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Since the stellar 2014 ocean salmon season, salmon fishing opportunities out on the coast and in the sound all but disappeared. My $45k boat became an expensive lawn ornament. I started getting irritated with making a payment on it monthly and not using it. I tried using it for the lakes and it was a total pig to operate (try creeping around docks fishing for bass in a 21 foot boat using a transom mounted kicker.....in the wind).

So, I sold it. And after a winter of reading brochures and bugging boat people, I found me a new boat that will suit my new dedication to warmwater fishing for bass, panfish and walleyes. I decided I wanted the room of a tiller with the ability to fish bigger water with a V-hull. With my new boat, a Lund Fury XL, I should be able fish a lot more.

@Caveman Jim , I'm taking you bass fishing!

vp4616937_2_large.jpg
 
Since the stellar 2014 ocean salmon season, salmon fishing opportunities out on the coast and in the sound all but disappeared. My $45k boat became an expensive lawn ornament. I started getting irritated with making a payment on it monthly and not using it. I tried using it for the lakes and it was a total pig to operate (try creeping around docks fishing for bass in a 21 foot boat using a transom mounted kicker.....in the wind).

So, I sold it. And after a winter of reading brochures and bugging boat people, I found me a new boat that will suit my new dedication to warmwater fishing for bass, panfish and walleyes. I decided I wanted the room of a tiller with the ability to fish bigger water with a V-hull. With my new boat, a Lund Fury XL, I should be able fish a lot more.

@Caveman Jim , I'm taking you bass fishing!

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I'm in the same boat (pun intended) with the way the salmon and steelhead fishing has declined. I have found a new love of fishing the lakes for Kokanee and have set up my 18' Jetcraft with 3 Cannon electric DR's & more tackle than Bill Dance!!!!!!! Well maybe not but I am set up for the long run.
I appreciate your offer the fish for those warm water species of my childhood in the South and can trade trips for Kokanee on the big water with you.;)
Nice boat by the way, its perfect for what you want to fish for.;)
 
Man, I really feel you guys. I kept my boat, I put way too much into it only to turn around and sell it off. It works fine on lakes and big rivers, and I can always drag it back up to the PNW when I get the bug for "Real Fishing" like I used to enjoy.

Nice Boat BTW.
 
I honestly think I should have originally gone this direction. I grew up fishing for bass and panfish. I easily got into steelhead fishing and figured saltwater would be cool. It was until two years of closures and not getting to really enjoy my boat.

I'm just going back to what I really enjoy in a package I can easily use by myself.
 
My wife is the one that loves fishing. Years ago we bought a 12' boat and then a 9.9hp outboard.
It wasn't really big enough, and was pretty sketchy in rougher/faster water so she went shopping.
Ended up with a smokin deal on a 19' Fish Rite with an off shore extension, 21' overall. We used it a bunch for 3 or 4 years, then it just sat. Too big for the wife to take out by herself.
I sold it.
We've talked about buying another boat in a few years. Something 16'ish.

That Lund looks like a nice size.
 
Man, I really feel you guys. I kept my boat, I put way too much into it only to turn around and sell it off. It works fine on lakes and big rivers, and I can always drag it back up to the PNW when I get the bug for "Real Fishing" like I used to enjoy.

Nice Boat BTW.

Congrats for having the tenacity to keep yours but the fishing you were once accustomed to is no more. Sorry to burst your bubble man but WDFW has totally mismanaged our fisheries. Their job is pretty simple if you think about it, it is to supply license buyers with hatchery fish and grant opportunities to catch them and let me tell you, they have failed miserably.:oops:
 
Congrats for having the tenacity to keep yours but the fishing you were once accustomed to is no more. Sorry to burst your bubble man but WDFW has totally mismanaged our fisheries. Their job is pretty simple if you think about it, it is to supply license buyers with hatchery fish and grant opportunities to catch them and let me tell you, they have failed miserably.:oops:
I can still take it down to Texas and put in the Gulf for some fun offshore fishing:)
Just isn't the same thing though!:(
 
I can still take it down to Texas and put in the Gulf for some fun offshore fishing:)
Just isn't the same thing though!:(

I hear ya, the fishing is the reason why I didn't leave this once greats state after the Job ended almost 30 years ago.
I've been looking into opportunities east of Washington where I can still fish for steelhead in a state that cares about fish returns.o_O
 
So you've already experienced 3 of 4 of the best days of your life!


1. Bought first boat (check)

2. Sold first boat (check)

3. Bought second boat (check)

4. Sold second boat (pending)




:s0108::s0140:

That's funny and sooo true,

I sold both my boats three years ago on the same day.. What a relief :D

They sat around collecting dust after all the regs came down on surgeon fishing in the estuary. Although I really miss landing those monster fish in the shallow water mud flats above tongue point. :s0071:
 
Man, after going to the Sportsman's Show and seeing what is available, and the cost of boats now, I still love my boat after 16 years. The day I bought was a "Best Day", and the day I sell WILL be a very sad day. It will mean that all the fisheries, and time we enjoyed in boats, (Owned a 13' Smoker Craft for 10 years before the current 17.5' Smoker Craft), will have come to an end. It 's already depressing that so many anadromous fish runs in the NW are a fraction of what they were 20 years ago. I'm just lucky that my boat is set up to troll/anchor for salmon, and set up with an electric for bass and panfish too.

@No_Regerts Sometimes I still wish I had that little 13'er, it towed so nicely and I took it bay fishing for salmon a bunch. I won't put my current boat in salt, too many places for sea water to get in and corrode things. But then the bay/tide water fisheries are also depressed from what they were 20 years ago. As I've aged I've become partial to a windshield boat though! So no more open boats for ME!
 
I moved back to La Grande from Brookings in 1993.

First I sold my open water boat. Then I sold my drift boat. Then I bought a bass boat for Brownlee etc. Then I sold bass boat because we were snowbirds. Then I bought a big water boat for Columbia River salmon, steelhead, walleye, and had both a kicker 10hp and downriggers (trolled for trout and kokanee), and a electric trolling motor on the open bow front for bass and crappie on the Powder River arm. When I lost my job due to infirmities and after 6 mos of unemployment and 2 yrs of pulling money out of IRA, then took Social Security at 62, we are living on minimum income. So I couldn't afford the high fuel costs to trailer the boat out. Sold boat after 3 years of not being used. Used boat $$ to build AR and to replace wifes ailing auto. Ha.
 
Do what I did and get a center console design, best of both worlds. Mine isn't an outboard,( In board jet ) but the space and comfort are really an advantage especially for long runs like putting in at Ilwaco and going out to the race track, or a 70 mile run from St Helens down stream and back! Another area this has advantages is for crabbing, I have a tone of space to work in a 23 foot hull.
Here she is, Classic 23 foot MAKO
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