Not long ago I got a SunDolphin Sportsman 8 like the one SparkyD has.  He had a good thread documenting all the mods you can do to these little boats...so I figured I would share my experience with a largely stock example that I bought to allow me to fish the local rivers and ponds.

First, let me say that after researching these baby bass boats, they're mostly all working from the same formula...clamshell top and bottom half (not sealed, either), molded pontoons underneath, foam filled, with a molded top including seat tracks that allow you to adjust your position forward and backward.  Lengths are anywhere from 8-12 feet, usually rated for under 5 horsepower. At least in my area, there are a ton of them on Facebook Marketplace at any given time...just gotta wait for a deal to come up and pounce on it quickly.

Fortunately, I was put onto this one by my daughter in law, who found out from her dad that a guy had this for sale. I went to him in a driving rainstorm and got soaked as I loaded it on the trailer. I didn't bother haggling much as the price was excellent and there were lots of extras thrown in. Price was $500 and as part of the deal, I got a 55lb Newport Vessels troller and a decent RV battery, a single pedestal seat, a kids life jacket (for my grandson), a small fishing net, some 12v running lights, and a wheeled trolley that doesn't work really well with the boat and will require some modification, which I plan to do later on.  

I've already done some work to it. First, both front cleats were gone. So, using some metal off of an old EZ Up that got destroyed, I created some new ones. This worked better than I could have imagined...I don't know what's behind the plastic, but the cleats are very solid and can easily be used to pull the whole boat up onto the shore.



Next, it was missing one of the swivel seats, so I had the welding students at the local HS build me a seat pedestal that I mounted to an old student chair via a swivel platform. This ended up being way sturdier and more comfortable than the remaining stock seat that I had, so it became my main chair.




The Newport Vessels troller works well, although the prop is a little unbalanced. It pushes the little boat with authority. I ended up upgrading to a 100 amp lithium battery and ever since, the remaining power meter has never come off full. This thing is fantastic...super light and has a built in USB port on it...and can charge from the included charger or work off of a maintainer or regular charger.

I made a quick disconnect on the head of the motor using a thumb screw and a wing nut that allows me to rotate the head quickly so I can use the motor on the front or back of the boat...



With that done, I turned my attention toward increasing the Sportsman's range. There are a couple of local lakes I want to fish but are too big for an electric motor only. I started looking at Facebook for options but everyone is so flaky on there and you just don't know what you're getting.

Started reading reviews about cheap eBay engines and one seemed to stand out...the Hangkai 4hp 4 stroke. Youtube user "Gurra" has a long-term review of one and the thing just won't die. He stores it outside year round and it doesn't seem to affect it much.

Now, this thing is not 4hp. The engine itself is a clone of the Honda GVX50 (meaning all Honda parts fit, including carbs) which is rated at 2hp, and there's no Chinese magic in there that doubles the horsepower.

I ended up getting the best price at Walmart.com and I ponied up the extra $45 for a 4 year protection plan, making the total $354.



So far, it's been brilliant. It's very lightweight, only about 30 lbs, making it easy to carry. No pre-mixing of gas and oil makes refilling it a no brainer. The engine itself takes 1/4 quart of oil, so a single bottle of Castrol 5w30 from the dollar store gets 4 oil changes, lol. I put an $8 eBay hour meter on it to make maintenance easier.

Since I bought it, I ran into another fisherman using a Hangkai. His was several years old and stored outside year round. He said he'd had no problems at all with it as long as he kept fresh gas in it. I'm sure it'll work just fine for years to come.

I took the Sun Dolphin, with the NV troller up front and the Hangkai out back pushing, several miles upstream on my local river with no problems. This makes it so much easier to do solo float trips, because I can power upriver and float back down. The Hangkai moves the SunDolphin at about 4.5 mph upstream and 5.5 downstream, for an even 5 mph average. Good enough as long as I don't enter any races.



One problem I had was that when I decided to leave the SunDolphin on the trailer, a good rain meant bailing or siphoning the water out. I'd seen several videos on Youtube about people installing a scupper plug in the bottom. So, I got on eBay and ordered a 1" scupper and a 1" plug and got out the hole saw, ready to do some damage. Cut the hole in the back right in the little cutout that looks like it was made for it.



Cut the drain to the correct depth and made two neoprene washers.



Put those on the outside and decided to go with silicone on the inside. I put it all around the threads so the silicone would hold the nut in place. I wanted to put the nut-side up so that the bottom was flush on the off chance that it would catch on something. Probably would have been good either way, since the location of the drain is in a recess on the bottom of the boat.





Now the water drains almost completely when the plug is removed. There's still a small amount, but not enough to worry about. And, on the first trip out after the modification, I confirmed it's watertight.



