OK… :?
Kayaks/Canoes: Check
Pontoons/Innertubes: I can easily see that.
Jon Boats: Why not? The forum is a little slow anyhoo.
Dutch Ovens? We got to draw the line somewhere. 
:lol:
Doesn’t float worth a hoot. :lol:
A dutch oven will easily anchor a float tube or pontoon boat…I recommend the lodge 16inch one for that. ( there now you have the connection with paddling and dutch ovenware :lol: )
I see that many of you are posting having smaller Jon boats in the 8, 10, 12 foot range. I’ve read from many sources that 80% of all boating fatalities have been from these sized boats. Some states are in the process of outlawing them. I personally own a 16 footer with a 54 lb trolling motor.
I see that many of you are posting having smaller Jon boats in the 8, 10, 12 foot range. I’ve read from many sources that 80% of all boating fatalities have been from these sized boats. Some states are in the process of outlawing them. I personally own a 16 footer with a 54 lb trolling motor.
I see that many of you are posting having smaller Jon boats in the 8, 10, 12 foot range. I’ve read from many sources that 80% of all boating fatalities have been from these sized boats. Some states are in the process of outlawing them. I personally own a 16 footer with a 54 lb trolling motor.
Hobo Where did you read this, who did the study?
Eric
The trouble with a 16 footer is that it sticks 8 feet out the back of my truck. It is even quite long for a trailer. Instead of limiting the length of the boat it would make more sense to me if you paid more attention to the amount of freeboard it has. My Davidson ( Sea Barf ) has 22 inches of freeboard. Its good in moderate waves and stable as a rock. I come in long before waves are a problem but have that safety margin in case of a sudden blowup. It is 10 feet long and five feet wide. Its kind of like fishing on the dock. It has two hulls with a seat down the center the entire length of the boat. Four people can easily ride in it in comfort although I only take out one other person when I fish. I have never had a John boat so I don’t know how stable/unstable they are. If you regulate jon boats you would also have to ban almost every beach toy and air mattress on the planet. IMO
Statistically fishing is the most dangerous sport there is. More deaths occur from fishing that all the other sports combined. ( I heard that on the news one night. They were quoting an American university study I forget which one )
Having said that… I had a 30ft boat on Okanagan lake which is famous for having sudden high winds and treacherous waves. When we would spot a small boat fishing out near the middle I would troll keeping them in sight. Sooner or later the wind would come up. Then I’d cruise on over and offer them a lift to safety. Usually I’d keep about a mile away and let them bounce around a bit till I thought they had enough then I’d go over and offer them a tow and a lift to safety. The worst one I ever saw was a guy waving for help in a canoe. When we got there we discovered it was a guy and his 6 year old daughter, the canoe had about 6 inches of water in it and the child was shivering on the floor of it. We took them back to the marina where they rented it. For a life jacket each one had a “floatation cusion”. Which back then was a legal life jacket. To say the guy was thankful would be an understatement. The marina had rented the canoe out to a novice with out any instructions, warnings or advice.
Thankfully now you have to have a certified life jacket that fits properly. You are only required to have it near you, not on you. If you fall overboard and don’t have it on what good is it.
Those usless cusion life preservers remind me of the warning signs on the back of seats in commercial airplanes. " In case of emergency the seat cushion may be used for a floatation device. How would you like to have a seat cushion for a life preserver 10 miles from shore.
A comedian in Montreal once said of them. Oh yeah! Floatation device be dammed in the event of an emergency I’m probably going to be using that bad boy for a toilet. :lol:
Rant over!!! Whew!
My boat is a 12’er. I DO NOT stand up in it. If I fish with a motor, I counterbalance the boat so that pitch, yaw, and trim are equal. If I fish with just the oars, I sit in the middle seat and pitch, yaw, and trim are taken care of. Freeboard isn’t as much as GBF’s but I usually only fish in lakes less than 1 mile long and 1/4 mile across. In many places you can pitch a rock from one shore to the other. I wish I had a picture. I’d post it. I used to, but my puter with the pics crashed hard. 
Joe the stuff I was talking about is not carpetlike. It is sort of like this stuff
http://www.duradek.com/Duradek.asp
You have to copy and paste this link .
