Proud new owner of a 1989 sears gamefisher

Hey all, just bought a boat today. Spent 950, and it came with a decent trailer, the boat, 55lb TM new battery, 2 seats, minn Kota battery box, and whistle lol.

Pretty excited, as I had a beat up 12ft I loved, yet hated. This one is a correction of all I had wrong in that.

I'll be posting pics here in a sec when I can get to an easy eay to upload them.

Here are the pictures! Enjoy!


The build will start when the weather breaks here in NE Ohio, I plan on adding a front deck across the 2 front seats that will have a pedestal seat on it with 4 storage hatches. I'm making it long so my girlfriend might enjoy coming out with me more often lol.

Other than that, I won't be doing much. Steel flex on the bottom, then camo paint on top, as this is a boat mainly for duck hunting that I will also use for fishing.

Looks good.

Is the seat a little high?

nlester said:

Is the seat a little high?

Click to expand...

The pedestal seat sits on the deck the PO made how it shows in the first picture. In the remaining pictures I pulled the deck because the wood isn't sealed, and simply placed it back in the boat for a second. The wood isn't sealed beneath the carpeting and I didn't want it to be rotting in the snow (seeing how in Ohio we should be getting it for 6 more months............. :| )

It's good enough to head out tomorrow and fish with it, which is freaking awesome. But I do have little plans haha

First and foremost is fixing the bunks on trailer!

Just changed the wince from steel cable to a high tensile rope, bought a new spare, rewired the lights, and replaced the bunks. Overall a long productive day. Now, it's on to building the boat.


Question for all y'all. Has anyone ever made a boat decked that is suited for both fishing and duck hunting? I enjoy both, but would like it functional to fish as I will do that a lot more than hunting.

I was thinking about removing the center bench, but decided I may be able to work with it in, as I don't want to ruin the original quality of the boat. As for now im thinking of breaking up the front deck into 3 compartments, one for gun/rod storage, and two smaller for ammo and tackle, and also a permanent cooler spot, that I could put a live well in during fishing.

Sorry my thoughts are jumbled, but any input?

here are a few pics!. bunks redone!

beer making is my other great hobby! ...next to hunting/fishing, lifting, trucks.....etc. lol. my fathers friend gave me all of his old equipment for free, so now ill have 6 batches fermenting, rather than 4!

lastly those are new decoys i picked up. through coupons and price matching, i got 24 mallards and 12 coots for only 17 bucks!!! cant wait for the season to come again.

Nice build Derek. Have you had it on the water yet? I picked up the same boat last Fall but mine is a 84. I haven't taken mine out yet. Plan is to use it on a couple of local lakes that don't allow gas motors.

Taking her out Sunday. The waters in NE Ohio have been frozen solid till this wave of 50 degree weather. I filled it with water and it's fine though. Sunday I plan to take my girlfriend and a small propane grill and fishing stuff to just enjoy some small electric lakes and picnic. Not to be cheesy lol

Decking will come soon

Very cool.... Nice find

derekdiruz said:

Question for all y'all. Has anyone ever made a boat decked that is suited for both fishing and duck hunting? I enjoy both, but would like it functional to fish as I will do that a lot more than hunting.

Click to expand...

Here is my 15' Gamefisher I modified two years ago. I sunk it duck hunting this past season and am working on rebuilding it now.

I like the boat, taking the middle bench out has been a thought to lay out my V bottom like your flat. But I don't know for sure. I don't want to make any permanent modifications really

Here's how my day went yesterday. Finally got her on the water and was pleasantly surprised. Spent about 3 and a half hours fishing with my buddy and it was perfectly suited for that. The boat turned out to be way more stable than I had thought, as both of us could easily stand up perfectly fine while fishing. Also, it had plenty of room in it. I used the opportunity to see what I would like to add to it, and decided a deck with storage to help maximize space would be perfect for up front. Raised only 4-5 inches off the hull. Next I think a new set of seats would be nice. I have a pedestal up front but in the back I'd like to sit higher than my original seat.


Didn't catch anything though, and also it poured a few times through the day. Still, made for a great day

My seats are adjustable on rails from factory and can taken in and out. I would take out the middle seat out though. Much more room for hunting gear.

If I remove the bench and rivets, would I be able to re rivet it in a fashion to make it look factory?

I don't see why not. You can pick up the same size rivets and pop them in fairly easily.

Well, beyond pop rivets, I'm talking solid style rivets. I just don't have any experience with rivets.

Do you have a sawgrass blind for hunting?

No I scrapped what I had. On my previous boat and on my buddies boats we've just used 3/4" aluminum tubing and netting to make a blind that we quickly toss on the boat with grass added on top and throughout. Doesn't take long at all to make and works effectively

Went fishing today, didn't catch a thing. But had a good time out. First really nice day today I've had off of work. this week I will be buying a 1967 3hp evinrude lightwin probably from someone rebuilding one. Or a new 2.5hp Yamaha. The latter is about 4x the cost of the first though lol. So we'll see! I've finalized plans for decking and what not, and will begin that as I find more days off work.

Happy fishing,
Derek

Oh ya I was just curious, I realize you could really use anything as long as it breaks up the outline of you. It's funny how Ducks can be all around my boat when I'm bass fishin, but if I have a gun on me no where to be seen...