When I got home, I turned the boat up on its nose to see if any water got between the clamshell top and bottom. Let me preface this by saying, the top and bottom are joined only by rivets with a rubber bumper that goes all the way around. They aren't sealed in any way, and just sitting out in the rain will cause water to collect between the top and bottom. There's a plug up front to drain it, but most of the time I don't even worry. When we got back after our fishing trip, I pulled the plug and tipped the boat up on the sidewalk where I could easily see if water drained. This was what came out...



I don't know if that was leftover rainwater or seepage around the plug, but regardless, it's nothing to worry about.

Next order of business...the SunDolphin has a pair of leads in the back that run to some sort of proprietary plugin up front. This was useless to me, since I didn't have the plug and SunDolphin doesn't seem to be making them anymore. So, I drilled the rivets out of the plug and pulled it out. Cut the wires, then cut the plug off the bracket to make a pass through. Made a seal out of an old bike innertube, cutting a slit in it for the wires to pass through and leaving the extra to hang over the opening. Then, I got a set of heavy duty battery cables and soldered to the leads in the boat, and put heat-shrink over the connections. Attached the brackets back down with jack nuts over the innertube to complete the seal.



This would allow me to put the battery up front as I sat in the back or vice versa. I made a "bus bar" out of an old piece of plastic channel and mounted some studs to it, adding a pair of wing nuts so I could connect cables or just use the trolling motor clamps to hook directly to the studs. Now I can easily put the battery and troller at the opposite ends of the boat, depending on what I need in terms of weight distribution. I can also run other 12v accessories on opposite ends of the boat on a single battery. I can spin the nuts off quickly if necessary and move it to the back in a matter of a couple minutes, depending on where I need it most.



So, the big question is, how well does this work as a fishing platform? If you understand the limitations of the boat, it's fantastic. When I'm in the boat by myself, I can move my seat forward and aft to balance the boat and have plenty of room to get comfortable. I've gotten in the habit of carrying a milk crate with gear in it, which tucks neatly under the seat. I also made an extension handle for the outboard and the troller handle extends to about 14" already, so no problems operating either one in most cases. The boat is very stable and I have even taken it down some pretty fast shoals and it's not at all tippy or hard to maneuver.  Stability is good enough that you can stand up in it, even though it's a little wobbly.

With two people, not gonna lie...it's tight, but me and my buddy are both over 6ft tall and we managed to fish just fine out of it. More space would be welcome, and you'll want to stop and get out to stretch from time to time, but it's not hard to find a comfortable position from which to fish.



It's so small that you can easily maneuver right into standing timber and fish. It floats very shallow for the most part so you don't have to worry about grounding or getting hung up on things. When the wife and I had it out, we got caught on a tree trunk that had broken off below the waterline and we couldn't see easily because of the water conditions. The troller had more than enough power to pull the little boat free of the stump with no drama.

Loading and unloading from a utility trailer is an easy one-person task. The whole boat is supposed to weigh around 100 lbs and I believe that. There are handles on the back and cleats on the front that make it easy to grab and manipulate. Set one end in the trailer, pick the other end up and push it in and you're good to go. Two ratchet straps are plenty to hold it in place. I usually throw the outboard in the bottom and put one of the ratchet straps across it.



Everything else, including the troller, battery, gear, seats, etc...fits in the back of a mid-sized SUV.

That's where it stands right now. I'll be wearing the thing out this summer and will try to keep updating.

We have a couple of decent sized lakes in our county. I can fish the no wake zone parts of them with this pretty effectively. There are a couple of "back entrances" that get you to the headwaters of the lake if you have a high clearance vehicle. You'd have to drive quite a way on a boat to get to them.

There are a lot of smaller lakes and ponds around here that are trolling motor only and some have horsepower limits to keep the wakeboarders away.

My buddy has a short small aluminum flat bottom set up in a similar way.  He has Maybe 2k tied up into it and the thing is awesome.  He is out fishing on it all the time.  He picked up a beat to shit trailer for it and restored it.  Backs the whole setup right into his garage.

I wish mine was a ten foot model at times. But I didn’t have the used boat trailer when I bought this one years ago.

I’m glad you’re happy. I bet you will tinker some more with it.

Oh yes, I will. I know what you mean about the 10 foot model, but it's like my dad said...that's more boat to handle and you'd have to upgrade your utility trailer. Good points.

I never dreamed this thing would be so much fun, or I would have ditched the canoe and gotten one years ago.

I love mine. I just throw it in the back of the truck and go. I’ve never had two people in it but me and my dog fit just fine. Great little boats.

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