"Rich Stern" wrote in message
...
My mom is retiring to central Florida, and issuing demands for frequent
visits
from our family.

My wife and I were discussing all of the excellent fishing opporunties.
We
talked about trailering our bass boat down, or possibly upgrading to a bay
style boat for both fresh and sal****er fishing. But our primary people
mover
is a mini van, and while it will pull the bass boat, it's just too far for
serious tow duty. An upgrade to a large SUV or conversion van is one
possibility.

Another possibility is keeping a small rig down in Florida at my mom's
place.
Her husband likes to fish but probably would never buy a boat himself, so
we
figured he could use it if he was motivated to do so.

I'm thinking something like a used Carolina Skiff or an aluminum hull in
the 16
foot range. The primary use would be bass fishing on smaller lakes, but
we
might occassionally want to use it on the gulf side in calm conditions.
My
motivations are the convenience of not having to haul a boat 800 miles
round
trip every time we go, and keeping it simple on the Florida side in terms
of
maintenance, worrying about wear and tear, etc. Probably be an older
boat,
smallish two stroke motor.

Thoughts on appropriate brands and models appreciated.

Rich,

Carolina Skiff makes a fine product. I see many people running them down
here in the Ft Myers area and a good friend of mine ran the 16 ft with for
years with a 30 Honda 4-stroke. Kinda of bare bones, in that it was not
fancy, or loaded with options, but a boat with the ability to be there when
you need it.

There are plenty of used boats in Florida, so you should not have much
trouble finding one that meets your needs. Far cheaper than buying a new tow
rig if you asked my opinion.