Cost of Fishing?

[ukbass]

Like most have said, to each is their own. It just depends what your intentions are. If I fished a smaller lake I wouldn't have such a big boat. I have 05 triton 21ft. My warranty is good through 2011. I had always thought when it is up I would upgrade. But the boat is paid for now, and their is nothing wrong with it. Will prob. keep it for a long time. I have been driving a run down old truck because of my boat. My wife often reminds that if I get rid of the boat I can get a new truck. Of course my comment is always, naaaaaaa. I just wouldn't be happy without the boat. But you don't have to have the best one on the market.

[bigfish65]

Price for a new boat is way out of hand. People finance their life away to keep up with the Jones's (so to speak). I have owned bigger bass boat's but seemed like I ran around more than I fished, because I could move around fast or looked good in my rig. I don't get to fish much anymore(work, kids, etc.) so now when I go my father-in-law has a 16ft Terry w/Evinrude 90. I have caught just as many if not more fish out of that boat than any other big boat I have owned. So, I just don't get it anymore, putting all that money into a big rig. Different strokes for different folks.

[HURRICANEBOB]

Let's create a new tournament series.........

It would be called the:

JO-BET-MO Fishing Series: JOn Boat Electric Trolling Motor Only.
Rules are any bait is legal, 14 foot boat or less, power by 24 volt trolling motor or smaller. We'd have 5 divisions, including a small mouth, large mouth Walleye, Catfish, and Striper series, leading to the grand finale tournament where we'd go after Sword Fish.

We'll all join and get the big big fishing names involved. After a couple successful seasons, the boat makers will all see the trend and start making lavish 14 footers. Can you image a 14 foot jon with 2 downriggers, gps, sonar, trolling motor, 2 batteries, charger, 2 windshields, 30 gallon bait live well and 60 gallon catch live well, as well as running lights, bass seats, 16 rod holders, a rod locker for 12 rods, and a tackle storage stand.

I bet ya after 4 good seasons, and the boat makers getting involved, a 14 foot jon boat with a trolling motor would probably list for something around$50,000 (not including trailer, tax, registration, or insurance of course).

[AndyG]

Let's create a new tournament series.........

It would be called the:

JO-BET-MO Fishing Series: JOn Boat Electric Trolling Motor Only.
Rules are any bait is legal, 14 foot boat or less, power by 24 volt trolling motor or smaller. We'd have 5 divisions, including a small mouth, large mouth Walleye, Catfish, and Striper series, leading to the grand finale tournament where we'd go after Sword Fish.

We'll all join and get the big big fishing names involved. After a couple successful seasons, the boat makers will all see the trend and start making lavish 14 footers. Can you image a 14 foot jon with 2 downriggers, gps, sonar, trolling motor, 2 batteries, charger, 2 windshields, 30 gallon bait live well and 60 gallon catch live well, as well as running lights, bass seats, 16 rod holders, a rod locker for 12 rods, and a tackle storage stand.

I bet ya after 4 good seasons, and the boat makers getting involved, a 14 foot jon boat with a trolling motor would probably list for something around$50,000 (not including trailer, tax, registration, or insurance of course).

Now thats a league I'd dominate... Been fishing a 10ft jon for four years and I can handle it pretty well. Fished lake kissimmee 14 days in it this month, and clobbered the local BFL guys in it. Didnt keep any fish but took pics of them on the scales just to mess with em . I had big fish and big bag, just braggin rights of course. One of them said he was going to do a story about me in one of their fishing papers, about how having a big boat isnt necessary for bass fishing. But Im gonna have a bass boat soon Lord willing.

[publican57]

A buddy tells me the kind of boat I need and of course if I get the boat, I would need a bigger truck to haul it. Problem with getting a new boat is I don't have more time to fish. In fact I will need to stay at work longer to pay for the new boat and truck.

I will stick to my Jon Boat, Kayak, Canoe and Ford Ranger. When I figure out a way to go to a three or four day work week, then maybe I will buy a little better boat. Right now, my tackle is worth more than my boat. And according to my wife, that is getting out of control.

If I buy something expensive to fish with this year, I am more tempted to get one of those side looking depthfinders than a new boat. I don't care what kind of boat I have, if I cannot find the fish what does it matter?

[kygorski]

Side scanning sonar? Heck I can't get em to bite sometimes when they are right under the boat. Several yrs ago when we traveled, I was forced to fish out of a 12 ft porte boatm it had a 5 hp motor and a rear trolling motor. guess what I caught one heck of a lot of fish, red fish weak fish[sec trout] LMB walleye and trout. Now if my sonar isn't working I give up and go home.Best fishing day I had in many years was on a small weed chocked lake, the only way through was OARS, guys in bass boats couldn't get into the spot with a trolling motor, and it was a HP limit lake.I watched an old timer catch crappies up the yazoo, how? Sculling paddle 14 ft cane pole.A big boat couldn't into trhe brush like he did.Any one here remember sculling paddles?

