# Lund Alaskan Question



## biggins

I am looking to buy a 1600 lund alaskan and was wondering if anyone had one that they use for duck hunting. I do a lot of fishing and duck hunting. My duck hunting consists of hunting the marsh and also doing some layout hunting as well. I need this boat to be able to get in the shallows along with being able to handle the deep water(rough water) when we do some layout shooting. Does anyone have any reccomdations on this boat or should I look at another style. Would a jack plate help getting in the shallows any?

Has anyone used a mud motor with this type of boat and how does it handle? I hunt around LSC(Harsens)

I have a MLB layout boat and hope this will be able to fit on the front of the boat.

Any input would be great.


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## Mike L

I was looking for one early in the year, but I need to hit the lotto to afford one.....:yikes: They do not give those things away....... Rough water I can see, but shallow might be a little difficult.


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## Shiawassee_Kid

1st off, awesome boat, i love these things. seems to me if i was layout hunting and being LSC i would opt for bigger (1800). guessing money difference is reason your looking at 1600. 

also i dont think i could drop coin on an alaskan and then drop a mud motor on it. just dont seem right. get a nice mod v if your gonna do that. Mud motor + alaskan = crappy fishing boat.

try shooting just ducky a pm on this subject. he went thru this a year ago and did some extensive research on it. believe he picked up the 16' alaskan also.


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## remy870

bought one 2 yrs ago. at first I was going to get the 16 had the paper work done up and everything but went home that night and decided if I was going to spend that kind of money I should get what i want so I called the next day and changed to a 18. Im so happy I did that alot bigger boat my layout fits right inside the boat rests on the side boxes and plenty of room for decoys under the layout. I love the boat rides well in rough water. although I must say I dont like the wood on the top of the storage boxes the screws tend to work up from the vibration and people tend to want to sit on the doors and I am pretty sure the hinges arnt going to hold up for to many more years! some are already starting to get pretty "soft". but with that being said I still wouldnt buy another boat. I love it. great for fishing also with he open floor plan. runs well in shallow water. SPEND THE EXTRA AND GET THE 18 OR YOU WILL REGRET IT!!


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## roger23

If you get a 18 make sure you get plenty of motor,,,you don't want to under power it ....takes a lot of power to push a full boat


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## Dahmer

I wouldn't go with anything less than 18' and a 90hp motor. Specially if your going to be doing layout hunting. Also if your going to be transporting the layout on the bow of the boat, this will take up alot of room and limit you with how much gear you take and how many guys go with you. Also mud motors aren't worth a crap in rough water.


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## SooLayoutHunter

The Alaskans are a great boat but even the 18 and 20 ft seem a bit small when fully loaded with layouts and gear, I have been running an 18 with a 90 hp for years and it has been great, just a little small for our growing group of guys and gear, after lots of research I just upgraded to a 24 ft Sea Ark, the biggest widest aluminum that I could find. And it is one sweet boat, handles the rough stuff quite well and can get in pretty shallow and it straight out flys with a 115 on it. But if you are bent on getting the deep vee style boat, the new Starcraft freedom is one hell of a boat, just like an Alaskan in every way except, wider, deeper and cheaper! They are one hell of a boat and alot more bang for your buck than an alaskan. I was looking at the 20' and I definately would have bought one of those but they just dont make em big enough for what we needed. Hands down it is a better buy than an Alaskan and once they gain a little more popularity I think they'll give Lund a run for their money, They have only been out for about a year and there is not alot of publicity out there on them just contact a starcraft dealer and they can hook you up. Good luck! -Matt


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## Radar

Just got one. Beats the lund hands down every which way. I almost bought the lund 20-footer, but glad I saw the starcraft. More rivits, bigger gunnels, deeper, wider and you don't get charged the $2,000 for putting a lund sticker on it. I put a 90 evinrude e-tec tiller on it and she hauls.


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## Shiawassee_Kid

Radar said:


> Just got one. Beats the lund hands down every which way. I almost bought the lund 20-footer, but glad I saw the starcraft. More rivits, bigger gunnels, deeper, wider and you don't get charged the $2,000 for putting a lund sticker on it. I put a 90 evinrude e-tec tiller on it and she hauls.


thats a nice sounding combo right there, love the e-tec's.


