Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Bought a New Fishing Boat

Upgraded the fishing boat on Saturday. My 14' Mirrocraft was a good boat, but the bench seats and lack of a live well were less than ideal. I really went back and forth on whether to upgrade it with a floor, casting deck, and live well. Ultimately decided I have enough darned projects in my life and I didn't have the energy for it. I really liked the overall size and ease of use so I wanted to stay in that range. and I wanted to keep the motor size fairly small/simple/cheap to operate.

I settled on this 14' Crestliner Angler. Good storage under the front deck, rod locker, live well and a very open layout. 25 HP Yamaha will be plenty. The bow mount trolling motor will be a nice improvement over the transom mount I was using on the other boat (even if it's an older model). It had a really big seat in the stern that took up way too much space for my taste, so I removed it and decided to mount a folding seat on the port side. Controlling with my right hand will be an adjustment but I really loved having the open space in the back. It's pretty easy to undo if I don't like it. I hope to go catch some fish this coming weekend when I get home from my business trip.

Nice! That one would do everything I need to do!

New boats are exciting, congrats!

Congrats, good looking, makes sense fishing boat.

Nice boat!

Tight lines and screaming drag. Fish on!

Nice boat. Congrats! 👍

Dandy, can't go wrong with a Honda or Yamaha outboard either

Thanks, gents, appreciate the comments. Waitin' on Sunday....

Nice....we expect to the first fish pictures from Sunday.

Puppet, great boat. There's something about having a nice flat floor, rod locker and live well that makes a boat complete. Now, do yourself a favor and immediately go out and buy the next larger rim and tire to fit the boat. You can't imagine what a headache you're in for...if you don't. powdr

Looks like a great fishing set up

X2 on the undersized trailer tires

Get bigger ones

Yep, different wheels/tires are on the list. I hate those dinky 12" tires they use on these light trailers. I've had my fun with trailers over the years, and currently have 6 of 'em so I know the joy they can bring.

I think you scored! Nice work

Great fishing boat. Crestliners are a very rugged boat and a Yamaha motor is tops. Happy fishing.

Thanks again, guys. Didn't get to take it fishing as planned. Test ran the motor Saturday afternoon and she wasn't pumping water (even though it was when I bought it, and when I ran it last weekend) so I ordered a new impeller kit. Should only take 30 minutes to change but couldn't find the parts locally. I would have changed it for good measure anyway so it just got moved up on the list. The girls and I took the Mirrocraft out and pretended to fish for a few hours on Sunday and had a great time.

One of the two best days of a boat owner's life........

More than likely it's a blockage in the pee hole.
Take a piece of wire and stick it in there and see if that clears it up.

Thanks 358 Norma, I checked that on Saturday and it was clear. Water pump kit should be here Saturday so I've been doing the little things to the new boat so it's ready.

Nice set up congratulations

That's for people who buy them and never use them. they also say boat stands for "break out another thousand" because they coan't take care of things, out of inexperience because of not using it. it goes hand in hand.

Nice rig:)

I never regretted buying any boat I've owned and that included 24 foot Ocean boat to a 25 foot inboard jet. Most people buy a boat then find reasons not to use it.

Agreed, I've owned probably 8 boats and enjoyed all of them. I have moved away from the more complex boats in an attempt to keep it simple.

The water pump came in on Wednesday and I got it installed. Old impeller was Fubar. Spent the 4th with the family in the mountains. Took the Crestliner out for a shakedown run today. Spent a few hours on the water confirming that everything is ready to go. Still have a couple of small items, but nothing worth mentioning. With just me and my gear I saw a top speed of 24 mph on my GPS. She comes up on plane easy and I had no problem cruising on plane at 15 mph or so. Trolling motor is solid and the livewell is sweet. I may try the other prop to see what difference it makes.

I did not like where I mounted the seat so I'll be moving it back to a pedestal inside the boat. Other than that life was good and it's basically ready for some fishin'!

Bring another thousand.

Sock: What horse power? Thanks

25 HP 2-Stroke

I am getting similar speeds with a 25 hp Yamaha 4 stroke in my 14 foot Crestliner which is lighter than your boat. Regarding props Yamaha stamps the diameter of the prop on the side of the hub but you have to remove the prop to find the pitch. My prop is 9 7/8" diameter but I will let you know what the pitch is when I pull it off.
Optimizing a propeller is hard to do if you do not have a tachometer to see full throttle throttle RPM . If it is below the recommended operating range you need less pitch. If it is above recommended you need greater pitch. Evinrude motors have a chip hat can be read by dealers that shows max rpm but I do not know if Yamaha has the same feature.
The most common cause of water pump failure is running the motor with no cooling water which lubricates the vanes of the displacement pump. Even a quick bump of the starter to check the battery connection will wipe material off the vanes and affect pump efficiency.

The stamps on my props are a bit difficult to read, but the one on the motor appears to be a 9 1/4 X 9 pitch. The other, which I haven't tried yet, appears to be a 9 1/4 X 11. While looking at prop selectors, most props for this engine are listed as 9 7/8" diameter, so either mine are just old or I can't clearly make out the stamps. At 6K elevation, I doubt I'll see any improvement with the 11 pitch but I may give it a shot in the future. I have a tach connected to the motor, and while I don't think it's terribly accurate, it will run close to 6K RPM at WOT.

One inch in prop diameter absorbs the torque of two to three inches of pitch. On a fishing boat I do not want too large a prop because of exposure to rocks in the shallows. I believe my prop is 9-7/8 x 10-1/2. WOT limit is 6000 rpm. If you go on the Yamaha website and look at your motor they have Performance Bulletins for the motor on different boats. If you find a boat like yours they show the prop pitch and diameter..