fishing deck on a flat bottom

[78mudbug]

i just purchased a used 15 ft lowe flat bottom.i was wondering if anyone has ever built a deck on the front of a flat bottom .is it stable and any ideas would be great.i would like to mount a gator mount trolling motor and a pedestal seat on there can it be done

[78mudbug]

also i dont have a gas motor yet so the trolling motor will be my only way around for now .was going to use .75 inch plywood to do this will it be to heavy

[fowlmood77]

Check out the site below. Lots of good info there.

[Ferdi]

Check out the site foulmood told you about, but your idea will work. Make sure you bring it to level by using wedges for stability and use marine plywood and treated 2x4's for wedges. It's whatever your pocket will allow, go with aluminum or go with wood. Good luck and be safe, Ferdi aka Fred

[slownsteady]

My dad had a platform made on the front of his 14' cajun special jon boat. It's either 1/4 or 3/8 aluminum welded to the bottom of the lip that runs around the top of the boat. He has a removal pedestal seat on his to, but I'm not real sure how its mounted b/c its too sturdy to just be in that sheet of aluminum. He also has foot controlled minn kota trolling motor from walmart on the platform. It's a nice setup for one maybe two people.

[Have pole will fish]

It will work. Did you say no outboard? You may have to add some weight to the back of your boat to counter more weight on the front.

[texascrappiefisherman]

Not the best pic but I have a deck in the front of my 14' Alumacraft and it works great. I've redone the trolling motor mount to get it more stable since this pic was taken.

[boat49]

Have hunted and fished out of a flat bottom boat that we added a front deck to about 15 yrs ago. Works great..but like have pole will fish said, with all the added front weight you better have some at the rear.

[Locator79]

I installed a deck on a 14' Tracker I used to own. It is possible to do this, and not really a big prodject. The higher you are up in a smaller boat, the less stability you have. I had a deck in the front and rear of 1436 and had to remove the rear, boat almost tipped over a couple times. Of course the wider boat will have more stability. Good luck!!

[Kman]

The MAIN factor is how wide your boat is. You need a fairly stable footprint on the water if you want to get up high like someone else said. The heavier guage aluminum the boat is the heavier it will be and the more stable it will be also.

If it is in the budget, bring it to a fab shop and get it made from aluminum. Much lighter and will last forever. Wood is heavy, gets waterlogged over time, and WILL eventually rot. Obviously using marine grade and painting it will help slow that process way down, but it will happen eventually.

If you are making it aluminum, you can drop the deck down say 8-10 inches to save some of your stability. Make sure you get someone with a bit of aluminum welding knowledge because most of those type boats are fairly thin aluminum and welding seams instead of stitch welding will cause too much heat resulting in burn thru or warping of the deck.
Hope this helps.