Jon Boats Part 5

Jon Boats Part 5

Andy Dear | Monday, 20 September 2021

After selling the PolarKraft, I went boat-less for several years, doing most of my fishing out of a kayak. When the boat bug struck again, I ended up with Jon Boat # 4, which came in the form of an Alumacraft 1648.

  The Alumacraft was a fantastic Jon boat. I purchased it new from a dealer in Crosby Tx, just east of Houston, with a 25hp 4stroke Yamaha and no center seat to allow for a more open floor plan. As much as I desperately wanted a MonArk like the one in the Walker's Cay episodes that I referenced before, they had simply been out of production too long to find one in servicable condition. However, the Alumacraft served its purpose well, and we caught a TON of fish out of it during the time I owned it. The only drawback to the Alumacraft was that it had higher sides than I would have liked. The sides on the 16' MonArk were a mere 19 inches and on the Alumacraft they were closer to 22". This may not sound like a lot, but that extra three inches of freeboard catches a lot more wind than is desired and can make poling a little more of a chore.

  Despite that, I really enjoyed owning the Alumacraft, and it helped to create a ton of good memories for me. It was a stable fishing platform, a very low maintainence boat, and it floated in not much more than a puddle. It could be a bit noisy in choppy water, but there were ways to overcome this artifact. To be honest, the only reason I sold it was because 2007 was the year I met Captain Freddy Lynch. He and I began to explore some of the more remote regions of the Laguna Madre that were far, FAR out of reach of a 16' flat-bottom. Becuase of this,  I found myself spending more and more time on his boat, and less and less my own, so I put the Alumacraft up for sale in 2008.

  There have been a lot of days since then, when I wished I had kept that boat for future use. I paid just a hair over $5000 USD for the boat, motor and trailer BRAND NEW in the summer of 2003, and these days you can't touch a similair rig for less than 10 grand! Hindshight is always 20/20 I guess, but that boat has been long gone now, so no point in crying over spilt milk. Besides, after Jack was born I took an extended break from my obsessive angling addiction to be as present of a father as I could be, until he was old enough to join in the fun. So, from that standpoint, letting go of the Alumacraft was the right thing to do...otherwise it would have simply become a $5000 piece of yard art.

 

Hope you're all having a great week!

 

Andy