As a couple of you know, I've been remodeling my skiff as of late. Due to the lameness of a certain sasquatch, I've been forced to take matters into my own hands so that I can fish Casitas and Coyote and stuff. So, I decided to see if I could put a casting deck on my skiff and rig a trolling motor to the bow. If you've ever seen my skiff, it's hardly designed for bass fishing. As a matter of fact it's hardly designed for recreational ocean fishing. The original design was for commercial ocean fishing, so making a bass fishing platform out of it is kind of a challenge. I'll post a couple pics now, and tomorrow I should have a little more progress on it and I'll post some more dramatic pics then.

I started out by cutting a piece of 3/4" plywood to shape with a skill saw. Then I marked the deck with a pencil where I wanted the livewell and tackle storage and then marked the doors on the deck. Deciding the size of the doors was a very complicted process which involved lining up Plano 3700's to see how many I could fit, and imagining what size of a bass' belly would fit through the livewell door. Next step was cutting the doors out with the skill saw. I wouldn't reccommend this unless you've had some practice with a skill saw, but I managed without killing myself.

Now, I put the deck aside and went into the boat. I epoxied (with Liquid Nails) and screwed pieces of 2x4s and 4x4s around the bow compartment, side boxes and sides of the boat for the deck to rest on. When I was sure that they were in the right position and the deck layed flat on them, I layed the deck on top of them and measured the distance from the bottom of the new deck to the existing deck and made a support running down the middle of the deck made out of 4x4s with a piece of plywood on the bottom as a pressure plate. I screwed/epoxied that in place and screwed/epoxied some 2x4s around the edges of the compartment holes so the lids have something to rest on.

Next I primered the whole deck with a quart of primer/sealant. Hopefully this will keep the deck from rotting and warping too badly, but it is solid wood, so I imagine I'll eventually have to replace it, but it should last a few years before then.

The next step was trying to find something to make the livewell out of. I ended up at K Mart paying $3.99 for a 31 gallon storage tub. Originally I bought a much smaller one, and after setting it in place, looking it over, and consulting pictures of rob's 15-12 as well as the photo gallery of the trophy bass only website, I decided I needed a bigger livewell ;-). So that lead to the 31 gallon livewell which I cut 5" of off so that it would fit under the deck. I used a utility knife to do that and it was fairly easy.

After that I went and bought some outdoor carpet from Home Depot. They had a fairly limited supply of outdoor carpet, but this stuff will work out. It's not as thick as regular boat carpet, but I figure it won't snag hooks as easily. It'll probably take more abuse too. So I cut that to size and cut out pieces for the lids. I bought some hinges for the doors and put those on, and that's pretty much where I am now.

Oh yeah, I bought some through hull fittings from Boater's World and put a couple on the livewell for the freshwater intake and overflow drain. I'm still trying to decide the best way to completely drain it. I'm leaning toward just putting a submersible bilge pump in there. It'll end up being the easiest and fastest way and cheap bilge pumps are pretty darn cheap. Originally I tried bonding the top of the livewell to the underside of the deck with silicone but it didn't stick to the plastic tub. I made a trip to OSH today and just tore off the old silicone and replaced it with expanding foam. We'll see how that works out tomorrow when it dries.

Here's a couple pics:

This is the underside of the deck. Note the holes cut out for the tackle storage (left) and livewell (right) along with the support pillars running down the middle.
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3c71b2c45575d1c7.jpg

This is the front of the boat where the deck is going to go. I epoxied and screwed those 2x4s and 4x4s in place around the edges and then primered/sealed them.
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3c71b2d855c583cb.jpg

Here's the most recent picture. This is the livewell being bonded to the underside of the deck with expanding foam. You can also see the through hull fittings where I'm going to run some tubing to the pump for the intake, and overboard for the drain.
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3c71b4ea5f8ca238.jpg

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But in some ways I miss it. Fishing in a boat that you made or upgraded is different than a 461VS with a 175 on it. I had a panga with a 40hp that I use to fish out of that was a fishing machine. Originally the boat was rated for a 7hp and had bench seats. Well with a little engineering from my dad and alot of trips to Home Depot, we put the 40 on the boat and it screams. I put a deck on the bow with a Motorguide Great White 52lb thrust trolling motor and a livewell midship. The boat is on a 12 volt system with 2 batteries ran in parallel. I also put in running lights and a bilge pump in the bow and a larger bilge pump in the stern. Because it is a panga it will tend to take on water in the 3-4 foot waves. I took it to Crowley twice and lake Mead 7 times in one summer. The last trip to mead was a little hairy though - 55 mph winds and we were out in Bonelli Bay riding the troughs back into the marina. I am glad I had two bilge pumps. What I always like about my boat was the looks I got from people. Did you make that yourself ? Isn't that motor a little big for that boat ? I was always working on the boat and it consumed alot of money and time. I ended having 4 of my buddies who were interested in buying it and I sold it to the one who kept up the tradition of working on it all the time. The trailer for the boat was another project in itself. I put a new axle on it and welded bunks and rollers. I sanded the whole thing down and repainted it with rustoleum paint.Talk about work

i was wondering what you did with that thing. did you give up on it after being lost at sea...er the harbor?

Going from Treefish Trap to what? Carp Hunter? HeHeHe

Really though, I envy you. I'd love to have a boat to fix up. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Amish Ed
You Can't Catch it again if
it's Dead!

Amish Ed
You can't catch it again if it's dead!

Ain't rigging a boat cool? I wish you luck, there's nothing better than modifying your own boat and then finding out how fishable it is. Here are some tips as far as adhesives and sealers: PC-7 is a 2-part epoxy putty found at smaller hardware stores like Ace or True Value. It is the most tenacious stuff both grip and strengthwise. Use it for filling holes, creating fillets, etc. Good surface prep is a must with it or any adhesive. As far as caulking goes, do not use sillycone (silicone) sealer. Instead use 3M 5200 or Westmarine's equivilent poly caulk. It too, sticks tenaciously and will flex and not peel like silicone.

I know exactly what you mean! I put a alumn. deck on my old 14' X 36" Jon boat. I put it in storage last year because I bought another boat. I miss my little Jon, it is great bening right on the water and having a nice platform you can easily pitch from. One thing I think is missing from most boats is a GIANT livewell. I used to use a 15 gal or so ice chest, but jumpped up to a 15o Qt ice chest and could easily put a 5 fish limit of good size bass, no sweat. Where did you get you livewell you installed? I was looking at the ones Cabela's has that are 48" long, now thats a livewell. I'm with you I like builtin livewells.