# Boat Shopping



## bowhunter426 (Oct 20, 2010)

Far Beyond Driven said:


> Two boats are 4x the work that one is. Moving gear between them gets really old, buying duplicates of everything gets expensive.


2 boats will still be 10x cheaper to maintain than this one


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

There's a Scout, I think, moored on the way out in Saugatuck with 4x 350's on the back of it. And it's not that big of a boat.

You could make the one above troll down by running a bag on one side, putting that motor in gear, the other in reverse at slightly lower rpm's, and turning the wheel to compensate. Netting may be a trick.


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## bowhunter426 (Oct 20, 2010)

Far Beyond Driven said:


> There's a Scout, I think, moored on the way out in Saugatuck with 4x 350's on the back of it. And it's not that big of a boat.
> 
> You could make the one above troll down by running a bag on one side, putting that motor in gear, the other in reverse at slightly lower rpm's, and turning the wheel to compensate. Netting may be a trick.


Wouldn't have to worry about the biting flies either. Those motors barely idled and smoked heavily. Heck they didnt really like to run below 4000 rpm. The sweet spot for them was 6800RPM. The sound of a pair of Mercury Racing V6 maxed out is one the best sounds on earth. Bought it with a blown power head, rebuilt it, had fun for a year and sold. New owner hated the 300x's and repowered with 250 Verados


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## kingfisher 11 (Jan 26, 2000)

I have considered a pontoon this year. Family wants one and the room to walk around is great. Now that my oldest son lives by Munescong Bay and the St Mary's. I plan to fish that area more.. He tells me now they are going to buy on the river system somewhere?


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## reddog1 (Jan 24, 2009)

kingfisher 11 said:


> I have considered a pontoon this year. Family wants one and the room to walk around is great. Now that my oldest son lives by Munescong Bay and the St Mary's. I plan to fish that area more.. He tells me now they are going to buy on the river system somewhere?


Bought my pontoon last year and I wish we would have done it sooner. It came with a 4 stroke 60 that was okay but it needed more so we are having a 90 put on and we are waiting to get it back. 

Anywhere along the St. Mary's is beautiful.


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## bowhunter426 (Oct 20, 2010)

Got a quote for an Angler Qwest Pro Troll 824, with 200 Merc and trailer for just under 60k. Twice what I want to spend on a boat. Started looking into the Family Fish series and saw Manitou makes a similar one as well. Used these are close to my budget. Not much for sale used right now.


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

Manitou mostly plays in the premium pontoon category so I wouldn’t expect a cheap quote from them. If you want a new pontoon for $30k, you are looking at a much cheaper boat with maybe a 90 or 115 hanging on the back.

If you really want to save some coin, move down to the Merc 150. Get a quote from the dealer on the package, and then a quote on just boat & trailer, and then get a quote from Leaders RPM on the Merc 150. If you can rig the controls and gages yourself and all they do is hang the engine. They are dirt cheap on Mercs.


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## bowhunter426 (Oct 20, 2010)

piketroller said:


> Manitou mostly plays in the premium pontoon category so I wouldn’t expect a cheap quote from them. If you want a new pontoon for $30k, you are looking at a much cheaper boat with maybe a 90 or 115 hanging on the back.
> 
> If you really want to save some coin, move down to the Merc 150. Get a quote from the dealer on the package, and then a quote on just boat & trailer, and then get a quote from Leaders RPM on the Merc 150. If you can rig the controls and gages yourself and all they do is hang the engine. They are dirt cheap on Mercs.


If I go with a 22 foot, I would do the 150 Merc again. For a 24 footer, 150 is just too small. I don't anticipate buying new, just pricing them out to see where a used one should fall.

I do agree that Leaders has some good prices. In 2015 bought boat and a 150 Merc from them. Sucker was priced to moved. Worked out well as after 5 years of ownership I only lost $3000 in depreciation. Almost had it sold for what I paid for it, but the guy couldn't come up with the downpayment the bank wanted, 20%. Probably for the best.

Did just find a 15 footer that I am going to look at tomorrow. Could probably use it until we find something bigger and not loose money


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## Shoeman (Aug 26, 2000)

Don’t be opposed to shopping the SE! 

Been looking at CL (as I always do)


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## bowhunter426 (Oct 20, 2010)

Shoeman said:


> Don’t be opposed to shopping the SE!
> 
> Been looking at CL (as I always do)


Maybe I have been behind the times, but the new CL app is awesome. Pretty much have my location set to cover all of Michigan, Indianna, Ohio and some Wisconsin. 

