Save The Acorns Foundation: Story - Low Budget Boat Build

I had a nitro bass boat, but it wasn't really suiting me. I wanted something light, open, and a little rough that I wouldn't mind running aground or getting blood in. It is an ongoing process, but it is so nice when a problem gets solved.

The nitro was a good boat, just not for me.

When I first got the aluminum boat, there was just a trolling motor and a 2x12 across the back of it. I still haven't thought of a name for it.

The transom was in no shape to hold a motor.

Gross.

A good fish finder was necessary. The nitro had a cheap one on it and I never believed anything it said. I got one with a GPS and down scan imaging. One of our first trips out we got this image. I thought is was busted, but we started snagging shad. Since then, I believe everything this one says. I just got a micro-sd card, so now we should be able to take actual screen shots.

Here is a sunken tree we went over.

Here you can see the balls of shad with fish underneath.

I wanted the entire bottom to be flat and open. We pretty much abandoned bass fishing the shoreline. Our styles now are much more suited for lawn chairs.

I believe an organized boat is a happy boat. With this boat I am not scared to drill holes in the side of it to mount things. From left to right are my shad net holder, rear light holder, and switch bank controlling the main power/fishing lights/running lights.

From left to right are the fish finder display, rod holders for night fishing and trolling, prewired fishing lights to just throw out and flip the switch. I am about to try to make some LED fishing lights.

The entire deck is open so we can set up 3 lawn chairs comfortably in a 14' boat.

Here is a frame I made with 1/2"PVC to support the boat cover.

This cover was 150 denier. My next one will be more like 600. The fabric has already started stretching and tearing.

I made about 6 of these rod holders. They seem to be holding up pretty strong. I have had the rod bent all the way back to the base and the holder didn't look like it was going to give out.

As always, Rubbermaid tub to the rescue. Keeps everything dry and contained.

The handiest location for the Q-Beam Plug. I need another one up front.

I found this old bungee in the garage that I used to have on the motorcycle. Waste not, want not.

Not sure if this is going to work. I usually shove food and stuff under there when night fishing.

It was too hard to get the shad out of the net with one hand, so I made this holder that slides into the rod carriers.

There were a lot of problems and solutions with this thing. We needed a way to keep our shad alive so I got a bucket. They weren't living very long so I drilled holes in the side to keep fresh water coming in. I needed to keep the shad from getting out so I put some expanding foam around the top of the bucket a couple inches down rather than putting a lid on it since we are in and out of it a lot. I tied a brick on the bottom to keep it standing upright and tie it to the side of the boat by the shad net. with the bucket top being at water level we needed an extension for our dipper so we didn't have to get on our knees every time we wanted a shad. This has worked pretty good so far. I need to get a weight for the inside of the bucket so that the brick isn't flopping around in the bottom of the boat. I had the brick in the bucket at first but it was in the way of the shad and the net.

Holders for my buoy markers. Split a section of PVC and screwed it to the back. They were just flopping on the floor. Now I can just reach around and flip one over the back.