In Need of Boat Advice

Hey all,

I’ll be on the lookout for a new, or I should actually say used, boat next year for a variety of applications. I live near some small Wisconsin rivers and Vilas and Oneida counties, and I’d like to be able to fish primarily muskies and walleyes out of the boat. However, I’d also like to maybe try to go to some bigger Shield type lakes like Vermilion or the Chip sometime, maybe like once or twice a year, and there’s a slight chance of LOTW or Green Bay, either of which I would like to do.

My question is then, what type of boat could I use to be able to fish most of these types of lakes mentioned. I have looked at Tuffy Esox type boats, old Ranger 680s and just old no-name boats. In your opinion, which boat would suit me best and would I be able to find pretty easily for under about $6000?

Thanks for any and all input!

acafisherman19

The Green Bay and LOTW potential makes this tough. An older Tuffy Esox would be a great small river and musky boat, but not sure I’d want to be in it in 4′ rollers on green bay.

Chances are, for your price range, you’re going to have to sacrifice something. I have an 03 Alumacraft Navigator 165 CS, which I could use for all of those applications. However, I am a lot pickier about my days on big water like Green Bay than I was when I ran a 19′ glass walleye boat.

It all depends how important a giant casting deck is to you. A 16′ or so aluminum V will likely fit the biggest amount of your desires, but you won’t have as big of a casting deck.

Sorry if that’s not a lot of help, but maybe another way to look at it.

wimwuen,

That’s some good advice, I had kind of thought about that with the Tuffy but I’ll for sure have to factor it in. I will most likely try to pick my days on Green Bay (only about 2 hours away) for sure if I go at all in this boat, and LOTW (about 10 hours away) would probably be taking a chance and maybe fishing the Rainy River if worst comes to worst.

I would really like a big casting deck, so maybe the Tuffy is a good option for that reason too.

Thanks for your help sor far!

acafisherman19

I have a 1991 Tuffy that is a tiller. It’s a deep V, I don’t know the model right off hand. It works fine for just about any application, with common sense it would work on Green Bay. I have a Yamaha 4 stroke 60hp on it, 2008 I think, maybe a 2009 Anyway pushes the boat mid 20’s with 2 fat guys on board.

Would that Tuffy maybe be something like a Renegade?

Tuffy is a Wisconsin company that makes some very nice rigs.

Tuffy