Custom Portable Personal Fishing Boat

This site will show you how to assemble what I believe is the best personal fishing boat you could ever hope for. And it's only going to cost you a few hundred dollars to do it! This setup is perfectly stable in the water and offers virtually all the features of my old $10,000.00 bass boat. In fact, about the only feature I haven't been able to add to this boat is a live-well.

What this fishing boat doesn't offer is:

• A heavy ridged hull that you have to license, maintain and store.
• A bulky trailer that you have to tow, license, maintain and store.
• The time and hassle of using crowded public boat ramps.

Realistically, the boat takes me about 30 minutes from start to finish to get set-up and ready to go into the water and start fishing.

The video on the right will give you a basic idea of the fishing boat we are going to be putting together here. We're not going to use all the items shown in the video, but it will give you a good idea of the kind of fishing boat I'm talking about. It will cruise through the water all day on one battery charge, it's stable enough to stand up in, you'll have a nice fishfinder and it can be easily transported in the trunk of a car or the back of a pickup. In fact, it takes up so little room, I transport it with all my camping gear in the back of my Jeep Wrangler.

We'll start with a review of the base boat, then we'll move on to each needed accessory. Click on the picture of any accessory at any time to read a complete review and get ordering information for that Item. Here is a quick overview of each part of the fishing boat:

• Sevylor HF360 Inflatable PVC 12' Fish Hunter Boat
• Sevylor Camouflage Boot Boot
• Sevylor Trolling Motor Mount
• Sevylor Sectional Floorboards
• Minn Kota Endura Trolling Motor
• Minn Kota Trolling Motor Power Center

Sevylor Fish Hunter 360

Sevylor "Fish Hunter" HF-360 Fishing Boat

This is the core of our fishing boat. When you think of a "inflatable" boat, you may envision a cheap, unstable and prone to sink rubber raft. With the Sevylor HF360 this couldn't be further from the truth. Set up properly as I will explain, this boat is not only portable, it's also highly stable, reliable and will give you many years of fishing enjoyment.Click the picture on your left for a complete review of this boat, then come back to this page to continue our building process.

Sevylor HF360 Boat Boot

Sevylor Boat Boot for The Fish Hunter HF360

Next up is the camouflage boot (cover) for our Fish Hunter. The boot will significantly increase the already rigid nature of our boat and will help protect it from the sun and from abrasions you will encounter both in and out of the water. Click the picture on your left for a complete review of the boot , then come back to this page to continue our personal fishing boat building process below.

Sevylor Sectional Marine Plywood Floorboard

Sevylor Sectional Marine Plywood Floorboard

This custom floorboard set used in conjunction with the boot above will make your inflatable HF360 feel virtually as stable as any rigid-hull boat. It will allow you to stand and fish and move easily about the boat. Click the picture on your left for a complete review of this part, then return here to continue.

Intex Quick-Fill Air Pump

Intex Quick Fill Indoor/Outdoor Pump

Why do you need this specific air pump? Well, have you ever tried to deflate an inflatable item and put it back in the bag that comes with it? Yeah, right! This pump reverses and actually sucks the trapped air out of your boat so you can easily fold it up and store it. Well worth the money! Click the picture on your left for details and order information on this pump, then come back to this page to continue with our fishing boat project.

Sevylor Motor Mount

Sevylor Transom Motor Mount

This trolling motor mount is custom made for the HF-360 inflatable boat and will keep your trolling motor stable and easy to reach. Click the picture on your left for details and order information on this mount, then come back to this page to continue with our fishing boat project.

Minn Kota Trolling Motor

Minn Kota 30/30 Trolling Motor

This Minn Kota 'Endura' series trolling motor's 30 pounds of thrust and 30" shaft is the perfect choice for our personal fishing boat set-up becuase it's lightweight, durable, easy to maintain and efficient enough to push our boat with a 200 pound man and our fishing gear through the water quickly while still offering maximum battery life.

Click the picture on your left for details and order information on this trolling motor, then come back to this page to continue with our fishing boat project.

MinnKota Battery Power Center

MinnKota Power Management System

This battery management system helps protect your marine battery from coming into contact with water or metal objects loose inside your boat. It also makes your battery easy to carry, hook-up and charge. Click the picture on your left for details and order information on this battery holder, then come back to this page to continue with our fishing boat project.

The items above conclude our basic personal fishing boat. They are more than enough to get you out on the water ready to fish. Before putting my portable fishing boat together, I spent several hours researching the prices of each item. I checked out Bass Pro, Cabela's and a few other popular fishing equipment stores and I can assure you that Amazon.com, without question, has the best prices. At the time of this writing, everything shown above can be had at Amazom.com for about $655.00 new with free shipping.

Tips, Tricks and Optional Accessories:

A word about batteries: The one thing you will need that I didn't include above is a good deep-cycle marine battery. You can pick one up at Wal-Mart or just about any auto parts store and it should be enough to operate your Minn Kota trolling motor for a couple of days of hard fishing before it needs recharged. Just make sure you buy a "deep cycle" battery. Deep cycle batteries are designed to be discharged almost all the way before the voltage starts to fluctuate and they can be discharged/recharged over and over without harming them. A typical car starting battery isn't designed to take that kind of abuse.

Fish Hooks: In a inflatable boat, fish hooks are your enemy. A puncture won't sink you because the Sevylor HF360 has five separate air chambers, but you should stay aware that they can cause punctures if you aren't careful when you are casting or just storing your equipment inside the boat. The boat comes with a patch kit that works really well.

Fish Finders:

Humminbird Smartcast RF15

One of the little luxurys most boat-bound fishermen are used too is having a good fish finder. They are considered essential because fish finders not only spot fish, they also tell you the depth and temperture of the water and they give you a good picture of what the bottom looks like.

To keep our boat portable, I recommend the Humminbird RF15 wireless fish finder.

Click the picture on your left to read my full review of this fish finder, then come back to this page to continue with our project.