Northwest Fishing Reports

I'm thinking ahead to the summer months when lake levels will be lower, specifically my home lake where the waterline will be 100 yards further out than it is now.

I'm in need of some kind of cart to pull my boat out to the lake edge as it's too heavy to carry on it's own. Does anyone have any good plans, tips, or ideas on how to build some kind of a cart for this purpose? I'm trying to do this as cheap as possible, that's why I don't want to just go out and buy one. I should also note that my boat is just a 9' inflatable with added wood floor and bench seats.

Get an old 8 or 10 foot camp trailer and take the 'house' off leaving the frame. Cut the 'outriggers' off and you'll have just the frame, axle, tires and tongue. You can pull it behind a vehicle, or wheel it by hand.

How wide is your boat?

I'd look on craigslist for a cheap or free jogging stroller. Bigger wheels are better. Chop the frame or steal the parts to construct a lightweight two wheeled axle to slide under one end of the boat. Lash it in place with a rope and pick up one end of your boat and wheel away.

For something that small you could use plastic pipe for a frame and a couple of bike wheels for rolling. It's not the weight it's the bulk.

I like using one of the many different styles of transom wheels. This one is an example: http://www.go2marine.com/product.do?no=37186F I see quite a price range for them today, $300 on down to $70. I bought mine about 20 years ago at a garage sale. The brackets mount on the transom, my wheels either flip up out of the way while on the water or I pull the pins and take them off and stuf em in the bow out of the way. Hopefully, you've got a hard transom. Another possibility might be one of those garden carts available at a feed store/co-op, modify as required to suite your needs.

I like the cart shown on the link from MarkFromSea. I also have a 9' inflatable. Mine is a Silver Marine from Costco. I've had it for about 3 years and have had to carry it for fairly long distances like the 100 yards your talking about. A real pain doing it by myself or with the wife because of the bulk. One day I discovered by accident an easier way to carry it. I have a rope tied from the left to right handles. This rope goes under the boat with minimal slack. I stand the boat up - bow up. Get underneath grap rope and extend arms. Now the rear is off the ground a few inches. I can carry it quite a distance by myself over rocks, up and down stairs. I think it works better than a cart does. Then more trips for the engine and other stuff. This boat is great. Works good crabbing in Birch Bay and out of Seahurst park in Burien in the sound. This weekend I'll be at Ocean Shores. I would like to put pots in the harbor but last time I looked at those waves coming in kind of intimidated me. The waves didn't look like they calmed down till they hit shore in Aberdeen.

So this isn't a cart, but it fits your cheap requirement.

Use a canoe cart:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... CEkQ8wIwAA#

http://members.shaw.ca/albell/canoecart.html

Marc Martyn wrote:Use a canoe cart:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... CEkQ8wIwAA#

http://members.shaw.ca/albell/canoecart.html

My $0.02:
The 1st one Marc links to is similar to the one I have, I got it at Joe's for around $50 (mine only has the two bars holding the canoe (no cross bar), a single kickstand, and I think the bars don't hold the craft as high as this one).

It worked ok for my canoe, and I have used it for my pontoon. It is definately better than carrying them, and I am sure would work great for smaller canoes and kayaks (my canoe was a wide body) but (IMHO) is not a great design especialy for over sized loads.

The little kickstand thing to keep it upright when you set the craft on it is a joke, never seems to hold it up well enough to get the craft loaded. If you don't get it just right, and strapped TIGHT, it will fold up and fall down on the 1st bump (this is because the front and back cross bars are too close together).

I also had issues with the wheels rubbing against the pontoons (pontoons hang lower than the frame).

On my "to do" list is to take the wheels from it and build something like the 1st cart in his 2nd link which I think would be a more versatile design.

You can get cart/wagon/wheelbarrow wheels for pretty cheap at Harbor Freight (or other Farm Supply stores) - or kid's bike at goodwill or something like that for bicycle wheels.

Thanks for all the input guys, I'll be sure to check everything out and see what I come up with. Don, your idea about the rope def fits what I'm looking for as far as price goes.

Someone asked how wide the raft is, it's about 4.5' wide and with all the wooden accessories I've put on it probably weighs in at about 65 lbs.

I was thinking of a canoe/kayak cart, but wasn't sure if they'd be wide enough to handle something this wide as I've never seen one up close before.

A trailer like I mentioned would also work to drag it off to other lakes, towed behind your vehical. Unless you have a pickup to put it in. I'd have to go measure between the tires on mine to see how wide it is.

I plan on getting a hand truck at harbor freight tools for around 30 bucks. It has pneumatic tires. This should go over some rough ground and I will have a nice hand truck for carrying other items as well. I plan to have the hand truck go under the boat and I will lift the bow to roll it where I want it to go.

Good luck to you.