Greetings all. I moved over to Chattanooga a few years back from Memphis. Could not be happier over here....great town with great people. And the water close by is fishable as opposed to the big muddy river over there. So a fishing boat must be had. I have some experience with fiberglass boats as I did the ski boat thing when I was younger and to this day regret not getting a fish & ski. Now all I want is a fishing boat and here is where I would ask for some advise. I want a fairly lightweight aluminum boat since much of my fishing will be done alone and since I don't have a big vehicle to pull it. I will have to manually take the boat out of an apartment garage since the parking lot does not have room to back up the car. My minimum length is 16' and with the garage limitation I have 21' 6" to work with on the length (that includes the trailer). I would like to total package under 2000 pounds and would prefer something around 1700. I want to go with a Yamaha or Mercury and have narrowed down the boats to G3, Sea Ark, Polar Kraft, and War Eagle. I'm leaning towards the G3 Eagle 170 w/ a Yamaha 90 two stroke or the model 175 in either the bass boat layout or the PF panfishing model. To stay light I would need to go with the 175 series. I really like the 175PF with a Yamaha 60 four stroke. I saw one at a boat show and spoke with an attendee who had the same boat and he loved it. My interest is bass, crappie, and bream so the multi-species boat layout is appealing. High speed is not a priority. I assume the 72" beam is stable for the kind of water I will fish.
Any and all feedback would be most appreciated concerning this. Especially how hard it is to handle the boat alone.....I am over 50....not weak but not real strong either.
Thank you all.
Any and all feedback would be most appreciated concerning this. Especially how hard it is to handle the boat alone.....I am over 50....not weak but not real strong either.
Thank you all.