Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Boat Has Paid For Itself In Fun

Bought my boat on March 23rd. Called the bank ahead of time and put cash money in the sellers hand. Really wanted things to work out, but I felt my inexperience, age, and arthritic joints worked against me. But I decided I was going for it anyway.

And there's been a couple of misadventures. The lake level dropped and I scuffed a prop til it needed repair. Also failed to watch my depth coming around the downriver end of an island and got stuck in the mud. Went fishing to find that my onboard trolling motor charger had failed and called it a day before lunch.

Still... I get a huge thrill every time I fire the boat up. Love the quiet power of the 4 stroke Merc 90. Got a 13 mile run between dams on the river near me and I can have a great day just riding back and forth.
Last week I bought a tube and accessories. Put my youngest (the crash test dummy) in the water behind the boat this afternoon and pulled him up and down river til almost dark.That's one first for today.
Also went upriver to the town near the dam and tied at the municipal free docks there. Wife and son walked up a block into downtown and got hot dogs and fresh cut french fries and brought them back to the boat. Another first..
Were tied up there until it was starting to get dark. We'd been out til almost dark a few times but this time we mounted up the nav lights and headed 8 miles downriver to the ramp where we put in. Beautiful night, and another first...

Been a lot of firsts over the last few months and I still have tons of plans for the boat.Lot's of grandkid time lining up.
But... I decided before I bought it that if I had one really good day it would be worth the price of admission. We've had a number of really good days, with today being an epitome of sorts.
Figuring that the boat has paid for itself in under 4 months...

And a big thanks here to all who advised on various matters concerning!!!

A bote thread is no damned good w/o pics.

I know a lot of people don’t like them, and I don’t get to use mine as much as I would like to, but I’d never be without one. Glad you’re having fun with yours. Dave

Good for you, man! Boats are a hell of a lot of fun.

Maintenance and planning take care of 99% of boat issues.

I like boats.

Those 4 stroke Mercury motors are great. I have a 2010 115 Mercury 4 stroke. Only issue so far the alcohol in the fuel I’m forced to use cooked a couple internal fuel pumps a couple years ago.

Congrats! I have a good friend who wouldn’t consider life without a boat, he spent a bunch of family time on them when his kids were growing up, l expect he would agree with you.

Same with me and my new Tracker Classic XL, John. Gone are the days when I could get my Hobie Pro Angler on top of my SUV, and now launching and retrieving are so much easier.

If you don't have it yet, do get the Mercury Vessel View Mobile device. It simply plugs in to the motor and links to your phone. It gives you RPM, temps, estimated fuel remaining and flow rate, hours of use, and even links to your dealer to report trouble codes. And lots more besides. About $200. Many YouTube vids on it, so check one out.

My flats boat is going on a 1,102 mile trip Thursday and will be used hard for 10 days. We'll use it as a mode of transportation, fishing and skiing and then another 1,102 miles back home.

Surprisingly my wife has decided she would like a mini pontoon boat for our new property a mile from a mountain lake.
She went and set up an auto deposit for her bank and calculated out her savin for a boat.

But it will be next year before we buy.

Ethanol was mentioned to harm a boat motor, I keep this website as a favorite.

https://www.pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=CT

Enjoy, but one first I'd strongly suggest you make a point to avoid experiencing if at all possible is getting caught out on the water in heavy fog, especially on waters with barge traffic.

I had a flats skiff and I used it just about every weekend. I got my moneys worth of fun out of it the 6 years I had it. I sold it when I got into kayak fishing. I miss it sometimes other times I am glad to just have the yak in garage.

The charter guys in Venice, Louisiana run around at 45mph in fog so thick you can't see a channel maker at 50'. A tug and barge is easy to see.

As to the title: that amount of fun is almost beyond the realm of imagination.

We have had a lot of fun with ours!

I'm leaning hard towards getting a boat. You guys are gonna push me over the edge. Living on a bay on the south side of Lake Ontario and having the finger lakes not too far south of me and I've been around boats all my life. Now that I'm retired I could expand my leisure activity on various lakes & large bays. Very little river navigation for me, though, because around here that's mostly canoe & kayak territory. My present "yacht" is a 15.5 ft. fiberglass canoe that I've owned since 1975. Time to move up a few notches.

A Louisiana Coonass without a boat is akin to a Comanche without a horse.

Unthinkable.

You said in an earlier post
You were gunna run it hard.
I think that that is a bit to hard.

























































Hope everyone on the boat was OK after the collision.

I gotta ask...
Presuming 1102 miles on the trailer? Or are you talking water miles?

I'd love to find a way and a place to do an extended water trip. Either inns or campgrounds would be OK with me.

But trailering around is cool too.I've done 3 lakes and 3 rivers within 2 hours of the house. Dreaming of North Dakota or LOW...

#saltlife