Center console boat

I've got 5k to spend. What would you guys look for?

another $5000. really, unless you stumble up on a once in a life time deal.

I would be looking for a bay boat with a tunnel with a small draw so I could go skinny and handle some waves. That would be pretty good for port mans.
But seriously you're gonna need to use that as down or find some more cash.

You might find a decent scooter for that, wait until october when the market drops out, and keep your eyes peeled. There's some real junk out there, so you don't want to throw your five grand down a hole either.

Zing!!!

Well with 3 kids that's about all I can spend. Other wise I would look at buying a new one.

Avoid anything that says:
Cajun
Bay liner
Redfin
Bay liner
VIP
Stealth
All of those are bottom of the barrel cheap built hulls.
Any brand that's been abused or neglected is a money pit, so be careful and know what you're looking at.

You can find a center console w/motor for around 5k, but your not going to find a a tunnel hull, or any other skinny water boat for anything close to that. That being said, you can fish a lot of water without a skinny water boat, I've been fishing San Antonio, and Esperitu Santo bays for 5 yrs in a boat that is anything but skinny. But what do I know, I fish for Reds, and trout on 10lb mono (:

I feel your pain. I've been nursing the same boat and motor for 14 years. I can't afford anything new for a few more years.

In fact, I have to take mine to the shop Monday because the d&@#!! motor alarm is going off even before I start it. Be careful getting a cheap boat if it means a lot of expensive repairs on top of the normal expensive maintenance.

Just build a center console in a jon boat. That's what I did. If you find a good, used boat 5k will easily cover it.

Not to hijack your thread, but I decided I couldn't afford to have the boat guys work on old Betsy so I hit the Internet and spent a day diagnosing the problem myself. I did a temp fix but if I had taken it in it would have been $300-400. That's a relatively cheap problem.

I fish quite a bit but man, it can be an expensive hobby.

And Capt. Mac, I like your boat. Can you actually catch fish without a $2000 power pole?

Thank you sir.
LOL, yes and you can run across a flat with an engine smaller than a 200 and catch them on a fly rod that costs less than $700 as well.

get with your local boat dealership, tell them what you're wanting and check back often, they don't make much off used boats, and will usually let trade in boats go for around what they gave them. Finding a used boat is easy but 5k is a stiff budget. but you may be able to find something decent with a lot of hours on it for that price.

plus side, I have yet to find a dealership that will sell you something that is going to explode first trip

Capt. Mac - good job rigging out that boat with a small budget, makes the price of those fish go down quite a bit.

Hey Mac how skinny can that jon boat go? Been thinking about doing the same.

good layout in the boat. You should be able to drift\fish some skinny water.
Nice job!

Thank you gentlemen. I built the floors and decks out of OSB and put three coats of oil based paint on them. Then I carpeted the whole interior. I built the poling platform and stools out of galvanized conduit, welded them up and put two coats each of primer, paint and lacquer on them. All the materials I got from Home Depot. I bought some deck lids from Cabelas ( those are pretty pricey but they are easy to install and look good). I also bought the push pole from cabelas - NOT a $ 600 pole. I wired it up up with navigation lights, courtesy lights and a bilge pump. Old Jon boats tend to leak a little. I thought it turned out pretty nice for a thirty year old boat. It'll run in about a foot of water. Takes about two feet of water to get up on plane - the sacrifice of not having a big motor with electric tilt and trim. I can pole it in about five inches of water ( shallow enough to get into trouble - I've had to get out and push it back into deep enough water to float again).
This is a pic taken before I built the center console but it will give you an idea of how shallow you can get.

That's an awesome pic. Makes me wish i was on the water instead of work

Nice Pic! at first I thought you were zeroed in on some fish....then I realized you are just dodging the fly-line!!!!

My first "flats" rig was a polarcraft aluminum tunnel with a forty. Decked it with aluminum road signs and a shallow sport console. I can't tell you how many thousands of pounds of fish that rig brought back to the table.

Don't confuse equipment with knowledge. Still have twits laugh at my scooter but there isn't a fiberglass boat made I'd trade for.

If you are talking about the scooter in your signature line then those guys are nuts! That's a heck of a nice boat Pat!

Love the road sign idea. I would have never of thought of that.

X2 Capt. Mac, there is a bit of satisfaction you get when you find yourself fishing the same water as a boats that cost 10 times what yours did. I found my RFL in Corpus and didn't pay through the nose, just had to be patient and wait for the right deal,

if you're looking for a used flats boat, check out the trailer very carefully and if its [censored] (which mine was) use that as a bargaining tool ( I didn't) and just replaced mine

Hah and they said you couldnt get a tunnel hull for less than 5k

Yea, when pat got his first flats rig gas was probably 35 cents a gallon, and a fishing license was $12

Gas was .80 and a fishing license was six bucks. It wasn't that long ago.

For me gas was .27¢ a gallon and I didn't need a fishing license.

My uncle made flats boats for seismic crews to use in the shallows of Texas and La. and he made some small skiffs for us kids to use along the east Copano Bay shoreline. Fun times !

I was navigating boats and driving tractors before I was old enough to need a license to drive cars or trucks.

First boat?
Gosh I was seven years old. 12' johnboat with a 4 hp mercury. Put our huge lab Kingfish in the front to level it off and gone all day we'd be. It was a simpler time for sure. Sixty cents would fill up the tank, and that was good for a week.