What is the ultimate fly fishing boat?

[bonneville54]

You know, one that handles all types of water....shallow lakes and marshes, big waves on big lakes, the California Delta, very little draft, wide and stable and so on.

Seriously, I'm looking for a boat that is rather versatile and have looked at a few from Lund and Lowe and Tracker. I like the idea of a Bass type boat (with no use for a live well) and Lowe has one called the Multi-Species.

Stinger Mod-V Crappie Boats by Lowe - high-value, low-cost aluminum multi-species fishing boats - 175

But, I'm new to this....Deep Vee? Modified Vee? Flat bottom?.....how much power does one need?

Looks to be a lot of good used boats on the market (at least in CA.) If you can't see it in the water....what do you look for in a used boat, how do you test the motor?

Thoughts?

 

[BigCliff]

I generally don't bother with big water, and I'm looking pretty seriously into one of these-

Outdoorsman ModelIndian River Canoe

which will ride atop a car, and do about 18mph with one of these-

Honda BF2 Outboard Engine - 2 hp boat motor specs and features

And goes for about $1400 total. A buddy has one set up with a tiller extension so he can run it standing in the middle to spot fish. Makes a feller envious when he's covering 5x the area you can while paddling a kayak.

 

[Joni]

The one you posted looks pretty darn close to perfect to me. We had a 14 Alumacraft with all the fishing bells and whistles, but it was a bit small, so we upgraded to a Monarch 16 footer. Both with a merc 25 four. It was just enough to get us off the lake when waves kicked up.
We are now looking at John Boat style.

JON BOATS - Side Console, All-Welded - Alumacraft 2010

 

[lancer09]

I fish a lot of big water and boats are hard to beat, especially when covering a lot of water. One thing to keep in mind, if you are planning on fishing some rivers with shallow rifles it would be best to have some sort of flat bottom and jet engine. They are actually fun to drive and there are very few spots in a big river that you wont be able to get to. We used to travel up rifles less than 4 inches deep without a problem.

 

[MoscaPescador]

Hi Bonneville,
I can probably spout on about line tapers, rod design, and the benefits of click pawl drags, but boats are foreign to me. From looking at that boat design, I could tell you that it could do the job for you, but I can't tell you how well and why.

If you post on Dan Blanton's board or Bill Kiene's board, you could probably get a more detailed answer. A lot of California Delta fishermen post there. On Facebook, look up the name Hogan Brown. He is a guide and Idylwilde signature tier who fishes for Largemouth Bass and Striped Bass on the Sacramento River near Chico, as well as drifting the Lower Yuba. Hogan told me that he uses a Lowe Roughneck jon boat for bassing.

Get the boat fast. Smallmouth Bass fishing is great on Scott's Flat right now. That would be a good shakedown cruise for you.

MP