Small fresh water fishing boat project.

[DLM84]

Hello all,
I have a bit of a problem. I need a boat to fish some local fresh water ponds & lakes, the problem is that they have speed regulations on them. Most are simply "no wake" ponds others have engine HP cap's. They are also quite shallow, probably because they were purpose built to be public fishing places.
Crowds are always lining the shore (often in the best shore fishing spots) but I notice there are few boats despite the large size of the lakes (almost 20 acres surface area in one others are close to that) so I was thinking I need a boat.
I was going to row and maybe get a electric motor no more than 5 hp, that's the cap. I looked into canoes but they are so tipsy normally id hate to be in one while casting. There are wider boats that are inflatable but they are expensive and the middle of these lakes is filled with stumps. So ones like the Bass Pro little one man pontoon/paddle thingy is kinda out. Id rather be seen in a regular looking boat any way. Also I like to use multiple rods and these little boats make that impossible to do.
Now I know what you are saying "why not get a aluminum john boat kid? it fits your description to a 'T' " well fellas planing type hulls are kinda hard to row as they are the worst at slow 'trolling" speeds and that is where I am suppose to be at at all times on these lakes.
2 last criteria for my little project boat. #1 I have some experience with wood so I am thinking it would be best to branch out into wood boats rather than try to jump in feet first on a metal or fiberglass boat project, I only did metal shop class at high school so I am not good with metal.
The last thing is that these lakes are LARGE. I have seen them work up swells large enough to swamp a john boat. They have forced john boats and Bass Stalker designs into running for the dock, So I tend to think a V bow that came up higher than the sides of the rest of the boat would be better than a john boat's flat bow.

So I need:
1. A flat bottom
2. A clean exit from the water for the stern
3. A v bow for piercing those swells (is clipper bow right?)
4. Built for rowing but can put a electric on the transom
5. 2 person + 4 rods apiece & gear
6. A Wood design
7. I would like just one bench seat in the middle w/ live well and room for the electric motors batteries
8. Seating in the corner of the stern for working a tiller outboard motor.

Are there any designs that fit those needs? If not how could I get a design like this?
If I missed any thing U need to know plz ask, thanks for the help!

[DLM84]

I also wanted to Add that I wanted a stern that was like a old John Boat in the bow but on this boats stern. That way I could put on the any electric boat motor designed for use on the transom.

[alan white]

I think a wherry might be ideal for you, and possibly strip built in cedar. It will be adaptable to trolling but will also row like a dream. The boat is suited to rough water if you get caught out. No, the bottom's not absolutely flat but rough conditions and flat bottoms (at least wide stable flat bottoms) do not mix well anyway. A wherry ought to be stable enough for any kind of casting, standing or sitting.
Weight might be around 100 lbs and more if more huskily built. This is a very efficient boat at low speeds. Maybe 14 ft and up to 4 ft wide.
The stern is fine for clamping an outboard on to.
This is a Linconville Salmon Wherry:
http://www.duck-trap.com/2002lsw.html

[DLM84]

I think a wherry might be ideal for you, and possibly strip built in cedar. It will be adaptable to trolling but will also row like a dream. The boat is suited to rough water if you get caught out. No, the bottom's not absolutely flat but rough conditions and flat bottoms (at least wide stable flat bottoms) do not mix well anyway. A wherry ought to be stable enough for any kind of casting, standing or sitting.
Weight might be around 100 lbs and more if more huskily built. This is a very efficient boat at low speeds. Maybe 14 ft and up to 4 ft wide.
The stern is fine for clamping an outboard on to.
This is a Linconville Salmon Wherry:
http://www.duck-trap.com/2002lsw.html

Ohhh boy what a pretty boat! It really is nice all though 14' is a bit long. Some thing closer to 10' would be great. My car is not particularly power full so it would have to be lifted by me. I am 25 so 100 lbs shouldn't be a problem to lift.
What about this one? glen-L linky (https://www.boatdesigns.com/products.asp?dept=175)
This one is a bit longer at 12' other linky (https://www.boatdesigns.com/products.asp?dept=183)

I do have a question about there flat botom rowing boats. There bottoms seem to come up at the bow as well as the stern, why is this?

