaning up the wiring and adding another transducer for the digitroll 10's and will be permanently mounting and wiring the 2106's to the forward gunnel's first I had to figure out the slope of the gunnel's which is 8 degrees then I got a piece of 1'' thick black uhmw and cut to 6''x 8''and and milled an 8 degree angle and drilled the 4 holes and made backing plates out of 1-1/4 x 1/4'' SS flat bar and mounted the scotty mounting plates, ball retrievers, and the scotty 6'' risers to clear the rails heres pictures of the project so far. gfly

[Scrminbanshee]

Dam dfly you been busy huh?

I agree on the electric down riggers. i just hate how expensive they are.

[dragonfly]

thanx Scrminbanshe also if you noticed in the lower picture top center I installed a led flood light it not only lights up the rear deck area but I turn it on when backing down the boat launch and lights up the whole area for those dark thirty fishing starts something to think about when setting up lighting. dfly

[DLM]

having a place for the net and boat pole so they are handy but out of the way was a problem so I came up with this and mounted them behind the cab so they don't take up much room but are easy to get to when needed dfly

Dragonfly

Tell me about the light on top of the tower. I don't have a tower, but I need to light up the back of the boat in some way. I have been looking at LED systems but am concerned about how much light they actually put out.