ORIGINAL: toesupwa
ORIGINAL: dlemo2000
My plan is to actually fish with this boat.
Oh dear...
This 'idea' has been discussed on several model boat forums in the past...
Some points to consider..
Is it considered 'legal' by F&G in your State?.. If the F&G officer thinks what you are doing is illegal, they have the right to confiscate all of your 'tackle'.
A 24" boat, no matter how much power you install is too small. The only safe way is to use your boat to drop the terminal tackle and use a pole from the bank.
Imagine even a small fish, say 1 - 2lb taking your bait / lure. Your small boat WILL be dragged all over the pond before the fish is tired.
Imagine a 10lb fish taking your bait / lure... be prepared to see your boat dragged under... even springs 'to take some of the force out of the shock' wont help in this situation...
You had better make your boat as watertight as a submarine....
To use a well known saying from a film.. "You are gonna need a bigger boat..."
Oh yee of little faith. Think of this as an engineering challenge. The DNR point is a good one but it is my pond so I should be OK but I will look it up. My guess is it would fall into the "drop line" or "jug fishing" rules. I got this idea from a you tube clip where the kid landed a 4 lb bass with a little 16 or 17 inch plastic boat. The fish did stand the boat up one time, but he got it in. My target species will obviously be panfish (bluegill,crappie) but I will have to account for the occasional rogue bass. Think of the boat as a 24" by 8" bobber. No fish in this pond is going to pull it under, but even a .75 lb bluegill could cause it to "roll" if allowed to get to a 90 degree angle. This is where the power train comes into play. You will need to keep the boat well in front of the fish. The rod and springs package will help transfer or spread some of the energy over a broader cross section of the hull. Kinda like a race car and the carbon fiber bodies that "explode" when they hit the wall, "disipate the force". Your last point about a larger fish is a concern. I haven't done the math yet (not sure I can) but a 5 lb fish could be a problem. To account for this I have a couple of ideas. First, I will use 2lb test line. Hopefully the line will break before we pull an "edmund fitzgearld". The second idea I got from the model kit of the Andrea Gail (Billings Boats). The AG had outriggers extended to each side. Attach a 1 or 2" styrofoam ball to each arm and your roll problems are over. You have to admit utilizing technology from the AG is appropriate here, we all know where she ended up. At the end of the day I may have to use the Roy Schieder quote. Thanks for the comments, any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Gottta go finish glassing the hull.
Doug