Leaderboard

I have owned a 1989 Rangerboat with the original Johnson 150 motor since 1999. The boat was purchased from a friend who took excellent care keeping it waxed and serviced like a pro. Even so, it has had, the motor rebuilt, the flooring and carpet replaced, misc. electrical upgrades and basic maintenance. With that said spring is not the correct time to buy a boat. I would spend the money to have the boat checked over professionally there is nothing worse than finding out the motor is at the end of it's life on an old boat and needs a $12,000.00 motor. Same with any of the other major areas for rot and electrical issues. While you may have to survey 2 or 3 boats it will be the best money you can spend. Go slow and remember the fall is the best time to buy a boat it will be cheaper and you will have all winter to putter and fix it just the way you want. Happy hunting Art

Crestliners are good boats. It all really depends on the price point though, those black outboards scare me.

there is a lot more involved then just catching, keep in mind these need to go live to be grown on farms on the other side of the planet a lot of money from the fishermen license holder goes into the infrastructure to keep them alive until the season ends and the buyers purchase think of a large scale salt water aquarium set up and as of late they have had to hire 24hr on site security to watch their buildings where they tank the elvers. its an unnecessary situation here that the Feds need to deal with properly

I cannot comment on the fishing further out as i just have a canoe. I have canoed a lot out on G Bay, mostly in the FR area and I have seen quite a few instances of those seiche flows thru narrow channels. We live on the Notty just off the bay and have seen the water rise and fall at the beach. The water level in the river for quite a few kms upstream also depends on the onshore winds. It took me a while to realize that. I had always thought that the level was solely determined by the flow coming downstream. The level on the bay can change by at least a ft, esp in the fall when we get sustained NW winds. There is an online gauge at Cwood. If you check it out you can see how much the level can change.

I wouldn't spend 5k on that. Absolutely no way. Not with that motor.

From your description, it seems you were up the Lower Moon River heading to Moon Falls. Yes, there can be a substantial current in that stretch, especially in spring. And yes, Walleye do come in there...that's why it's a sanctuary. There are more subtle currents throughout the archipelago, in neck down areas and channels between the islands. G Bay experiences a phenomena called a "seiche"...it's like a freshwater tide caused by the wind. A prolonged west blow can temporarily raise the water level by over a foot, a prolonged east blow can drop the level the same amount. All this water rushes in and out of the myriad of channels creating current areas...these spots attract predators feeding on the baitfish (in turn attracted by zooplankton) being swept by. If I can give you two pieces of advice....First, journey out and away from the Lower Moon and Woods Bay...it gets pounded. The further you get from the marinas and launches, the better the fishing. Those reefs out by the outer band of islands always have consistently good fishing..On a calm day, go out even further to those offshore reefs...few complaints about slow fishing out there.. Second, a lot of the reefs/structure is smooth featureless worn rock...ignore those. Look for structure that has broken rock, preferably boulders of between softball to basketball size...if there's cabbage weed nearby, even better... Enjoy....there's enough fishing and places to explore in that area to fill several lifetimes.

I had my auto tilt and trim fail on an 08 ETEC 75...... I could have bought another motor for the price they wanted for a new one. Luckily found a salvage but still very expensive. I wouldn't buy an Evinrude or Johnson now that they are out of the game. As for that boat.... keep looking unless you're getting a screaming deal. It's seen some things. Like the trailer though.

What Bill said , I was about to write the same thing

I wouldn't be worrying about the boat too much, but I'd definitely be doing a compression test on that Mercury 2 stroke.