# She's Ready to Fish



## Paul_Barnard (Oct 28, 2011)

I looked for a long time for a micro. They are few and far between in this area. A few months ago I picked up a 14' Custom Craft sitting on a nice galvanized trailer and a blown 25HP Merc for $700. I had hoped to have the outboard rebuil, but it was so far out of spec that it needed a new powerhead. For the past few months I have been waiting for a good deal on an outboard. I wanted a late model electric start 25HP 2S, but they are hard to come by and when they get listed they go fast. 25 HP 4S motors are pretty heavy comparatively, so my second choice in a motor was a 20 HP 2S with electric start. When a 2009 20HP Yamaha manual start popped up on Craigslist for $1600, I took my skiff over mounted it up and gave it a trial. The engine starts ridiculously easy. I was worried about that with my bad right shoulder. With 2 people and a light load it ran 25 MPH. SOLD!

I spent the weekend getting things set up on the boat. It is where I want it to be...for now. I definitely want a trolling motor. I just have to decide what route I want to take. I am going to fish it the way it is for a while, but I have visions of a longer front deck and a rear deck. We'll see on that. I don't want to make it too heavy.

During the test run, I ran the motor all the way down on the transom. That put the cavitation plate a bit too low. I raised the engine a little bit. I'm curious to see what that does for performance. It has a 9 1/4x12 dinged up aluminum prop. I want to go with a stainless prop. Any ideas???

I installed new seats. The guy I bought the engine from sold me an Eagle FF/GPS for $50. I installed it. I added a 3 place rod rack. Removed some old hardware and filled holes. I installed a battery and box. The fuel tank fits perfectly where it is. I put the tank and battery on the left side to balance the right weight bias caused by the offset driver's seat. I will run the boat solo 90% of the time, so I have rigged with that in mind. I cleaned up the fuel hose and wire routing. I WILL RELIGIOUSLY wear my kill switch. After 26 years with the CG I have pulled too many ejection victims out of the water. I bought a Velcro strap from West. It is snug, comfort to wear around the wrist and easy on easy off.

Take a look. If you have any ideas, questions or suggestions, fire away.


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## jboriol (Jan 2, 2010)

Looking good! Now you just need some light winds and fish slime on her. Tight lines


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## Paul_Barnard (Oct 28, 2011)

Too windy for a marsh trip today, but I am going to go to Bayou Sauvage looking for bass.


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## Paul_Barnard (Oct 28, 2011)

I was very surprised by the way this skiff ran with the F20. With one person normal fishing load, It runs 28.5 wot and gets on a plane pretty quickly. The beat up 9.25x12 aluminum prop gets replaced by a SS 9.25x11 today. I don't expect much of a performance difference, but we'll see. For the $2500 I have in this thing with the new seats, tank, FF/GPS and battery, man I couldn't be happier.

Fishability with one person is quite good. I will definitely want to extend the front deck back another 18-24 inches or so, but that leaves me wondering what to do about a front seat. I suppose I could go with an island ice chest for a seat.


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## Paul_Barnard (Oct 28, 2011)

Today was the first trip with the new 9.25x11 stainless prop. To say I was amazed is an understatement. With a full load and one person I managed 30.3 on the GPS two different times. It was pretty easy to peg 30. I had no idea that little 20 would do so well. I could not be happier with this microskiff. Over in MS, AL and the FL panhandle there are a lot of these 14'v hull skiffs from essentially the same mold on the market. Tomorrow is our first serious trip. I'll post pics.


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## DavidIvey (Nov 26, 2011)

Where ya heading? 

Those are some sick speeds for sure!!


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## Paul_Barnard (Oct 28, 2011)

Delacroix!!! Headed out now.


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## DavidIvey (Nov 26, 2011)

Lucky MF'r!!

Take pictures!


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## Paul_Barnard (Oct 28, 2011)

The Diversion had the entire area very muddy. I searched far and wide for clean water before finally finding some on the 80 Arpent on the north side of Lery. I caught one really small one and one 3 pounder. On top of that I left my camera at home. It was gorgeous day to kill on the water. Loving the skiff.


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