I also periodically check Florida. If I see something good there, will have to send my parents to check it out.


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

This 16 footer is going on the market in a month or so. It has caught many fish out of the lower Grand and even made it beyond the pier twice. Pottawatomi was way too good of a fishing hole for me to want a windshield boat. One day I slipped it under the bridge with about 6” clearance.


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## bowhunter426 (Oct 20, 2010)

Let me know when it does . Might still be looking


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

bowhunter426 said:


> Let me know when it does . Might still be looking


PM sent


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## F. Thompson (Jan 9, 2014)

We bought a Anglers Qwest tritoon Pro Troll 24 ft with a 150 Merc.last year. Our grandkids wanted to go and we couldn't say no. Sold our Lund in one day on craiglist, couldn't believe it. We stopped at all the dealerships, Scott in Linwood ,took us out on the bay on a Tritoon . That made the sale for us. He even made it possible to tour the factory when our boat was being made.


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## bowhunter426 (Oct 20, 2010)

F. Thompson said:


> We bought a Anglers Qwest tritoon Pro Troll 24 ft with a 150 Merc.last year. Our grandkids wanted to go and we couldn't say no. Sold our Lund in one day on craiglist, couldn't believe it. We stopped at all the dealerships, Scott in Linwood ,took us out on the bay on a Tritoon . That made the sale for us. He even made it possible to tour the factory when our boat was being made.


Any regrets with the 150 on the 824?


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## F. Thompson (Jan 9, 2014)

No, we have been very pleased with the performance. We did how ever, have a Mer. 15 HP four stroke added on for trolling.


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## kingfisher 11 (Jan 26, 2000)

piketroller said:


> This 16 footer is going on the market in a month or so. It has caught many fish out of the lower Grand and even made it beyond the pier twice. Pottawatomi was way too good of a fishing hole for me to want a windshield boat. One day I slipped it under the bridge with about 6” clearance.
> 
> View attachment 487205
> View attachment 487207


I am thinking this is what I may go to instead of the bigger boat. Let me know if you sell it.


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## sledman (Mar 26, 2014)

piketroller said:


> This 16 footer is going on the market in a month or so. It has caught many fish out of the lower Grand and even made it beyond the pier twice. Pottawatomi was way too good of a fishing hole for me to want a windshield boat. One day I slipped it under the bridge with about 6” clearance.
> 
> View attachment 487205
> View attachment 487207


Looks like a fishing machine sure it will go quickly..


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## bowhunter426 (Oct 20, 2010)

F. Thompson said:


> No, we have been very pleased with the performance. We did how ever, have a Mer. 15 HP four stroke added on for trolling.


How slow were you aiming to get with the 15hp? With the 150 on my 19 foot I could get down to 2.5mph


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

Shoeman said:


> My dock neighbor runs his 24' tri-toon through the washing machine between Belle Maer and the Moot every weekend. 6-10 people on board.


He wont be doing that long before the stringers holding the pontoons and deck together start loosening up. pontoons, tritoons, just cant take more than a few years on St Clair.


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

ESOX said:


> He wont be doing that long before the stringers holding the pontoons and deck together start loosening up. pontoons, tritoons, just cant take more than a few years on St Clair.


One of the marketing pushed for AnglerQuest, and others trying to play in this space, is that these aren’t the same pontoons of the past, and are built for taking a pounding on big water. How true this is, I have no idea.


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## bowhunter426 (Oct 20, 2010)

piketroller said:


> One of the marketing pushed for AnglerQuest, and others trying to play in this space, is that these aren’t the same pontoons of the past, and are built for taking a pounding on big water. How true this is, I have no idea.


This is the big question. They are becoming very popular in Florida as well. There is a Protroll 822 on FB Market place with 700 hours on it, looks like for a charter on LSC. If I can get over there in the next few weeks it will be interesting to see how it has held up


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

bowhunter426 said:


> This is the big question. They are becoming very popular in Florida as well. There is a Protroll 822 on FB Market place with 700 hours on it, looks like for a charter on LSC. If I can get over there in the next few weeks it will be interesting to see how it has held up


Crawl around under it with your tape measure looking at the structure under the deck, pontoon mounts, etc, and then do the same with some normal Benningtons and the like.


