jon boat advice

i am looking to get my first jon boat and would like some advice - i am thinking a flat bottom aluminum would be good for me - so - size , motor , best price to pay - i am looking for used and would like to pay $500 or so - i can fix small motors no problem - so a used boat with a non running motor might make the best deal for me - i live next to the mobile delta so its shallow water - fish and pig hunting - i am also thinking plain jane so i can customize for myself - im a big guy so comfort is an issue for me - all advice welcome ! thanks !

Re: jon boat advice

Jon boats come in lots of flavors, from super light, super cheap riveted, to heavy duty welded aluminum commercial type boats. My boat is a sorta middle of the road type, an 1872 welded Express, but plenty durable, roomy, maitenance free. The "18" is the length and the "72" is the beam, or width. The wider you get the more stable and roomy they are. I would suggest a minimum beam of 48 inches, or 4ft. wide in the bottom. With the 72 inch beam you can stand up and walk around all you want with no tipping. If you can find a bare-bones boat, you can always add some plywood floors and a bimini top,or just anything you can think of. I built a wooden deck on the front of mine big enough to pitch the tent on and we really enjoy it! Look around and find you a good deal!

Re: jon boat advice

Johns are really best suited for protected water. Being flat bottomed, they can get to be real aggravating in waters with considerable chop and certainly in waves; rough riding, hard to steer, and noisy when you are trying to sneak up on the fish. The flat bottom is well suited to beaching, stability when moving yourself about, and they plane out easily with minimum HP.

Being flat bottomed, unless you are in a high water absorption activity, you don't need any decking for a flat surface to walk on unlike the semi V.

The older you get the more important having a seat with with a back is to you and johns usually use the seats for floatation and so unless you screw the after market seat with swivel and a back into the fixed aluminum, cross mounted, john seat, you have no place to attach it. That's ok if the john seat is filled with foam, but if an air pocket design it MIGHT be a problem.

A lot of johns have very low sides which I personally don't like. My last john was a LOWE LINE Lake John which had a nice beam and high sides....but still had the other john problems. I personally would not buy a john with low sides regardless (pretty much) of the water because a large boat could come by with a large wake and swamp you even on a quiet river.

I had a Toyota p/u with a topper that was on the order of a camper shell (paneled interior, high square design, roll out windows and all), and I put a rack on top of it (and built a couple of bunks in it with scrap EMT tubing. I could put my john up there and go to the fishing spot and load/unload alone. Worked out really well for a one man operation. Course then, the boat was Spartan with nothing in it that didn't come OEM keeping it light.

Enough.

Mark