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## Bellyup

I second Dahmers advice on mud motors not being the best option on big water. I used mine up on Lake Gogebic and I have to say, I was sorry I did. Picking up decoys sucks with no reverse (longtail) the idle speed is faster than you want for picking up decoys to. 

Mud motors are the shizzle for shallow water and mud. If you have the funds, get the big outboard for layout hunting and fishing. Purchase a huge surface drive mud motor for it when you want to go into shallow. Change the engine out for your application of the day. Assuming you are going with a tiller outboard this should be a task that requires some work, but not to bad.


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## just ducky

yep, I have the 1600 (which actually measures 16'-10"?), with a merc 50hp. In addition to duck hunting on the bay and Lake St. Clair, I do a lot of walleye fishing on the bay, St. Clair River, and Lake St. Clair. I've had it out in some pretty big seas fishing April walleye. It's a great boat. The thing I like best is the open floor area, and the fact that it DOES NOT have a damn casting platform taking up all that floor space in the bow. Lemme tell ya, I can hold a lot of dekes in the bow. Also, it's a very shallow draft. Had it on the bay all last weekend, and we were in some really skinny water...lots of the time wading along side. But the problem you'll have with any outboard is running shallow. Even tilted, you need about 12"-14" of water to get any forward thrust. In the bay at Sebewaing Saturday with the stiff west wind we were in only about 3 feet of water, and with the swells I had to creep along or hit the prop all the time. A mud motor would be great if you can justify getting it...I couldn't because I only use the boat for duck hunting half a dozen times a year.


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## mintgreenwalleyemachine

Buy an 18' I love mine!


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## Sky_Carp_Killer

I have a 20' tiller and love it. I run 2 one man ufo layout boats on the front and have lots of room for 5 guys and gear plus the 8 dozen decoys we use layout shooting. Also it makes a great walleye killing machine. Can handle some rough seas as well. Sometimes i wish i did not have the tiller on the long runs. But i got so much room in this boat i can justify a sore arm once in a while. You will not be diapointed in the purchase of one of these boats.


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## ScavengerMan

SooLayoutHunter said:


> But if you are bent on getting the deep vee style boat, the new Starcraft freedom is one hell of a boat, just like an Alaskan in every way except, wider, deeper and cheaper! They are one hell of a boat and alot more bang for your buck than an alaskan. I was looking at the 20' and I definately would have bought one of those but they just dont make em big enough for what we needed. Hands down it is a better buy than an Alaskan and once they gain a little more popularity I think they'll give Lund a run for their money


Wow, thanks for the tip Matt! Already ruled out the Alaskan because I think they are over priced and was strongly considering the Crestliner Canadian, but they come with that raised deck in the front that creates wasted space that I would rather use with people and equipment. The Starcraft Freedom really looks like it has some potential! Chapmans has one in stock, I'm going to check it out.....


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## just ducky

Bellyup said:


> I second Dahmers advice on mud motors not being the best option on big water. I used mine up on Lake Gogebic and I have to say, I was sorry I did. Picking up decoys sucks with no reverse (longtail) the idle speed is faster than you want for picking up decoys to.
> 
> Mud motors are the shizzle for shallow water and mud. If you have the funds, get the big outboard for layout hunting and fishing. Purchase a huge surface drive mud motor for it when you want to go into shallow. Change the engine out for your application of the day. Assuming you are going with a tiller outboard this should be a task that requires some work, but not to bad.


I got thinking more about this while daydreaming on the deer stand...I have a 16 Alaskan with a 50hp Merc. I love the boat...great for running in deeper water and rough water, and for summer walleyes it's fantastic. But I absolutely hate the fact that I need 14"-18" water depth to run the outboard. And with the low water on the bay the last decade or so, it just doesn't cut it in much of the places that I wanna duck hunt.

