>>934199I understand completely.. It's a bit of a pain getting the boat ready, I usually spend 30 minutes to an hour doing that before anyone else arrives. I'll run a battery charger on the batteries the night before to make sure they're not gonna be dead once we get to the water. I have to make sure that I have an extra 5gal can full of gas as well as 2 stroke mixing oil and I also have to make sure the trailer lights work. It's a hassle launching and hauling the boat out, especially if the ramp is busy or if it's windy. Maintenance on the boat and motor take time and money and paying for boat & trailer registration every 2 years is a couple hundred dollars. I have an old deckboat that's pretty difficult to load back on the trailer considering how flat it is, it doesn't self-center much at all so the trailer has to be at the perfect depth and I have to make a nice, straight shot when hitting the trailer. It's almost impossible to load it without 2 people so I never really take it out by myself.
Luckily I live in East Texas and we have good weather most of the year. Even in the dead of winter there are many days where it's sunny and in the 70's. Also, there are lots of nice lakes near me that take less than 30 mins to get to, and many more within an hour's drive. I'll usually get up at 7am, get a quick shower and get the boat and my fishing gear ready, friends arrive around 8am and we're on the lake fishing by 9am, 9:30am at the latest usually, that includes stopping at a donut shop to get donuts and sausage kolaches on the way to eat once we're on the lake. I have plenty of shop space so I can keep the boat inside at my house, that way I don't have to drive to a storage facility to pick it up.
The boat is MUCH more of a hassle than a kayak would be, that's for sure. If I was fishing solo most of the time then I'd probably get a fishing kayak but I have 2-3 friends who are always down to go fishing so the boat is worth the extra hassle to me.
