Suggestions for 15-16 feet Bass boat

[slonezp]

Check out the Crestliner Storm 1600. 16' 0" aluminum bass boat, recommended hp from 20 - 50. Has a lockable 8' rod locker. It's a nice little rig and Crestliners are known for decent quality. It's probably one of the few small bass boats in this size that have a true rod locker. Other brands seem to have the rod rack with exposed rods and not a locker.

Nice looking rig and it's not priced crazy

[Panama]

This is a picture of my little boat for small water. It has good storage and an enclosed rod locker. It is a 1996 Ranger Cherokee. My point is that you might try to find a good used older boat. You can save enough money to put a new 4 stroke on it if you decide to at a later date. If you look hard this time of year, there are some deals to be had. I have had good service out of my 1996. The aluminum hull was built by Crestliner on these vintage Cherokees but Ranger finished the interior and rigged it and made the trailer. My Cherokee is 16 ft. but you would have much more selection if you upped your length limit to 17 ft.

[620Ranger]

This is a picture of my little boat for small water. It has good storage and an enclosed rod locker. It is a 1996 Ranger Cherokee. My point is that you might try to find a good used older boat. You can save enough money to put a new 4 stroke on it if you decide to at a later date. If you look hard this time of year, there are some deals to be had. I have had good service out of my 1996. The aluminum hull was built by Crestliner on these vintage Cherokees but Ranger finished the interior and rigged it and made the trailer. My Cherokee is 16 ft. but you would have much more selection if you upped your length limit to 17 ft.

Probably going to list, locally, a Ranger very similar to this one sometime in February.

[Lou22]

Tracker Pro 165's will possibly meet your requirements. Max HP is 40hp. Mine has a rod locker, but it does not accommodate my rod lengths.

[n2ratfishin]

Most rods today are 7 or 7.5 feet long. I doubt you find many 15 or 16' long boats with rod lockers near half as big as the boat.

[TDobb]

Most rods today are 7 or 7.5 feet long. I doubt you find many 15 or 16' long boats with rod lockers near half as big as the boat.

Exactly. Most boats even today, the manufacturers aren't making the smaller boats truly fisherman friendly. That is why I built my 14' Lund out the way I did. I can get 9' muskie rods in the locker in a 14' boat. Getting 7'-10" rods in there completely under the lid isn't a problem. There are compromises to make with every boat on the market, no one boat is going to be perfect for everything that everybody wants to do with it. That is the reason there are so many options out there.

I will stand by my statement of finding a good hull and building what you want if you are handy enough to do so. And you don't have to do a full tear-out and rebuild. There are several boats on the market that you could buy and do simple modifications to and make them much more user friendly.

I have been a boat fanatic since I was about 3 years old. Dad would take me to the boat shows and let me crawl around in them. I collected the annual catalogs from several of the bigger manufacturers for many years, so I could have a reference to look back on when it was time to look for a boat of my own. Just flat out love boats, and not afraid to tear into one to improve certain aspects of them.

Take care,
Tom

[TDobb]

Thays a ‘76!? Super nice rebuild! Love the speakers in the front too. There’s proof you don’t have to spend 50k to have a good quality fishing machine for you and your kid!

Right. That old boat has caught more fish than most men have lied about.

[Panama]

Right. That old boat has caught more fish than most men have lied about.

Same is true with my little Ranger Cherokee. I have owned boats that cost about 10 times what the little Cherokee cost but I have caught more and bigger fish with the Cherokee. One reason is that I could and would take it where I would not take the sparkle boats. I do however take the RT188 back there in the sticks, pads and grass...and I don't own a sparkle boat anymore. The RT188 is catching up with the Cherokee, because the RT188 can go just as shallow.

[n2ratfishin]

Ditto on the number of fish caught from my RT. I bought it without any carpet, it's just simple and relatively inexpensive to operate compared to other boats I have owned. I've launched it in places where you are not getting a big glass boat. I almost bought the 17' RT. The only reason I didn't was because my wife didn't want to make that big a jump backwards (she fishes with me and I came out of a 20' glass boat.) We both felt like the 18'8" RT had/has just as much usable space as any other 18'er I've ever had, more than some. At 2700 pounds rolling down the road ready to fish it can be pulled with most anything out there.

I had a 16' Lowe with a 40 Johnnyrude for years when my son was a toddler. It didn't have rod lockers, more of a crappie layout with two seats one front and back one at a console. The rest was open floor. I could let him roam around without worrying about him walking off a deck. As he got bigger I went back to a glass boat. I had a little 6HP hanging off the transom of the Lowe next to the 40 that I could tiller on the lakes around me with a 10HP limit. We had lots of good memories in that one. It was easy to just carry the few rods and a tackle box in at night.

[Casslaw]

That Cherokee sits VERY level in the water! The only thing I cannot with is that ANY boat has caught more fish then men have lied about! That’s an impossible task!

[BigEasy]

Probably going to list, locally, a Ranger very similar to this one sometime in February.

Please message me if you do. Thanks