97 mirror craft

Hi, I'm looking at a 97 16 ft mirror craft troller ltd with a 40hp 2 stroke yamaha. Any one have experience with these? It would be to upgrade from a 12ft Jon with 5hp motor. One concern I have is getting into shallow water with the v-hull, I have no experience with a v hull.

Thanks!

You will never go back to a flat bottom. That boat will rip. Buy it set the engine height and just go a little easier in the skinny water. Your flat bottom will be for sale after one ride in the new boat. Nice find!

I fish in a 14 foot deep V. You are spot-on about assuming it will be deeper in the water it definitely is. However it's not all that deep. Mine probably sits somewhere around 10 inches under the surface of the water. The motor is probably 5 inches further down. To put it into perspective I have trolled in areas where I could easily see the bottom of the lake and I have heard my boat gently brush over some spots but it was so shallow that fishing was almost impossible in those spots anyways.

With that being said these V bottoms ride Incredible. I have a 25 horse on mine and I can Cruise the lake at around 25 miles per hour smooth as silk. Hard to beat.

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Oh this'll help. Look at the picture I just sent you of my boat and you can see the aluminum peace between the green paint and the off-white paint. When I'm sitting in an area not moving the water is pretty close to exactly on that piece.

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Thanks for the responses! Maybe I shouldn't be so concerned about the V hull. It's not so much about fishing in shallow water, it's' getting the boat in and out of shallow water. my flat bottom boat is easy climb into and shove off.

any opinions on the boat itself? is mirrocraft a solid boat in general?

Yes they are good boats but condition is key. Look all around the transom for cracks. Look for big dents and signs of hard use. Look for any kind of patches or sealing compound covering leaks, cracks or loose rivets. As long as it was not beaten then they are as good as any other tin boat. A big motor like that on a small tin has potential to be beaten. I'd beat it if I had it but that's what makes that combo so perfect. Buy it or post pics of any suspect areas of the hull.

When we fish out of V hulls and come back into shallow launches on a river, the bow usually never makes it onto dry land anywhere except where the launch is, and sometimes not even at the launch itself. So far since, I have got jon boats and that has never been a problem and can step right off the bow onto the shore. Many times one of us had to jump a few feet from the very front of the bow of a rocking V hull to get onto the shore, sometimes we didn't quite jump far enough. #-o
As for fishing, that 16' Mirror Craft will probably be a great boat, I owned an older 14' Mirror Craft at one time and used it a lot, never leaked a drop.

1. If you're just one person alone in a tin 16ftr without heavy flooring with a 40 on it, prepare for a rocket ride. Fast and fun and way safer in waves than a squareface.
2. Specs re draft depth are avail online for a lot of hulls if you look hard enough. But really, unless you want to do swamp, the hull will only draft maybe 6 in. and what you really need to look at is is not the hull, its whether there is a functioning trim bracket (notches, an adjustable pin but also a "lift it out and it clicks and stays out" mechanism in the motor bracket so you can run with the prop shallow, then also pull the lower end clear out of the water.
3. If yes to #2, get a pair of long aluminum oars (backup if old engine fails,if there are oarlocks) or at least one long light paddle. That way if its not rocky you can glide toward shore, turn the boat lengthwise parallel to shore at the last moment while quick pulling up the motor lower end out of the water, which "lands" the whole length of the boat, then use the pole on the lakeside of the boat to pushpole the boat's shoreSIDE right up against shore. Then you can step out of the middle of tbe boat, avoiding the height and tippy "leap" of exiting over the bow. This only works if you can click your motor's lower unit up out of the water.
4. Old motor. Gotten it checked over ?
5. Too much weight in the stern is the biggest issue un tbese boats. if you're alone. It'll drive the stern inches deeper into the water and your bow might kite. Consider rigging so your battery, gas tank, and trolling motor are all in the bow. You'll find she gets up on plane and just flies across the surface once you get the right trim angle locked in.
6. If you really need a swamp rocket consider a mechanical jack plate, adjustable or fixed is cheaper, to set the prop as shallow as you like. See Cabelas, BassPro.
7. If you run shallow and rocky a lot, e.g., rivers, there are metal prop guards of various shapes to protect the prop and/or skeg.

Bottom line, if the hull is sound and not leaking, focus on whether this motor is good. If yes, I think you'll like the hull and the upgrade difference will feel like motorbike to sports car.
Good Luck!

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Thanks everyone for all the information. This is very helpful! I'll let you all know if I buy it.

onthewatersx3, I haven't gotten the motor checked out. Do you mean professionally? I do plan on making sure it seems to run OK and check on the tell-tale stream but I'm far from professional...

Algae: 1. Basic motor checkout directions can be found online if you want to buy a compression guage and spark plug socket wrench and do it yourself.. 2. Since old motor problems are your biggest risk, since its now off season, if it were me I'd call one or two local shops and see how much they'd charge to check it over for you. Could be $50 well spent. 3. If you knew a mechanic of course that would be great...

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My first experiences back in the day were in other peoples bass boats which meant alum flat bottoms. Okay boats but going down the lake they would beat you to death so I never did own one. And I was always partial to the lines of a v hull like the 14 ft pictured above. Nice boat.

We'll, I bought the boat. Thanks everyone for the advice. If I did it right there should be a pic attached.

The wiring is a bit a mess. The previous owner was using wiring directly to the batteries for things like trolling motor and aerator/bilge pumps instead of using the switches on the console. I'm going to be working on cleaning that up. I'm sure I'll be asking many questions on here.