03-01-2016, 07:34 AM
Mallardmann, you broke my silence. I know how you feel; went through it about 8 months ago. Couldn't decide which way to go. Did a lot of research and looked at a lot of boats. Just like you, I wanted to fish with downriggers, have a safe boat with high side walls and be able to fit a crew that liked to fish.
I live in SE Idaho and looked at what was available around here. Duckworths, Weldcrafts, Magnitudes, Hewescrafts, Thunderjets, Crestliners, Smoker Crafts, North Rivers; you've probably done the same.
Hard to decide on what you want when there are only two boats of one build in a showroom to look at. Finally narrowed it down to three that I thought were best for what I wanted and decided to drive to Portland and look where there's more volume. Was looking for at least a 20 foot boat. Everything I looked at 20 foot and up had a bracket. Guess if it's OK for the ocean, it'll probably do OK for what I needed. Maybe it's a NW thing as you noted.
Looked at Weldcraft, North River and Thunderjets. Bracket designs were similar, I liked the Weldcraft bracket design the best. Only thing that swayed me away was the closed cell foam sprayed inside the hull. Great for sound deadening but eventually it will take on water. The North River is built like a tank but the bow deck design had a problem I couldn't get out of my head. It had a hole cut in it to store anchor rope and if the bow filled with water from wave action, it would dump into the hull as well as dump out the self bailing ports. No sense taking on water when other boats are designed to eliminate the possibility(could have welded it shut). Looked at 60 different Thunderjets at Siglers Marine before I finally picked one out. Bought the 21' Luxor OB Limited Edition. I think the Yamaha slightly swayed my decision. I had them bump the stock 150hp up to a 200hp. There' 3% power loss per 1000' of increased elevation. If you fish above 6000' or 7000' you should probably look at getting a ported prop and cut back on the pitch.
So back to the downrigger questions about fishing riggers with a bracketed boat. If you plan to run a kicker, you should probably get a prop shield for it to keep the closest rigger line from potentially getting wrapped up if for some reason you turn too sharp. Most of the riggers have long enough booms you can run out the side to avoid it but get the prop shield and forget about it. You'll have a hoot fishing with riggers. Avoid the frustrations with the standard clothespin type releases. Chamberlain releases work pretty well once you figure out how to set them for your fishing conditions.
One thing I found about a long boat with high side walls is control issues when fishing in high winds. Sometimes it's tough to get the boat to turn into the wind at trolling speeds once the bow has been pushed off the direct line of the waves. I just bought a Minnkota Terrova to mount on the bow. We'll soon find out how it works out.
Good luck on the boat purchase. I'm sure you'll have a good time.......I'm having a blast.
J
[signature]
I live in SE Idaho and looked at what was available around here. Duckworths, Weldcrafts, Magnitudes, Hewescrafts, Thunderjets, Crestliners, Smoker Crafts, North Rivers; you've probably done the same.
Hard to decide on what you want when there are only two boats of one build in a showroom to look at. Finally narrowed it down to three that I thought were best for what I wanted and decided to drive to Portland and look where there's more volume. Was looking for at least a 20 foot boat. Everything I looked at 20 foot and up had a bracket. Guess if it's OK for the ocean, it'll probably do OK for what I needed. Maybe it's a NW thing as you noted.
Looked at Weldcraft, North River and Thunderjets. Bracket designs were similar, I liked the Weldcraft bracket design the best. Only thing that swayed me away was the closed cell foam sprayed inside the hull. Great for sound deadening but eventually it will take on water. The North River is built like a tank but the bow deck design had a problem I couldn't get out of my head. It had a hole cut in it to store anchor rope and if the bow filled with water from wave action, it would dump into the hull as well as dump out the self bailing ports. No sense taking on water when other boats are designed to eliminate the possibility(could have welded it shut). Looked at 60 different Thunderjets at Siglers Marine before I finally picked one out. Bought the 21' Luxor OB Limited Edition. I think the Yamaha slightly swayed my decision. I had them bump the stock 150hp up to a 200hp. There' 3% power loss per 1000' of increased elevation. If you fish above 6000' or 7000' you should probably look at getting a ported prop and cut back on the pitch.
So back to the downrigger questions about fishing riggers with a bracketed boat. If you plan to run a kicker, you should probably get a prop shield for it to keep the closest rigger line from potentially getting wrapped up if for some reason you turn too sharp. Most of the riggers have long enough booms you can run out the side to avoid it but get the prop shield and forget about it. You'll have a hoot fishing with riggers. Avoid the frustrations with the standard clothespin type releases. Chamberlain releases work pretty well once you figure out how to set them for your fishing conditions.
One thing I found about a long boat with high side walls is control issues when fishing in high winds. Sometimes it's tough to get the boat to turn into the wind at trolling speeds once the bow has been pushed off the direct line of the waves. I just bought a Minnkota Terrova to mount on the bow. We'll soon find out how it works out.
Good luck on the boat purchase. I'm sure you'll have a good time.......I'm having a blast.
J
[signature]