New Boats

I've been a boat owner since 1992 and have bought only three rigs in those 18 years, two Bass Trackers and my current boat, a 17' Crestliner Fish Hawk. I never gave much thought to owning a fiberglass boat and loved everything about an aluminum one such as the ease of towing, the good gas mileage and the lack of maintenance. But when I had trolling motor problems this spring and was boatless for a month, I borrowed Mike Maske's 18' Javelin and I started to see the light.

Now that I think I really need to move up in boat, I've started taking notice of all the other rigs our club members fish out of. I never paid much attention before and didn't care what was different about Nitros and Rangers, they were all the same. Well being a research freak like I am, I am quickly learning the intricacies of each and have a pretty good idea which one might suit me.

I have now started taking notice of what club guys fish out of and have started to appreciate what a good boat means to an angler. Several SCMBC guys have purchased boats recently, Scott Rice, Jim VanAken, Leo Knox and Scott Hartman (pictured above) and I can't wait to add my name to that list.

I actually now can look at a boat from a distance and tell whether it's a Skeeter or Triton and can actually figure out if it's one of my club members or not, something I could never do in the past. I have really begun to see what an advantage a good boat is in fishing and hope it will improve me as a fisherman. I will miss being able to handle four footers with ease like I did in a deep-V but will no longer get passed by everyone during our tournament blast-offs.

I will be putting the Crestliner up for sale in the spring and hopefully getting into something new (or new to me) by April. This is the master plan and I'll be spending all winter doing more research and looking at the classifieds. Hopefully everything works out that way but I figure the worst case scenario will have me in that boat one more year. Anyone looking for a good walleye boat? Just let me know.