Leaderboard

Pictures of some of my favorite mountain lakes. Most are so gorgeous they look fake, but are not. I hope you's enjoy. Maligne Lake, Peyto Lake, Waterton Lake, Lake Louise, Upper and Lower Kananaskis Lakes where in 1983 while fishing from shore I caught the Alberta record Bull Trout, Alberta's provincial fish, one oz. shy of 18lbs. And it still stands today. Lower Kananaskis Lake, Abraham Lake. I have a couple more that are well worth a gander but as usual my computer decided to take some time off, I will try and post them later.

I took an everything out of a boat last year. that boat will cost $3000 and 150hrs(and I work fast) to rebuild.

This… right off the bat, the best boat you’ve posted is that super clean one. If the guys can’t even clean up the boat for their for sale photos they most certainly didn’t do any maintenance either. I’ve owned a couple of “old” boats now and here’s the deal. 1. compression test is mandatory, full stop. No one cares that it runs in the driveway or even on the water etc. a boat with no motor is literally scrap aluminum. 2. if you’re going aluminum, that thing needs to be leak checked. A single bad rivet and guess what, you’ve got yourself an anchor. if it floats and the compression is good, then it’s time to decide how much time and money you have left to actually make the thing run. ”but I thought If the motor is running, it is good to go!” nope…haven’t owned a boat yet that didn’t immediately need fixing. In my instance, a full re-wire for the trolling motors and electronics was required right off the jump. Even though the guys that owned my boats were well intentioned, they most certainly didn’t know how to properly wire boats, they clearly just were not the most handy guys, and truthfully that’s why they were moving on from the boat that they sold me. No one sells a perfectly functioning boat…that’s just how it is. finally, I see that you are operating on somewhat of a limited budget, so ask yourself, are you financially prepared to fix the stupid things that will constantly break on your boat? The adage BOAT BREAK OUT ANOTHER THOUSAND is real. Let me promise you, it is ohhhh so real on a boat that’s older than 15 years old. i seemingly can’t manage to go more than a week without something breaking on me. Thank god I own a Yamaha (knock on wood) so my motor doesn’t give me problems. But for some perspective here’s a list off of the top of my head of the work that I have had to do myself on my 2006 stratos since I have owned it. i have owned this boat going on my fourth year I’m not trying to scare you, I’m just trying to give you perspective. also I’ll add I’m not doing these things just to do them, im literally just fixing things as they wear out or break on me. -boat electronics rewire -trolling motor rewire - windshield screw in repair - new pole light - new trailer tires - trailer brakes service (needs more work as I speak) - new trailer plug - new winch strap - total reweld of the winch pole on the trailer - new trailer corner lights - new trailer tail lights - vst and fuel filter - water and fuel separator - new rollers for nose and tail of trailer - new trailer bunks - new middle seat - new batteries - total reinstall of my battery trays after they literally ejected in the back of my boat during a rough tournament day…in which I of course proceeded to misalign my work set up and you guessed it, drilled a friggin hole right through the bottom of my fibreglass boat…so guess who now has to re-finish a section of fibreglass on my hull - same tournament, I hit a wave so hard my livescope perspective mount snapped in half - new livewell pump - new transom saver and now…last but not least, I blew the lower end on my boat during that tournament that knocked all of my battery trays flying. $2500 later I’ve got a rebuilt lower end from top gun marine that I had to install, which I also ran into issues with my trim tab being seized/stripped. -new trim tab and two new bolts from japaN - and just as of Sunday, the boat buckle tie down for the front of my boat just stripped and now I need $90 to buy another one…it’s almost comical at this point! as You see from the list above, it sure as hell does not afford me a ton of time and money leftover to buy fishing goodies. I joke with my friends that I can’t afford to be a tackle junky because I own a fishing boat. it’s a labour of love. But man does it hurt…luckily I don’t have kids, and luckily I have the time and passion for working on this stuff. BE PREPARED

They could not even clean it up for a picture..... Run

I saw this, and couldn't resist adding it to the thread...

Just got back from seeing the boat, your the reason it's marked as pending I assume. He told me how much he came down and I nearly brought it home with me. lol It's a solid boat. I crawled all throught it and no sign of rot. Carpet got eaten by a gas spill. turned the old carpet to jelly in that spot. Short of a water test, i'd say it's worth going to see. It's been well taken care of and his new boat is on the way. He has it ready for water test. Apparently everything is functional. His kids, wife and 2 dogs were in the boat alot. Reason for the hydrofoil. Gearcase was replaced a couple years ago.

Lots of great advice here... number 1 be ready to move quickly if your looking for a deal.... if it is a deal and still for sale a month later ask why.......

just FYI, the whaletail is a sure sign that you wont be getting anywhere fast in the boat. Especially with friends coming along. The old addage that you want a boat thats maxed out the HP rating is true. Anything less and driving your boat with company will be a slow process. Its not the end of the world obviously...Not everyone needs a fast boat. Getting from A to B and out on the water and off of the bank is enough. Just think ahead of where and how you like to boat. A boat that wont get on plane is not a boat made for 20km rips up the lake to that prime honey hole. Dead honest question for you siwash...Is your intention to fish with your kids etc? If you just want the ability to get out on the water for yourself, have you looked into fishing kayaks? I have multiple buddies that fish from Yaks and straight up, love them...catch a load of fish and have everything you need to catch those fish with essentially 0 maintenance.

This princecraft is really clean. Another 90s setup, but if the worse case is that the motor develops issues, those 50 horses in the mid 2000s era are pretty reasonable on marketplace right now… so provided the boat is super clean, that would be the worse case. I could live with that.

So crazy to see someone still driving quads out to go ice fishing. It’s 20 degrees here and perfect boating weather today!

New to the forum, old dog that cant stop tinkering. Tinkering is why I'm not on the water this morning and surfing the net. Got in deeper than I expected in a perfectly functioning boat. I live in the 4-10 thousand price range for everything with a motor and I get bored with them easily. Just sayin I've had my fair share of the good and the bad. I like my tinnies, but A leaky boat is never good and can be a bear to repair. This boat appears to have led a hard life judging by the repairs. Repaired is subject to the one doing it. Most loose patience once they realize no boat is worth it unless your prepared to do the work right, have the skillset, the patience and the place. Not to scare anyone away from an old boat, but be prepared. I've done a few rip outs that looked decent before I started. Question with this boat is how far the repairs were taken. Most if not all 90's boats that sat outside will have been rotted out long ago. I bought a sylvan side console a few years back that spent it's life in a boathouse and still looked new. Carpets were still like new. Pulled the cap rail off the transome and ended up replacing the transome. Easy job, but unexpected. Old motors unmaintained, same issues. Might run good today, but the power head is just a small part of potential problems. Rule I live by.....dont even hear what the seller says. Get it in the water. Simple. No excuse to not water test. There are a million threads that start with "it ran good on the muffs" lol But maybe it's a good boat. Just my 2 cents. Oh ya, hello everyone.

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

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

40 odd years ago we were fishing the Whitby pier when my Dad tripped over something and fell in the lake. It was a cold night so he was wearing a heavy coat and darned near drowned before we were able to pull him out. He had dry clothes in the car but he'd lost his wallet when he fell and we couldn't find it in the dark water. Probably an hour later another fisherman scooped it up with his net and came looking for Dad and returned the wallet with everything still intact. I've always remembered the honesty of that guy.

Burlington to 35/115 trailering the boat return cost me almost $100 last year!