Buying a Used Boat -- Help?
 

I am looking for a bit of help / advice with this thread.

My kids are getting a bit older (6 and 9) and I would like to try to come up with a more reliable and comfortable way to possibly get them out on the water over the last of summer / fall.

I live in Hopkinton, MA and have access to a couple of lakes with no HP restrictions -- Lake Whitehall & Lake Maspenock....

I currently have a 1950?s Aerocraft with a 1978 Johnson 9.5. When the Johnson starts it runs great, but I end up tinkering with it more than actually using it.... Whole thing is for sale (yes, I should put up another post trying to sell it here...).

I have seen a few mid 80's trackers go for around 3K near me and have also seen a few newer tiller types go for around the same. I am primarily looking at CL.

I don't need anything fancy or loaded with extras. I just need something reasonably comfortable and reliable. We'll primarily fish for largemouth bass.

What should I go with. Old tracker? V Hull? Tiller steering? Console? Here are a few pics of some of what I am looking at...

All thoughts and advice is much appreciated!

Here are a couple others....

My first powerboat was a 1980's vintage basstracker tournament V-17 and after I got tired of the freshwater bass tournament crowds, I took it to the salt and fished Scituate Mass to Boston in it. Yes you had to pick your days and a good set of rain gear was a must (not a dry boat), but it was a good dual purpose boat. I even took a winter and stripped that boat to a shell and build a center console out of it and eventually sold it and moved up to a dual console Lund ProV. I'd consider that a more robust boat then the bass pro boats, but they cost a bit more.

Pictures of some old pictures of the basstracker before and after, boy that late september maine smallie trip I can still remember. We were 9 miles down lake and smallies in the 3-5lb range were stacked like cordwood in a cut the wind was blowing bait into all day. We drained the trolling motor until it wouldn't hold and then ran back to the truck to get a spare battery to stay on that bite another couple hours.

V Hull, 16-17 ft, 40-60 hp, trailer, with good seating will provide you with plenty of fishing/traveling options. The first pic seems to fit the bill.

Got Stripers!

Great to see you still posting! I still have a few of your baits from my old days of pounding the canal. They must be collector's items by now!

I am thinking the V Hull is the better option too and may give me some more versatility.

The red one I posted above may be worth a closer look......

Plenty of inventory left if you need any, mostly the 9" and 13"jerks and 7" split tails; pm me if you need to restock
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