First time boat owner

[dennishoddy]

So, I won't be able to take out my new toy for a few weeks, due to responsibilities around the house, and an impending cross country trip. But, thankfully I have been told that after a 2 week vacation living in a 21ft travel trailer together, that I'll be required to get out of the house for a few days and go hunting/fishing upon our return. I'm not religious or anything, but God bless this woman. I found myself a real keeper. So I figure I'll take the boat out for a half day or so when we first get back, before my trip. Use it as a time to play with the finders, Get a feel for the boat/motor, practice loading/unloading a few times. Make sure there isn't any issues or problems I need to attend to before taking my 5-7day trip. Probably go out to shawnee twin lakes, the girlfriends dad has a house on the lake, suggested I take the boat out so we can play with it. He's more of a skiing kinda guy, and is disappointed that my 9.9 horse won't work well for pulling him up on skis. But, he's grown up on boats, and I figure he can help with some pointers.

My thought for the trip are to try out some smaller bodies of water, maybe go out and try a river. Near me the Canadian and deep fork are more or less just drainage ditches unless they're flooding and have trees floating down them. I was thinking of trying out the Arkansas and or Canadian rivers between Weber Falls/Eufala and RS Kerr Lake, ? Jon Boats are made to be river boats, would this be a good idea? If I stick to the rivers am I going to be fighting much traffic?

The navigation channel will work just fine for your Jon boat. Keep in mind that it's a water cooled so if you get into shallow water, there might be some sand or mud pulled into the water pump intakes that will chew up the rubber impeller in the lower unit of the motor.
The motor should have a tell tale on the right side of it that will maintain a stream of water so you can tell the water pump is operating correctly. (I think)
If it quits streaming water, the water pump is bad. Easy fix by the owner. Parts run about $30 bucks last time I rebuilt my 20 hp water pump and took about two hours.
Prices don't vary much between the 20 hp or the 200 hp. Easy maintenance.

 

[Chief Sapulpa]

The navigation channel will work just fine for your Jon boat...

Proceed with caution on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System in eastern OK. Springtime rains will fill the channel with logs, branches and all sorts of debris. That stuff is killer on props. I've had instances where I could not enter the channel from logs clogging the entrance from the launching canal.
Also, if you're going to lock-thru learn the procedure before you go; https://www.swt.usace.army.mil/Portals/41/docs/missions/navigation/safelockthru.pdf

 

[swampratt]

When I got my Canoe i took it to a pond and sunk it.
I wanted to see if it would float or sink.
Went right to the bottom.
Only 8 foot deep so I pulled it out and took it home and put styrofoam under the seats that I had found on a lake shore that used to be under a boat dock.
This kept the boat from sinking when full of water.
I suggest you look under the seats and see if there is any flotation foam under them.

If not then get some so if it does happen to fill up with water you can drag it to shore.

 

[golddigger14s]

This course is FREE.
https://www.boatus.org/oklahoma/

 

[osu007]

So I’ve been selling some guns and stuff, was gonna build a fancy custom switch barrel rifle. Decided a boat and a cheap rifle would be a lot more fun for now. So I found a pretty sweet deal on one, should be picking it up tomorrow.

I’ve never owned a boat, and have actually only fished out of a boat a dozen times. A proper fishing boat twice. So pretty clueless. I understand the ideas of launching, getting the boat up on plane, don’t run over stumps or rocks, and getting the boat back on the trailer, but otherwise, I’m a little clueless. Any advice/pointers? Drive the boat around til I find somewhere worth fishing/see something on the fish finder and get after it? Anything I should want to consider buying for the boat? Items that have made life easy? Lessons I could learn from other’s experiences before I screw up myself?

I’m really excited about this. Have dreamed of having a fishing boat for as long as I can remember. I live 4 miles from Arcadia, figure that would be my first stop. Probably try to hit metro area lakes first to get my feet wet.

Boats are money pits. I found out the hard way. Love to fish, crappie. But mine was a money pit.

 

[Ready_fire_aim]

Be realistic with the small boat, stay safe. I grew up boating on the big Oklahoma lakes. Small boats are sketchy. Trust me I know, I own one. As a matter of fact I’ve owned several small and big boats with a few Jon boats in there.

Weather is a HUGE factor. Weather will make or break a boating day.
On windy days boating is just a pain in the neck. I’d rather bank fish than boat fish on windy days.

my top recommendation is to get a GOOD motor. My current little boat has a 9.9 outboard I bought brand new from cabelas. Was a little pricey to buy, but totally worth it when I’m out on the water with my 7yr old child and have zero concerns about motor reliability

 

[montesa]

Boats are money pits. I found out the hard way. Love to fish, crappie. But mine was a money pit.

If you get a 16ft aluminum boat with a quality 15-25hp outboard, they cost almost nothing to maintain. Bearing grease. Fuel filters. Spark plugs. Impeller here and there. Oil.

When I was a kid I thought boats just didn’t run most of the time. My dad bought old fish/ski combo type boats and they had lots of problems. Wasn’t fun.

 

[swampratt]

I have great luck with all my boats and they were never money pits.
But i do all my own work on them and never had any expensive issues with them.
And they always started and ran.

Here is a big issue with 2 stroke engines.
People would pull the fuel line off and run the engine out of fuel before they drug it back home.
That is the worst thing you can do to a 2 stroke engine.
In fact in the factory service manual for Mercury it states to never do that.

The only lube the crank and cylinder walls get comes from the oil in the fuel.
Run it out of fuel and you run it out of oil and let it sit like that and you are asking for rusted cylinders etc.

Yep you will be in the money pit then.
I never pulled the fuel line off my 2 strokes and ran them out of fuel.
Never had any gunked up carbs either. Quicksilver oil was always used.

Have fun.

 

[osu007]

I have great luck with all my boats and they were never money pits.
But i do all my own work on them and never had any expensive issues with them.
And they always started and ran.

Here is a big issue with 2 stroke engines.
People would pull the fuel line off and run the engine out of fuel before they drug it back home.
That is the worst thing you can do to a 2 stroke engine.
In fact in the factory service manual for Mercury it states to never do that.

The only lube the crank and cylinder walls get comes from the oil in the fuel.
Run it out of fuel and you run it out of oil and let it sit like that and you are asking for rusted cylinders etc.

Yep you will be in the money pit then.
I never pulled the fuel line off my 2 strokes and ran them out of fuel.
Never had any gunked up carbs either. Quicksilver oil was always used.

Have fun.

I probably should have elaborated. Mine was an ‘89 dual console bass at 19 footer. Something always going wrong. From Mother Nature to mechanics not doing their job I paid for because I didn’t have time to do it myself. Long story. I was much happier with a 10 foot 2 man bass buggy type. No problems, and caught more fish.

 

[HoLeChit]

I probably should have elaborated. Mine was an ‘89 dual console bass at 19 footer. Something always going wrong. From Mother Nature to mechanics not doing their job I paid for because I didn’t have time to do it myself. Long story. I was much happier with a 10 foot 2 man bass buggy type. No problems, and caught more fish.

That’s a big reason why I went with a jon boat. Even with the original owner being the equivalent of the car guy with a jegs catalog it will still only be a few week project to get everything fixed up and completely redone how I want it. With Jon boats you can go as simple or as complicated as one would want. I’ve seen guys with nothing but a push pole and a bare boat, I’ve seen guys with Jon boats that look like bass boats. They’re pretty much a blank slate.