A Yard Sale Gem....make room in the Garage!

[2KanZam]

My Girlfriend's sister called us the other day to tell us that her friend was having a yard sale and she was selling an unused Intex Mariner 4 inflatable raft. Having a certain affinity for inflatables and their versatility (only the good ones are versatile) I researched the raft that night and found some very favorable reviews......especially for such an affordable boat.

The next morning I decided to take a look for myself and was initially pretty impressed with what I saw......so I gave her $100 for it (she wanted $150 for a $350 boat). We went ahead and took it to Elk Fork lake to try it out andf it was very nice. It's not quite the quality of my Whitewater Duckie but still a quality made raft. It has a solid floor that allows us to stand, oarlocks, two rod holders and 3 movable bench seats which we use in conjunction with some of my extra duckie seats to make it really comfortable and versatile. It is rated for 880 lbs and a 3hp/40lb trolling motor, but one of the best things is that I can now comfortably take my 150 lb Great Dane with me on it!

It's slow on flat water but a great fishing platform and we took about 25 smallies, crappie and gills on it that day. It will really shine on moving water like the New, Greenbrier, Elk and Coal rivers I have around me and I'm stoked to get it out on one of 'em! Overall I'm very pleased with the deal and the boat.

Time to rearrange the garage because with the motorcycles, car, mountian bikes and now two boats...I'm running out of room!

[2KanZam]

Here's a pic of the fleet at the boat ramp the otherday...I did a little re-arranging once we got on the water...I moved the seat with the back (the one closest in the pic) to sit ontop of the cooler to give me a nice high vantage point while fishing and one of the small benches was moved to give me back support while rowing and more floor space. The thing hanging off the rope is my 2 minute on-the-fly solution to mounting my fishfinder....I'll figure something better out.

[mb4850]

I've never tried to fish from one of those type rafts. Does the wind blow you around? I bet it's hard to turn it over. I quess you can fish 2 people out of either one?

[2KanZam]

The wind is more of an issue with the kayak, but it's still not too bad....the raft didn't seem to get blown around too much. It's heavier and it has an inflatable keel between the floor and the bottom skin which I think makes it less affected. I did not flip it yet to see, but I don't figure it's anyharder to turn over than an 8 man Whitewater raft. You just climb ontop, grab a rope on the far side, plant your feet and use your body weight to counterbalance/swing the boat over.....unless you mean that they are stable, because yes the yak is very stable and the raft, well, I have a hard time imagining how you would flip it over accidentally. It's not ever going to see anything over a ccouple class 2s on any single stretch of water.....and yeah we fished two very easily from the raft and two from the kayak all the time.