nomad_archer

Thanks. What dont you like a bout the motor?

19 are not common in my area. But I am still looking

Great idea to take the numbers. I will do that. I saw a 2010 16' crestliner Kodiak that has my eye right now. I want to watch the price and see if it drops at all. I did spend the day pond fishing with my wife and daughter today. We caught a few and now my wife is boat shopping. So I am making progress.

Thank bandrus1

Thanks. I will be at bass pro this weekend and cabelas before archery season I am sure. I will definately take a look at what they have. I do plan on doing some cold weather fishing. Why is aluminum better if fishing the cold weather?

I looked that up. Just about the same as on a two stroke. Should be simple enough to check.

I consider myself fairly mechanically inclined. I do 99% of the maintenance and repairs on my vehicles and small power equipment. Rarely do I take things back to a mechanic or dealer. I have not problem getting into and fixing something. If a motor would need a rebuilt, that is probably out of my league. Basic to moderately complex repairs are something that I am able to do. Around me there are not very many marine mechanics so I am going to need to learn what to look for. From looking around on here it seems like rot and motor issues, leaking seals, hard starting. I am sure there are a lot more things to look for.

Since this is a longer term purchase. Probably out there at least a year but realistically maybe 2-3. I would like to spend 5k-8k but I realize that probably will not get me much more than someones old headache. I don't know if that is a realistic budget for what I am looking for to begin with.

My problem is I don't know what the market is and what I can expect to spend on something used. So I need to spend some time looking at used. Is craigslist a good place to look around to get an idea of used price?

I know a small bit of the pain boats are after helping my dad keep his boat running as long as I can remember. I don't remember to many trips where we didn't have the cover off of his evinrude. Even with that a boat is something I have wanted for a long time but the battle was convincing my wife that I needed a boat.

There is no rush to buy here. It will probably be a year or better until I decide. Until then I will continue to charter. I would like to fish the larger finger lakes so it sounds like 18' min. I would like an outboard. Beyond that I have a lot I need to look into. How old is two old and how many hours is to many hours on a motor?

So I took my wife out on Cayuga lake with a charter to jig for lakers. She has a great experience and is hooked on fishing. We are from south central, pa and are now looking for a shack to sleep in in the area and eventually a boat. We fished out of a crestliner fishhawk 1850. I really like fishing out of that boat, it had great storage, plenty of room and was very stable. But then again I was comparing to the only other boat I have fished out of which is my dads 14' row boat with a 9.9 on the back. So what I am looking for is any direction as to which brands/models/size/style would be recommended for a first boat that would do well in the finger lakes. The boat may see some use at home in PA lakes but I believe the majority of the use would be in the finger lakes. I do not need to get into trolling and down riggers just yet, as I really enjoyed jigging but it maybe something I pick up in the future. I plan to use the boat as an all around fishing boat for my wife, 3 year old daughter and myself for lakers, bass, walleye or whatever is biting. The biggest thing that I liked about the crestliner was the stability and the organization. I will be towing with a '08 V6 tacoma with a 6500lbs tow capacity and max tongue weight 650lbs. I am most likely looking used as that will probably be what fits the budget by the time I am ready to buy. Is there anything that I need to lookout for on the used market? Thanks for any and all advice to help point me in the right direction and get me started on my search.