Uss mud puppy

[Ponyroper]

The USS Mud Puppy (aka-The Slammin' Salamander) is ready for her maiden voyage barring high winds and rough seas!

Accessories:
Minn Kota 12 volt 42# thrust trolling motor with Auto Pilot
2 Walmart size 29 batteries
Folding 3# anchor
3 rod snap in rod holder
Adjustable trolling rod holder on each side
Removable cooler/live well with battery operated aerator
2 swivel seats
2 emergency oars
Waterproof storage under trolling motor for first aid kit, boat reg., fishing license, etc.
83/200 455/800 HDI transducer mounted on trolling motor
Lowrance Elite-7 HDI Fish Finder/Chart Plotter mounted on portable 12v-10 amp battery

 

[Big J]

Jealous! This thing is radical!

 

[dean nelson]

Good lord i take it you wont be walking that thing to far. Who runs the motor the guy in the back? I will be curious to see how that works with that much additional weight on it. Must have just about tripled the boats weight with all that gear?

 

[BrokenBackJack]

Bring on the big water!!!

 

[Ponyroper]

Deep cycle batteries weigh about 60# each, trolling motor weighs about 25#, anchor is 3#, cooler is 5#, oars are about 1# each, rod holders maybe 1# total, Lowrance Elite-7 maybe 5#, plastic tote less than 1#. All told accessories maybe about 160#. Boat is 4'x10'2" and weighs 135#. With me at 240 and 15# of tackle my total should be less than 450# Rated capacity is 600#. I really only need one battery but I put both in just to see how much room they took so I could lighten things up by 60#. That would leave me with about 100# of accessories. The trolling motor has a foot pedal control to change directions of the auto pilot. Control cable is about 10' long. I can also put my co-pilot remote on the motor if the foot pedal is too awkward.

 

[dean nelson]

No plan for a second person? She will hold at that but as you get closer to 6 she will start to wallow some and might pick up a bit of side roll.

 

[Ponyroper]

My fishing buddy weighs 120# but I plan to mostly use it alone. That's why I got it because it' a bitch unloading and loading my Lund alone. Also I want to try fishing Harmon, Fish Creek, Danzig Dam, Crown Butte, Nygren, etc. and I think this should do the trick.

 

[dean nelson]

Well you know me im probably the biggest fan of the little boats on here. Thought about putting my bow mount of mine but over time i grew to prefer easy portability so set it up with speed disassembly in mind. On the lakes you listed and many other it doesn't matter much but lugging it up the canal bank solo it comes in handy. The batteries act like ballast in mine so depending on if its one person or two dictates how far fore and aft it sits. Probably wont be as big a deal in your with the bow mount holding the front down plus your extra foot.

 

[Kentucky Windage]

Id knock half of that firewood off of the trolling motor Mount. Make it look not so ghetto.

 

[Ponyroper]

My plan is to back the trailer into the water to load and unload. If I end up at a lake with no ramp those two batteries in the back will be a problem dragging it into the water, especially if the water is any distance from where I have to park. In that case I may need some kind of dolly to roll the boat to the edge of the water. Only one lake I want to fish doesn't have a ramp and I can get pretty close to the water with the trailer. Eventually want to try dragging it across the shallow divide between the east and west half of Marvin Miller lake to see if all the big fish are in the east half like I've heard. There's no access to the east half anymore so it probably hasn't been fished much if at all.

- - - Updated - - -

Id knock half of that firewood off of the trolling motor Mount. Make it look not so ghetto.

I know it looks terrible but there is a lot of torque hanging off the front of the bow and I needed to spread the weight out over as much area as possible because the plastic is pretty thin and I was afraid the screws would pull out. I'm no engineer and I had to use materials on hand. Any suggestions would be welcome.

 

[johnr]

Looks fun

 

[DirtyMike]

Sooo, my only question, how do you take a piss? Is there some sort of funnel system? I only ask because this setup looks friggen awesome for the sloughs around here.

 

[Ponyroper]

Sooo, my only question, how do you take a piss? Is there some sort of funnel system? I only ask because this setup looks friggen awesome for the sloughs around here.

Looks unstable as hell but the videos on you tube show that it's really solid. Saw one video that showed two big guys both standing on the top of one side of the boat and it wouldn't flip over. Hard to believe but I'll find out myself in the next day or two. Supposed to float in 8-10" of water. Don't know if the trolling motor can even be used in that shallow water. What's your experience Dean?

 

[dean nelson]

Well even now with my fat ass and with a second fat ass in mine you cat flip them without putting some vary serious effort into it like standing on one side and yanking the other side towards you. When we were kids we would strip it down and play games with tipping it over but since they cant sink we eventually switched to using a 12 foot john boat and then pull the plug and see who can stay on their seat the longest. They dont get truly unstable till you get them 3/4 filled with water. No matter what ive never been able to actually sink one (although two batterys in a water filled boat might be enough)since they are air tight and filled with foam. Ive fished with them on oahe in three foot rollers and the ride is allot better then big boat because they dont roll side to side near as hard as big boats do so it doesnt pitch you around near as bad. Hell we had two of them on oahe during the june snowstorm back a few years ago.....warden thought we were nuts being the only two boat out that day in the wind and the snow. Buddy got a ticket for not having it licensed which i laughed at.

Depth depends how big the blade on the motor is. The boat normally only drafts about three to four inches and can go shallower then the motor can even with a little 28 pound tillir. You generally need the depth of the blade pluse two or three inches so it doesnt start sucking air.

 

[Ponyroper]

Well the USS Mud Puppy passed her maiden voyage with flying colors. Auto pilot motor peaked out at about 2.3-2.4 mph on a calm sea. Lowrance worked fine and the ride was smooth. One thing I will change though is the location of the batteries. Found I was most comfortable toward the stern and with the batteries back there we were a little light on front. I think it will work just like I hoped.

 

[LBrandt]

Good for you. did you break a bottle of bud over the bow to celebrate ;:;boozer

 

[dean nelson]

Yeah that much weight in the back is going to cause it to pop a wheelie. If i did that in mine with one less foot and the motor in the back the bow would be a foot out of the water and the back close to submerging. They are fun to fish out of though and i probably spend ten hours a week in mine.