Jon Boat...

[Scott Shenton]

So, the wookiee has (in light of his recent fishing adventure) has changed his boat plans. I would like to find a cheap, simple jon boat to use on bass lakes (small), creeks, river, and perhaps inshore creeks and harbors for blues, stripers, snook, trout, etc...... In a couple of years, I am going to by a walkaround in the range of 23-27' for off shore fishing and diving. So, my question is this. How much motor do I have to buy until I get oil injection? I don't want to deal with mixing oil/gas. All though a Nitro/Tracker bias board, who makes a good cheap jon boat to consider? Any advice would be apreciated.

 

[Scott Shenton]

Or, a skiff would be even better.....

 

[Brian Bell2]

Tracker makes the Grizzly series, they are all welded jon boats and they have a nice choice of layouts and options. Sorry dont know about the motors. Check out Mercs and Yamaha's web sites. I know Yamaha makes small 4 strokes as well as honda.

 

[John Watts]

I've done the jon boat route and my advice if you want to use it at all in bay/inshore creeks/harbor, etc. is to get a V instead of a flat bottom. You can get them just as inexpensively as a jon boat for the smaller sizes, but the water handling ability is much better. When I used my flat bottom at the Ocean City bay I had to get a LARGE bilge pump and wear a bathing suit, because I was gonna get wet and take waves over the bow, even on a calm day, due to boat wakes. I fished the same water in a canoe and got less wet than I did in the jon boat.