So I got thinking...what about biggins' question in his original post...has anyone tried a mud motor on an Alaskan? It would be a major PIA to take my 50 OB off each fall to switch to the mud motor. But the boat does fine in skinny water...actually drafts very little. So theoretically it would work. And beats the alternative of buy yet another boat  just to get one with a mud motor rig.


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## LoBrass

Great info guys, keep it coming.

My only input would be to keep the mud motors on flat bottoms in shallow water. I got a Mud Buddy 24 hp about 5 years ago and tried putting it on my 17.5' mod v and it was a train wreck. Picked up a super wide 14' flat bottom and now have 2 rigs, with no regrets.


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## just ducky

LoBrass said:


> ...I got a Mud Buddy 24 hp about 5 years ago and tried putting it on my 17.5' mod v and it was a train wreck...


Explanation please? why was it a train wreck? No, I wouldn't plan to take it to the managed areas and pull dikes, but out on the bay, to get into skinny water, it seems like it would be fine.


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## unregistered55

I was originally thinking of running a mud motor on my alaskan however I have been on Erie, St Clair, Longpoint and Mitchells Bay in shallow water and can trim my motor up enough instead to get where I needed. Athough my 18ft Lund worked great for layout hunting as a could carry my MLB -classic inside my boat instead of across the gunnels. I have since sold my diver set-up and getting away from this aspect of the sport. My 18ft Lund has a 60HP 2 stroke and can get up to 30-32 MPH and is up for sale now.


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## LoBrass

The rig wouldn't navigate the shallow water as a mud boat does. Also, if you do get stuck, which you will with a mud motor, you can't push the v-bottom out like you can a flat bottom. Had to empty everything out of the 17.5' once to push it off a sand bar. The same sandbar I now glid over in my mud boat. The v of the bottom drafts more water than you want. Handling was horrible and in waves it was downright dangerous. Didn't have the power to bow into the waves like an outboard. When we rode over bigger waves on a walleye trip one time we literally took water over the bow and nearly sunk. Can you get into some shallower water, sure, but IMO it is not the right combination and can be dangerous.


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## just ducky

LoBrass said:


> The rig wouldn't navigate the shallow water as a mud boat does. Also, if you do get stuck, which you will with a mud motor, you can't push the v-bottom out like you can a flat bottom. Had to empty everything out of the 17.5' once to push it off a sand bar. The same sandbar I now glid over in my mud boat. The v of the bottom drafts more water than you want. Handling was horrible and in waves it was downright dangerous. Didn't have the power to bow into the waves like an outboard. When we rode over bigger waves on a walleye trip one time we literally took water over the bow and nearly sunk. Can you get into some shallower water, sure, but IMO it is not the right combination and can be dangerous.



Makes sense. thanks for the explanation. So I guess I'm gonna be in the market for a mud motor and boat 

Okay, not trying to hijack the thread, but another question. I really don't need another boat, and I hate to part with the Alaskan because it's really a nice rig. But for those of you who have big jons or mod V's, do you use them for fishing as well, and if so, how do they handle the big water fishing, like Sag. Bay, LSC, etc.? My best option may be trading up on a big mod V with mud motor.


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## waxico

Did ya check out the movie via google? Paint that ship dead grass, and I'd swear it was an Alaskan going over a mountain.
It's got subtitles, 'nuff said.........I loved it.

Anyway, I was kidding. I saw the words Alaskan and dike in the same post and thought I could suck a few in.

The weirdest one I ever saw in a managed area was a bright blue Achilles rubber raft. A stalk-knocker if there ever was one.

Buying a boat is a fun deal, I like buying used and building the interiors and custom painting myself. Aluminum doesn't degrade, except in the ocean. You could find one from the 60s that is still serviceable.


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## just ducky

waxico said:


> Did ya check out the movie via google? Paint that ship dead grass, and I'd swear it was an Alaskan going over a mountain.
> It's got subtitles, 'nuff said.........I loved it....


Yeah I did...about equivalent to pulling a dike with an Alaskan. :lol:


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## waxico

...yes, that ship was actually pulled over the mountain for the movie.

It was a freak show to film too.

I think of it at Harsens...


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