15' Bass Tracker Aluminum Hull 1986 during a normal fishing day about 2 or 3 gallons of water comes out when I pull the boat out of the water and turn on the bilge pump. When on the water, I have noticed some water 1/2 inch collecting on the deck about midship right near the front left of the live well in front of passenger seat. Any suggestions on how to isolate the problem and also what are the options to fix the leak materials, etc, if its comming from the live well, or thru the hull somewhere maybe even near a rivet. I had the live well pugged from the inside today and didn't use it but still got the water in the hull.

Any advice is appreciated!

TxTrapper

I have a fiberglass boat so someone with an aluminum might have a better idea or better info. Spotting a leak from a rivet is going to be interesting. Definitely sounds like that is what is leaking. Visually inspect the entire outside of the hull and see if there are any tell-tale signs of water.

Once you find it, you could use a marine grade sealant from the outside as a temporary fix, but to fix it right, you're probably going to need to do some tear-down from the inside. There's a product called Gluvit. You pretty much just roll/brush it on. It can also be used on the exterior side, but it's probably going to stand out like a sore thumb.

I use to own a alumin.bass boat that started leaking water.The way I found the leak was I leveled the boat, on the trailer,put the plug,and started filling the inside of the boat with water.It didnt take long before I notice water leaking from under the boat.
I eventually had to take the decking out of the boat to get to the ribs of the boat.Three of the ribs had come unwelded causing the boat to flex making a stress crack in the bottom of the boat.I didnt have any warrenty left on the hull,so I took to an aluminal welder to have it fix.

It's an iron boat...it's riveted...they all leak. That bilge pump works just fine in the middle of the lake, use it. Don't wait until you pull it out...that's not very smart.

When you actually find a place that leaks, JB Weld is your new best friend.