[kygorski]

Whats money for?But the boating thing is sort of strange. We had parked our travel trailer on the shore at my aunts house in the upper penisula of mich, its a good sized lake, my porte a bote would not handle that i said. My cousin handed me the key to his 16 ft aluma craft with a 60 on it and told me to enjoy, he was going backto chicago to work. So we'd shoot across the lake to the far south east corner of the lake, and fish. My wife asked me where all those boats going that we passed. To the north west corner I said. she asked why? Its a guy thing i answered.You got the horse power use it, later let the brain power take over. Another guy thing. But the ultimate guy thing is instructions, it goes together this way, if that dont work, get the book.

[HURRICANEBOB]

Bought my 20 foot Monark pontoon with 75 Merc new in 1994, so its now 16 years old. If I sold it today I could probably get about $5000 for the boat motor and trailer IAW Nada. 50-60% depreciation. And that's pretty moderate really.

What keeps me from getting a new boat is the initial stupidly high cost like DJD noted to start the tread. $40 to $70K seems way to much for a toy, especially so if you finance it over 15 years, and then take a 60% depreciating hit on top of that.

Take a $40,000 boat, at 6% for 15 years. Payment is just $337.54, not too bad. At the end of 15 years, you have spent a total of $60,758 on payments of which $20,758 was interest alone. Now realize after paying the $60,758 in payments, you don't have a boat worth $60,758, it deprecitated and might be worth $16,000 based on Nada average depreciation. That's another $24,000 in depreciation lost. So add the total payments to the depreciation and your total sunk costs are $84,758, not including any insurance, registration, or maintenance. Its just outrageous to me. I guess for folks pulling $150K a year or better that's fine.

I think the boating industry and boat makers have priced itself to the point that the ones that go out of business DESERVE IT. To the boat makers that still put out good priduct at $12 to $20K, I say warmest regards to you.

Me........I'm gonna take advantage of the rich folks from now on, and buy the depreciated used boat that they stuck all the money in.

[floatman]

got my spring Bass Pro Shops catalog to day and I think Nitro has gotten the message, they have a 20' 1" Nitro Z8 with a 200 Merc for 29,995 and with Merc 225 for 32,995, still a lot of money, but almost 40,000 less then that one for 70,000 JMO

Gary

[MsgMills]

I couldn't agree more with the info in this thread. I bought a 05 Triton 196 and just love this boat. But last year i was only able to go fishing 2 times the entire year due to my bad back. But to think about selling my boat is a no brainer..No way would I sell this boat, it's set up the way I want a boat to be and it is big enough for my entire family to go out on and enjoy our time on the lake. Plus it's paid off and don't eat anything while sitting in the garage.

So if and when I am able to go fishing again, I'll have my boat waiting for me in the garage, might have to put new batteries in it this year, but so far I've gotten 4 years of use out of my batteries.

Plus when my boys get old enough to actually use the boat on their own, it'll be everything they would ever want or need to use on the water.

[DJD]

I guess you can get wiser as you age cause I am so concerned now about how much money I give away on loans that I would rather save big time and pay cash or have a huge down payment on anything I buy.

This type of thinking has me buying used stuff all the time...boat, motorcycle, kayak, lures and other things. I have purchased used rods and when they have lifetime warranties it really doesn't matter.

[waterdog101]

On a whim, several years agoI priced a nitro.I could afford it. the guy actually proved it. 170 payments. I could even have had it with 20yrs of finance. No way.I would have been over 83 yrsw old when it was mine. WOW living on generic alpo just didn't seem right.

every man does his own thing, some will pay the new price. mostly very young guys. I bought a new boat when i was a young guy. sometimes the payment was tough to make. I kept it a long time. and enjoyed it, but wished many times i hadn't bought it. last year i got to wanting another, and looked at some new ones. but i didn't want one bad enough to go through that again. looked on craigslist for three or four months. found a 2005 nitro that an older guy had bought new at the louisville boat show. the garage he kept it in had 2 inches clearance from rubbing the finders. him and his fishing buddy had to put it in his garage by hand. so it was so much trouble, he left it parked and fished with his friend. it was 4 years old, and had 17 hours on it. I bought it for 1/2 the price his paper work showed he payed for it at the louisville boat show. so something to think about. buy a good used boat, and have more money to spend on gas and lures. their are good deals out their, just go slow while searching. you'll find it.