[alan white]

Or this Bolger Cartopper: http://www.sailingtexas.com/sbolger12a.html
Can be built as a rowboat. Try to go at least 12 ft to get better speed and stability.

[PAR]

I think a wherry is a bit much for a first build and probably not the best thing for him, though a fine pulling craft.

A boat designed to row well will not power well with an outboard. An electric trolling motor will push it to hull speed though, which will keep the no wake people happy.

If you go long and lean, you could power you boat with an outboard, leave no wake and make some pretty good speed. If you go short and fat (like the IMP design you've listed) then you're limited to rowing and a trolling motor only, which means 3 MPH top speed.

https://www.boatdesigns.com/products.asp?dept=856

This is a possibility. You'll have to decide if you want to row/electric motor or use and outboard, but at least you'll have the option.

http://www.bateau.com/studyplans/SD11_study.htm?prod=SD11
http://www.bateau.com/studyplans/FL12_study.htm?prod=FL12

These two also a good choice.

[alan white]

In any case, it sounds like you are attracted to pretty boats, DLM. There are wherries that are strip built, which is a very typical first build method, evidenced by the thousands of stripper canoes out there. Light weight is what you need, and few methods yield a light boat so well as cedar strips.
Anything you can do with oars is probably also a job for an electric trolling motor, which is of course perfect for fishing.
You could build a "flat iron skiff", as PAR suggested, but they are not suited to rough water, though very stable as a fishing platform.
You have choices that boil down to high initial stability (and greater drag due to high beam to length ratio and high wetted surface, or high secondary (heeled) stability, marrower beam, and low wetted surface.
A multi-chine or developed (round section) hull is in the second category. such a boat is not hard to stand in, but harder than a flat bottomed boat. However, the secondary stability makes correction easier, since the boat doesn't change stability characteristics much when heeled. That's why they make better rough water boats. They stay more upright to an angled water surface, while a flat bottomed boat tends to lie more at the water's angle.
That's why I mentioned a wherry. Those boats historically were used out where rough conditions were a daily experience. If you could strip build one, you'd have quite an able boat. I wouldn't attach an outboard to one but a troller is no problem at all.

[DLM84]

The boat needs to be shallow draft and as far as the waves go they are not much higher than the sides of most John Boats. A pointed bow would cut through them much better than a John Boat would.
A multi-chine would be out of the question, sorry.

The Bateau Flat Skiff 12 is right up my alley the same as the 11' Glen L Row Skiff, Are there any that are lighter than these 2 choices but same type of boat?

[DLM84]

Just one question though, on these "Rowing Skiffs" the bottom comes up at the bow, why is that? I notice its the same on the "Power Skiffs" as well, there it is to help come up on plane but why would it be on the rowing boat?
Can I delete it?

[PAR]

To make a boat row in needs to be light, narrow and have rocker in the bottom profile to be reasonably efficient. Rowing requires efficiency, because of the limited power available. The same is true of sail, though typically you gain a little beam to carry the press in the sail(s).

Low speed powerboats can use the same hull as a row or sailboat, but if you want the boat to get up and scoot (plane off), then the after portions of the bottom profile need to be straight, which prevents the stern from squatting too badly under power.

If you attempt to over power a rowboat or sailboat, the stern just settles down and the bow points toward the sky. The more power, the worse this gets and the boat is just piling up a big wall of water at the bow. Because of the bottom shape to boat will just "plow" water and can't get up on top of it and scoot.

This is the Glen-L design I linked above.

https://www.glen-l.com/designs/hankinson/kh-images/040prs11-l.gif

You'll note the modification to the aft portions of the hull. The bottom one permits rowing, the top one, with the straight sections will plane. These boats are identical in every other regard. It's a function of hydrodynamics and can't be changed.

[oliver.ilg]

It´s not exactly what you are looking for, but have you looked into small catamarans? Beside the fact that they do not look very good, they are great with stability and easy to row...

[oliver.ilg]

I was browsing through another post and found this: http://plattdesign.net/_wsn/page2.html It could be your solution..