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## TK81 (Mar 28, 2009)

Far Beyond Driven said:


> There's a Scout, I think, moored on the way out in Saugatuck with 4x 350's on the back of it. And it's not that big of a boat.
> 
> You could make the one above troll down by running a bag on one side, putting that motor in gear, the other in reverse at slightly lower rpm's, and turning the wheel to compensate. Netting may be a trick.


I love that boat. Just glad I don't have to consider putting gas in her.


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

piketroller said:


> One of the marketing pushed for AnglerQuest, and others trying to play in this space, is that these aren’t the same pontoons of the past, and are built for taking a pounding on big water. How true this is, I have no idea.


There is a big difference between the big deep lakes and the big shallow lakes with their confused seas, steep, standing walls of water that will quickly rack a toon boat out of square, one pontoon hitting a wall whilst the other keeps momentum. The "hull" continuously being twisted as well....I have a couple friends that tried the tritoon thing on St Clair and West Erie. Expensive experiments.


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

ESOX said:


> There is a big difference between the big deep lakes and the big shallow lakes with their confused seas, steep, standing walls of water that will quickly rack a toon boat out of square, one pontoon hitting a wall whilst the other keeps momentum. The "hull" continuously being twisted as well....I have a couple friends that tried the tritoon thing on St Clair and West Erie. Expensive experiments.


I’m not disagreeing with you at all. Western basin of Erie and Saginaw Bay are big shallow bowls like LSC, and these are the target market for at least AnglerQuest. As mentioned, the marketing spins these boats as capable of these conditions. I don’t put much stock in marketing.


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## F. Thompson (Jan 9, 2014)

To answer your question , how slow could we get our Tritoon down with our 15 HP EFI four stroke, 1.0 to 1.5 was was the best we could do.


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## Trunkslammer (May 22, 2013)

Im in the same “boat”. Big lake trolling/walleye jigging/water sports/family cruiser. There just isnt a boat out there that does it all and does it all great. A Lund Baron or big tyee is the only boat that Somewhat fits the bill. Im not into toons. And they will never work for jigging in some wind.


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## bowhunter426 (Oct 20, 2010)

Trunkslammer said:


> Im in the same “boat”. Big lake trolling/walleye jigging/water sports/family cruiser. There just isnt a boat out there that does it all and does it all great. A Lund Baron or big tyee is the only boat that Somewhat fits the bill. Im not into toons. And they will never work for jigging in some wind.


The Baron and Tyee are both nice boats. We decided to postpone buying a larger boat for a while due to some uncertainties happening in life right now.


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

piketroller said:


> This 16 footer is going on the market in a month or so. It has caught many fish out of the lower Grand and even made it beyond the pier twice. Pottawatomi was way too good of a fishing hole for me to want a windshield boat. One day I slipped it under the bridge with about 6” clearance.
> 
> View attachment 487205
> 
> ...


Is that a Crestliner?


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

ESOX said:


> Is that a Crestliner?


Nope, it’s a Lund.


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

piketroller said:


> Nope, it’s a Lund.


Darn. if it was a Crestliner I was going to offer a swap for my Lund SSV 14. I hate riveted boats and used Crestliners are rare.


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

ESOX said:


> Darn. if it was a Crestliner I was going to offer a swap for my Lund SSV 14. I hate riveted boats and used Crestliners are rare.


It’s not a welded Cresty, but it still doesn’t leak a drop even after floating in a covered slip for eight straight months in 2018. But I’m also looking to downsize the fleet, not trade for another boat. If I realistically thought I’d put it in the water for 3-4 days or more this year, I’d be hanging on to it. Last year it never saw the water.


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

piketroller said:


> It’s not a welded Cresty, but it still doesn’t leak a drop even after floating in a covered slip for eight straight months in 2018. But I’m also looking to downsize the fleet, not trade for another boat. If I realistically thought I’d put it in the water for 3-4 days or more this year, I’d be hanging on to it. Last year it never saw the water.


My Lund is bone dry, but Lake Bellaire is the biggest water it sees, other than the occasional foray to inshore Huron, which is a gently rolling road compared to St Clair. .


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## bowhunter426 (Oct 20, 2010)

My boat shopping is done for a while. Bought this from a member here. Going to keep an eye open for an Angler Qwest, but this will keep me on the water bass fishing


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## Kane Holland (10 mo ago)

Though the personal watercraft boat seems like it would be an adventure, I’d prefer the classic fishing boat with an outboard power and live wells. I love fishing and this probably suits my needs just fine. It could also be that I don’t know how to swim either and this just seems safest.


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