So for about a year now I've had this pet project. We have a small Sea Ray runabout boat we got from a friend who moved away. It's a family recreational boat but I'm a fisherman at heart! Dad taught me to fish and took me out on bass boats and pond boats as a kid so naturally I wanted to get a bass boat when I got older. Well the family runabout was all I was gonna be able to do since buying a new (even new to us) boat was out of the question and we definitely couldn't afford a second boat. So I decided to build a deck for the trolling motor to mount on and this way I could use the family boat to fish from. Well I got quotes and it was gonna be $800-1200 to have someone build the deck. I (foolishly) thought, "hey I'm somewhat intelligent and somewhat handy" so let me try and build it myself. After pricing the materials and such, I figured I could build the deck for about $300. That's just the deck and not the motor mount. Long story short, after 8 or so months and probably around $400 in supplies (and a cr*p more in man hours), I finally finished the deck. This past weekend, we rented a 5th wheel out on lake fork and I figured there was no better time to christen the boat deck. . There was a minor design flaw that was solved with a quick trip to Hootens in Emory. Long story short, I FINALLY can take my boat fishing!

The metal deck for the motor was work done by Everhold Anchors here on the forum. I also bought a new Garmin 73SV for the console and moved my Lowrance Elite 5 up to the bow (hence the empty mount in the photo). Now I need some practice on the water learning to locate fish on the Garmin and using the trolling motor to keep me on the brush piles! Anyone running Garmins want to help me out?

If you see a guy fishing from a runabout with an ugly trolling motor mount up front, feel free to say hi!



One more pic of the mount.

Not a thing wrong with that. It's called making the most out of what you had to use. It will be more rewarding when you put fish in the boat.

Not bad for a home made project ...Key thing is that it works for you and hope you enjoy and have fun

I dig it! That's a sweet looking ride and a great mod.

I like it! Now go fishing and have fun with it! Who cares if its a runabout.

Thanks guys. Time to get the boat out once the ramps open back up! Gonna try and sneak out sometime this week while my little man is in school and go work on learning the Garmin better. Also gotta test the Lowrance hookup.

That'll work!

220, 221, whatever it takes!

Adapt and overcome, nice job.

I promise you the fish won't care. Well done on using what you had available!

MAN there is nothing wrong with that setup at all Capt!!Necessity is the mother of invention and your invention rocks

Now I just need some of you guys to go out with me and help me learn to use it to it's potential!

Great job, I know you are proud of it. Should get a lot use out of that setup.

Oh I'll take it out as much as I can. trying to get my wife interested to where she'll want to go out more and try to out catch me!

T. 2's, I promise you, if you just spend as much "TOW" as you can, the productivity of your "new Fishing Boat" will surely increase! Many years ago I converted a 15 1/2' Phantom Runabout to a Bass Boat with raised front & aft casting decks and a hand operated for trolling motor I didn't have any high-end electronics or live wells but I did put a lot of crappie into a wire basket hanging over the side! Good luck with a pretty sweet rig!