Bill, Bob, SimRacer:

Thank you all for your help. From your comments it's obvious that the jet
propelled engine is not the best choice for my target application. I was
thinking that a jet-driven engine could add extra capability to the boat for
shallow water and allow me to fish the shallow flats in the Gulf coast, but
it's obviously not the case. You need a more specific rig for that. In
reality I'd do such a fishing trip rarely. I would say 99.9% of the times I
will be doing bass fishing.

Sergio

"bill a" wrote in message
om...
Like some other guys said, jets are bad about intake clogging. I've had
one for a couple of years with a 6 degree deadrise bottom, but I run it in
shallow, fast running gravel type streams. If I was mostly going in
lakes and inshore, I think I would stick with a prop as the others said
(power, speed, fuel mileage, noise, clogging). The other thing not
mentioned so far, is that jets don't corner well, even with v-bottoms. I
frequently see newbies sitting in their boats on dry land because they
misjudged making a corner. While you don't have to do the twisty stuff
near as much in lakes, some hard swerving is bound to come up eventually.
The other thing on aluminum hulls is the bottom thickness. If you get
overly brave about running shallow, you inevitably will hit the bottom at
some point. Why have it if you don't use it?
The common jet boat bottoms around here are .19" thick and a 5052 alloy,
very tough stuff. They call them plate boats. If you have .100" or less
thickness and 2024 alloy, touching hard rock and even gravel sometimes
will open you up. You then sink really fast.
hth
bill

"Sergio Ramirez" wrote in message
...
Hello all:

I'm considering buying my first boat, and wonder if any of you folks have
any advice/opinion on the following:

- Lund boats or Alumacraft boats. I want a light 16' deep-V boat that I
can trailer in my small Toyota pickup, which is rated for 3500 lbs
trailering. Around here there are a lot of Tracker boats, but I've heard
complaints on Tracker customer service and problem with leakage through
the welds. They tell me Alumacraft is a good quality boat, and Lund is
top of the line.

- The jet propulsion engines from Honda (BF35 or BF65). They really look
interesting because it allows access to shallow areas and it's quieter,
but I wonder if this new technology (or perhaps not new, I don't know) is
not that well developed that it's best not to get into it at this moment.

I'm in central Texas and I'm looking to do mainly bass fishing around the
Hill Country lakes (some of them pretty large bodies), and perhaps once
in a while go to the Gulf coast to do bay fishing or close-to-shore
fishing.

Thanks in advance for your help
Sergio