Aluminum or Fiberglass - Whatcha think?

General Boats and Motors
1

I am looking for a boat to take my 7 year old son fishing in between 14 and 18 feet. I was wondering would you guys choose an Aluminum Boat of a Fiberglass boat. I will primarily be in rivers, creeks and the back country. Tell me what you have. :question:

2

I have a 16’MV PolarCraft Aluminum boat and love it.
Aluminum boats can get by with smaller hp due to their weight, but they will be more noisey. Even noise from the ripple on the water can be a factor when chasing spooky Reds. I personaly wouldn’t even consider a 14’ aluminum boat unless it was really wide ( speaking from experience ). On the other hand, the 14’ skiff I had was a very stable platform and performed well, but it took 30 more hp to equal the performance of my 16’aluminum boat.

3

AL. In my experience there is a lot of debris rolling down rivers and some ponds and creeks in the back country that are unfamiliar may have a stump or two. I would rather hit something with aluminum than fiberglass. Also, just like RDW said you dont need the HP on Al that you do on FG. I have a standard width 12’ jon I use on the river and creeks and use only a 55 # thrust trolling motor and it does perfect with two of us even with a decent current. For what you are looking at doing I would suggest a double wide 14-16’. To deaden noise made by moving tackle boxes and filling livewell etc… you can use truck bed liner and/or undercoating spray. I did this on my lil jon and it really made a difference.

Mike
12’ Jon boat twin 300 Verados

4

aluminum for the areas you will be fishing in.

I have a 14ft x 48 alumnacraft with 25hp engine. I fish and crab the rivers and creeks with no problems. My 6 year old fishes on it with no problems due to the flat bottom stability.

This boat will be with me until the end unless the rivets begin to pop.

Then I will move the motor over to a welded jon boat.

Medgar

5

I got a 17’-6" Polar Kraft and it sucks. It is a wide boat but the downside is that they seamed the aluminum down the middle at the keel and the weld broke and it has been welded at least 3 different times and still leaked like a SOB. I finally epoxied it myself and it is holding good now. Anyway, Polar Kraft has a “limited” lifetime hull warranty which doesn’t transfer to a 2nd Owner. So needless to say this has caused me a lot of money, work, and aggervation. This is my 1st and LAST aluminum boat. If you do decide to buy aluminum make sure you check the hull warranty, buy the biggest bilge pump you can, and hope you don’t have the same experiences I did. Aluminum boats do have some advantages over fiberglass and vis versa. If you do decide to go with aluminum, please do not buy a Polar Kraft or any boat built by Godfrey Marine (owns Polar Kraft). Their customer service sucks and they don’t stand behind their products … trust me.

6

Thanks fellas, I am looking this next week.

7

15 ft Carolina Skiff with a 25 Yamaha 2 stroke tiller. See Milo

thank me later

8

I saw a Bulls Bay 151 the other day at a local dealer, it looked good and was priced right too.