Jason, I know where a Tuffy Esox Magnum is sitting that is about 8 years ols and has never seen any gas in the tank. The boat is new as far as I know. Its a 17 foot with a 60 hp Susuki 4 stroke. The motor has zero hours on it. Last I heard he wanted about 10 grand which is cheap for that boat.

Now I,ll tell you, My little 1448 Sea Ark jon boat gets it done on most any lake in the lower pen. The little 9.9 merc is all the motor I need unless I have to fish big water . We set it up nice for casting and trolling. I picked it up for 2500.00 with the trailor almost new. I would look in that direction. I can fish all day with that boat for a couple buck in gas. I even pullit with our little tiney Chevy Aveo car. get near 30 mpg pulling the boat. That is as cheap a ride as I have seen out there today. This lets us fish a lot more than if we had to haul our starcraft around. Mike

I saw those Tuffy boats at the OH musky show and they were pretty nice. It would probably help if we knew what type of budget you are working with and what vehicle you would be towing your boat with (what's the maximum towing capacity). The tow capacity of your vehicle may limit the weight of the boat you are looking for. At the MMA events try to check out everyone's boat and ask them what they like and what they don't like.

You will get more bang for your buck with a used boat and the Tuffy boat mentioned seems like a good deal but you need to be careful and take the boat on the water and have the motor inspected. I bought a new boat from Cabelas and it is a 16.5' Alumacraft (see link) with a 50 hp and in hindsight I wish I had gotten a slighter bigger boat. I never thought that I would want to fish on Lake St. Clair but now I do go out on it but only when the weather is very good.

You need to look at the long term and what you will use the boat for and will you have kids that you want to take waterskiing? How many people will you want in the boat? I believe you are fairly young and this may be the only boat you get for a while so do some good research.

As for buying the boat I would look at both used and new and the more you look the more you will narrow it down. Unfortunately, the automotive business is down and a lot of guys are selling their toys pretty cheap. Bad for them and maybe good for you and once you know what you are looking for you may want to post it here and people can let you know if they see anything that fits your needs. Good luck!

My boat (2004) version:
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Good links:
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with gas prices pushing 4 bucks a gallon. My 115 Merc wont get much time this year. I might run 60 gallons thru it all year.

Ill fish way more days with the Little Jon and it wont hurt my pocket book. In my opinion it has been the best Musky fishing investment that Michelle and I made. With the little car and boat even at 4 bucks a gallon I can fill the boat with 12 bucks and put 30 in the car and go most anywhere I want in lower Michigan. If I try that with my Starcraft I have to stay at the lake for a week to justify the cost of pulling that boat to the lake.

These high gas prices are going to hurt guys with big boats and big tow vehicles. I sure hope we get some relief from those prices before Musky season. Like Will says a 16 foot long extra wide Jon or the shorter 1448 like mine is a real good choice for all around fishing. We use ours for rivers, lakes and even can carry it short distances if we have to for lakes without launches. Good luck with your search. Ill keep my eyes on the paper and see if something pops up over this way. Mike and Michelle

For re-sale in W. Michigan you would probably sell a jon boat faster than anything. When I sold my jon I didn't even have to list it, there was someone waiting for me to sell it.

Now you guys have me dreading the thought of pulling my pontoon around. But its the only thing that will fit the whole crew and thier freinds.
All I have to do is whisper muskie and I have at least 5 kids lined up and ready to go. Ahhh what am I thinking? Its worth every penny!!!! [smilie=2thumbsup.gif]
That still is a nice rig Mike and Michelle have going.

Here's a couple pics of what I bought last August, and I love it so far! Tracker Pro Guide V-16; went for ~12.5k with a carbureted 2-stroke Merc 50. I can push it UP my slightly inclined driveway into my garage, ALONE. It's a breeze to trailer, launch and has a very shallow draft, while retaining lots of comfort and space for fishing. I don't plan on using it in big water much, if at all, and then only very near-shore.

If you see my car at the ramp, look for me out on the lake (prolly in the wrong place for muskies)! My car is often the only one that's not a pick-'em-up truck in the parking lot… unless Mike's Aveo is there, too. 🙄 Plate says, "CHEMI".

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Joel,
The best advice I can give you is try and fish with as many people as possilbe and notice what features of their boats are most important to you and then make your decision based on that. Then later on you won't have to add to it or regret not getting exactly what you wanted.
You and Jason are more than welcome to come fish Austin with me this year and fish out of my Tracker V-16. It is a 1997 but works for me. You can even run the show and I will fish out of the back of the boat.
Tom

I have a 16' 3" boat but it is tiller which makes a huge difference. It is 86" wide with vertical sidewalls and all open floor. Dont get me wrong I love it, but I have to tow it with something that gets less than 15 to the gallon due to its weight. As for the four stroke issue – you have to factor in the price of two-cycle oil in the mix- plus the inefficiency of running them below a certain rpm I have owned prolly' 30 different outboards and as many boats in my life and I would not go two-cycle by choice ever again. Many manufacturers have tried to clean up the 2 strokes but at low rpm the flow/vaporization/atomization of the fuel air mix just doesnt work as efficiently as an overhead cam 4 valves per cylinder four stroke this is largely due to the small exhaust chamber not allowing for a proper resonance wave to assist scavenging, I wont take that further unless someone is really interested. Honda has made four stroke outboards since the early 80's possibly late seventies and they are still around. Actual cost of maintenance is minimal, two quarts of oil and a $10 dollar filter ever 50 hours of run time, compare that to 20 something a gallon two stroke plus a thirty to fourty percent lower fuel consumption and it really does make sense PLUS —BIA certified oils, those for use in outboards have additives that make the emissions sink so as to prevent the "skimming" or rainbow effect that is so lovely on the water. So all the two stroke emitted underwater is little carbon footprints drifting slowly to the eutrophic joy of the lake.
Sorry not ranting AT you just a subject of interest to me…

SOOooooooo four cycles really have lower overall cost of operation, less noise, no smoke, waaaayyy smoother at all speeds, environmentally friendlier than two strokes but do outweigh them by about 150 to 200#s for a similar HP unit. For me definitely worth the trade plus in cold weather (25F and lower) they will actually continue to run correctly once warmed up, something my 2 strokes are not fond of (I still have 2 occasional users).

So that is my [smilie=2c.gif] [smilie=2c.gif] [smilie=2c.gif]

on that 🙄 🙄 FWIW
Kevin

Oooo, Kevin! Do I sense an engineer? 😀 Resonance waves; scavenging; we need to share some beers and discuss it some time!

As for 2-cycle oil, you can get some pretty cheap if you look around (Meijer had a good sale last fall, e.g.), and I've used less than a quart since I've had my boat, not counting the extra pre-mix they had me using during the 10-hour break-in period, so it seems they use even less than a 50:1 mix equivalent nowadays through the injectors. If your 2-strokes are more than a few years old, you may be surprised how much better they've gotten recently, especially the new F/E ones. But what do I know! 🙄

Anyway, when I bought, I was minimizing MONEY SPENT more than optimizing anything else, but smallness and general utility were important, too. That's why I got a small deep-V instead of a bass boat, since I thought it'd be marginally better in heavier seas than a bass boat, yet still would have a nice shallow draft and good maneuverability. So far, I haven't been disappointed.