Duradex is not exactly like this as it has about a 1/16 inch foam backing on the underside. It weighs very little compared to the overall weight of the boat and will not waterlog on you. The foam is there to deaden the sound and takes that aluminum clank out of the boat if you drop something. I got it at the marina about 20 years ago and the marina is gone now so can’t get the exact name of it. But it was cheap and lasted the 10 years or so I had the boat with little apparent wear. I saw one of those big aluminum party boats at a rv/boat show this summer and it had the same stuff on the floor so they must still make it.
Thanks GBF,
I’ll check out West Marine and see if they carry it.
I would not disagree with hoboflyfisher’s assertion that the shorter jonboats are more susceptible to accident, and that annually a disproportionately high percentage of drownings result from their use. They are a very popular boat type but too often get used in conditions they are not designed to handle.
Here in Kansas where the wind speed jumps up suddenly and/or changes directions unpredictably, jonboats have been involved in quite a number of drownings on our big federal lakes. Any number of mistakes can lead to a boating accident, of course, but with jonboats the two main ones are overloading (too many passengers/too much weight, which reduces freeboard) and taking the boat into hostile conditions for which the boat’s length, width and hull design are not adequate.
Many people assume that just because they’re riding in a boat – any boat, any size – this alone makes them invulnerable to wind and waves. So every year we have powerboaters, kayakers, canoeists, sailboaters, rowboaters, rafters, jonboaters…representatives of all categories dying by drowning accidents quick, fast and in a hurry here in Kansas. All you gotta do is screw up real bad just once in the wrong place.
Joe
“Better small than not at all.”
While fishing the bays of Southern California I have seen many and I do mean many 12’ boats with 6 to 8 passengers headed to Catalina Island. :shock:
Yes this causes many drownings but it has more to do with the size of the IQ than the boat.
Exactly!
Small jon boats are dangerous indeed! I’ve had a few close calls in my 10 footer. :shock:
There’s a business here on one of our local lakes that rents boats, and they had to replace all of their jon boats because their insurance carrier refused to cover them.
It’s ALWAYS a good idea to wear a life jacket when you’re in a jon boat - even if the law does not require it. It’s also a good idea to stay relatively close to shore – especially when the water is cold. Swimming 50 yards or less is possible before cramps set in from hypothermia. If you’re in the middle of a lake when the boat goes under, you’ll probably become a statistic.
Many people die in the spring because they do not realize that even though it may be 70+ degrees outside, the water has not warmed up yet.
I finally got a shot of my boat. Works great on still waters and NO WATER SKIERS! I’d love to have a 19’ Lund, but this one gets me places I haven’t been before. The trailer bed is 8’ long and the boat is 12’ long.
I had a 14’ Jon sold by Sears, for a few years. It was somewhat narrow, a little over46" at the widest point. This boat was excellent for duck hunts, as it went through the tules and stuff pretty good. I often ran a 5 H.P. outboard on it, but with only one guy, it was a little too much motor. Mostly, I used an old MinnKota troller with the battery up in the bow to keep ‘er trim. It was a fairly unstable boat, all in all, with the narrow beam, so I sold it when my kids were getting big enough to go out in a boat. I solved the wave slap with glued on indoor outdoor carpet pieces up in the bow. The boat had only about 8" of freeboard, and was sometimes a challenge when flycasting, and moving around. I never thought I wanted another Jon, but after reading what some of the guys have said about 5’ beams, and 14" freeboard, looks like I might be in the market next spring. As for their being welcome here, why yes, I think so. Anything slow, and adapted for flyfishing oughta be O.K. Long as we dont get into a bunch of skiing, and wakeboarding and all that…ModocDan
Technically I have a jon boat and I do row it… but it also has a jet outboard (although only a 20 horse its more than enough). It just so happens to be a 20 footer. If you want a challenge row this thing on a windy day!
Hopefully this attachment works… (edit: apparently I can post an attachment, but I don’t have permission to see it? Is that right?)
http://s125.photobucket.com/albums/p45/pblandry/pics/?action=view¤t=Fishpics586.jpg
Do you have an intercom so the guy in the front can talk to the guy in the back…
Nice boat by the way.
We use sign language. :lol: You can probably guess what kind.
I’m considering upgrading to two cans and a tight string.