[Rick Willoughby]

If you are length constrained to
then a catamaran will best meet your requirements for stability and ease of powering whether rowing or powered.

You would use essentially sealed hulls with maybe sealed access ports for valuables and things to keep dry.

This link shows the sort of conditions a cat will handle:
http://www.rocat.com/
And how it rows:
http://www.rocat.co.uk/galleries/downloads.htm
Not as good as a scull but not too bad.

Of course this is longer than you have in mind but something similar with a good working deck and raised seat would work nicely. Hulls are very simple to make. I would go to 12ft to get the best from a 12ft sheet of ply. On sheet per hull.

In Australia the Hobie Mirage are becoming popular for fishing:
http://www.hobiecat.com/fishing/models_proangler.html
They also make very small catamarans.

Another cat with nice proportions that is commercially available is the SeaCycle:
http://www.sea-cycle.com/
The benefit of cycling is that it frees your hands to fish on the move.
Anyhow the sea cycle is the sort of hull form I am suggesting would be best given your length constraint.

I have a standard Australian sedan and 20ft sits OK on roof racks. My 24ft boat is a bit much but no bigger than some of the double kayaks you see on car tops.

Also you will find even 50lb will take a bit of effort to dead lift onto a car. There are some neat lifting racks that help. I target less than 20kg (44lb) for easy cartopping but then I have a few years on you.

Rick

[Rich M]

I'll go with the Bataeu recommendation. FL12 I think it is. We fish out of boats very similar to the 14 ft version - pretty high sides (20 inches or so) and it will plane out 2 big guys with a 15 hp and move right along.

Big swells on a 20 acre lake? I'm spoiled down here - it never gets rough on the inland lakes, excpt for the very large ones (multiple square miles I'm thinking 10-15 miles across - the smaller ones stay calm due to weeds and shallow depths) and even the intracoastal waterway is typically calm.

[DLM84]

I don't know what it is about these lakes but they do occasionally produce swells tall enough to swamp a 2 person John boat. That and Stockton Lake was where I planed to use it. They sail off of Stockton Lake and its a big ole Hydro Electric Reservoir so you know its deep and BIG.

I have seen several Lap strake built 10-20' Day Sailors that can be run with out there sails as a kind of skiff. I really like that idea but Lap strake construction is out of my league. So that will have to be my second boat.
Thanks,
DLM

[BHOFM]

With some experience in small boats, I would recommend
a full seat at the rear and offset the motor. It will make
for better balance when there is only one person in the
boat. And it will still drive the boat straight, no matter
what people try to tell you.

Like this:

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/227/dscf1340f.jpg

Put great value in what Par is saying. The little boat he is showing is
very much like mine. Slight rocker and slight V in the bottom in
the last half of the length. If I use too much power it tries to raise
the bow and makes a big wake. At medium power is just glides along
with almost not a ripple.

[lewisboats]

You could browse the Plans page at Duckworks ( http://www.duckworksbbs.com/plans.htm ) and see if you can find something that might suit.

[DLM84]

I like that free plans Canoe they have on duckworksbbs lewis, but I wonder if its any good?
I have looked around for build blogs just to see if the boats are what they say they are. I was supprised by how many put all that effort into there canoe's only to gripe after the first launching.
Id like to know if that canoe is a good stable design before going on the build.

[lewisboats]

Gavin's pretty good at getting things right. His Mouse and variations are quite popular and quite good too. There is only so much stability you can get from a 12 ft canoe so you wouldn't be doing any standing and fly fishing but the lines look like they fall in the mid range for that type and size of boat. Perhaps the griping was more a function of too high expectations rather than poor quality designs.

Steve

[DLM84]

Maybe maybe, they may have been expecting a skiff (stability wise) and got just what they built, A CANOE!! Hhehee
Well good about that canoe then. I have down loaded the plans, now I just have to decipher these here instructions!! :scratch's head:

[mudman]

Check out the "lo voltage"

https://www.boatdesigns.com/departments.asp?dept=14

Kinda neat. I would also consider a small lafitte skiff.

[DLM84]

hmm that "lo voltage" is not what I am looking for. I need a fishing boat not a fish/bird watching boat.