16'Lowe olimpic Jon bow deck

I am a newby to this site and was wondering if anyone could give me good ideas on my project. I am trying to extend my bow walking platform to give a little more walking space for flounder gigging. The problem that I am having is this boat has a little V in the floor. I dont know how to go about getting the support I need to carry two people long periods of time. I want to add two feet to the current two feet to give us four feet of gigging space. The question I would like to know is should I try to use wood or metal and how do I get the support I need in the center without loosing storage space? Thanks!

Welcome aboard - post a p[ic of your boat so we can see what you mean