Hawaiibassfishing Forum

I see after looking at some of the post that there is a limit on the size of boat on the lake of 18' correct? So if I move I would have to sale my boat or use it in the bay at Kaneohe for bone fish! That would bite I love my boat and don't really want to down size!

yes, there is an boat size limit. Here's a link to information on fishing Lake Wilson on the DLNR website.

http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dar/regulated-ar ... hing-area/

I've never heard of anyone saying anything or measuring a boat. That rule was made 40 years ago to keep the big saltwater boats out of the lake. In those days a 12 food Sears Gamefisher was what almost everyone had.

In New Zealand they have boat length rules and I've seen guys have a few inches cut off the front of their boat. LOL
Don't think it will come to that.

I just moved back here and ended up selling my 2011 20ft nitro with a 225 before I left I didn't want to risk not being able to use it when I got here. Plus it helped me avoid some of the cost I would have had to endure for going over the 18ft length limit the military will cover.

I really didnt want to downsize either but there were a few things that led me to:

The shipping cost (even if the mitary ships....could still run 4 or 5k)
Storage...hard to find a garage/carport/somewhere cheap/safe to keep it
You really don't need it for lake Wilson.
I would have been looking to sell it in a few years anyways and I would be probably have been upsidedown at that point.
Found a dealer that bought my boat and then put all my electronics from my z8 on my new tracker fro no cost (over $3500 new).

The Mil does One time Only shipments for boats over 14 so I wasn't sure I'd be able to get it shipped back on their dime. Which would leave me two options..pay full costs for shipping which I'm sure would be well over 6k, or sell it when I left. As for selling it, I'm just not sure if there are many people here that are in the market for 20ft fiberglass bassboat that goes 74mph and willing to to the $ for it.

So now I'm have a tracker 175txw sitting in Georgia at a buddies house until the shippers come in a couple weeks to get it here.

Hope this helps your decision... Not entirely sure if I made the correct one yet

I just moved back here and ended up selling my 2011 20ft nitro with a 225 before I left I didn't want to risk not being able to use it when I got here. Plus it helped me avoid some of the cost I would have had to endure for going over the 18ft length limit the military will cover.

I really didnt want to downsize either but there were a few things that led me to:

The shipping cost (even if the mitary ships....could still run 4 or 5k)
Storage...hard to find a garage/carport/somewhere cheap/safe to keep it
You really don't need it for lake Wilson.
I would have been looking to sell it in a few years anyways and I would be probably have been upsidedown at that point.
Found a dealer that bought my boat and then put all my electronics from my z8 on my new tracker fro no cost (over $3500 new).

The Mil does One time Only shipments for boats over 14 so I wasn't sure I'd be able to get it shipped back on their dime. Which would leave me two options..pay full costs for shipping which I'm sure would be well over 6k, or sell it when I left. As for selling it, I'm just not sure if there are many people here that are in the market for 20ft fiberglass bassboat that goes 74mph and willing to to the $ for it.

So now I'm have a tracker 175txw sitting in Georgia at a buddies house until the shippers come in a couple weeks to get it here.

Hope this helps your decision... Not entirely sure if I made the correct one yet

The Tracker 175 is a great boat for Lake Wilson. Good choice.

I've only got the tracker out a few times before I moved back here but I was pretty impressed with it compared to my last tracker. Now its not comparable to a 20ft glass boat but I really wish there was more rod storage. I would keep 25 to 30 rods in my nitro. I can get 20 rods in my tracker and still fish comfortably but I cant actually store more than about 10 securely.

Now some might say why would you need that many rods anyway...and the answer is, you don't need that many rods until you leave the ONE you need at home
The biggest issue I have with it is on the port forward portion of the casting deck they decided to add a bait tank instead of rod or tackle storage. Some of the DARDKSIDE folks might find this as a cool feature but there is already livewell that come with a removable bait bucket in there I found it redundant

I'm pretty excited to use my sideimaging on lake Wilson! I never really felt like I needed anything like that until I started fishing Clarks Hill which is 78,000 acre reservoir, but after having it for the last 3 years I can't imagine fishing without it!