Nitro Bass Boat Center Seat Replacement

Like many people who purchased a Nitro bass boat, we ended up with the stock 3-seat configuration. While its a good idea if you are going to use it primarily as a family fishing boat, the center seat is pretty much a boon for serious fisherman.

Its mostly me and my wife fishing from the boat and her number one complaint while fishing was the degree of difficulty in getting to and from the rear deck to the bow. Like many women she has legs shorter than most men and found it quite challenging to step over the seat back onto a padded seat and then onto the floor.

Even for a guy such as myself it was challenging, especially when we were in area prone to rouge boat wakes, after a few months of owning our Nitro Z7 it became clear that this was an obstacle that had to be addressed. The manufacture has some built in "step" that are between the seats, but the clearance between the seats is accommodating for maybe a child's foot.

So how do I solve this I asked myself. I made a short wish list for the seating area and determined that there was no place to store a firearm, nor was there any storage that was accessible by both the passenger and the operator. And of course we still needed a place for a passenger to sit if we ever wen tout with a 3rd person. Let me add that we have a Nitro Z7 with a 150 fourstroke and it is a complete dog with 3 passengers and gear. Getting on pad is almost embarrassing.

As fate would have it, one weekend last fall we ended up guiding a family on the Colorado river, they were friends of my wife, so we asked for no compensation.

At the end of the trip the guys asked me what he could do for me (he owns a woodworking/sign company) and I quipped that he could make me a simple storage box that would fit in the area occupied by the middle seat. He said no problem, its the least I can do, give me a few weeks.

So weeks turned into months and not long after Christmas I got a call from him asking to meet up with me. While certainly not necessary he somehow felt compelled to apologize for the delay, stating they just got busy at work and then got overboard with building the gun box / storage box.

So in he walks with a storage case that I would have never imagined, the color was an exact match for the boat and it you look closely you will see that they even incorporated 9mm casings into the construction.

Its all painted and clear coated marine grade wood put together with tongue and groove, but the ammo casings give it that over the top look.

He also added non-skid to the top of the lid as well as nifty largemouth bass decal. Hinges are real stainless steel as well as the lock assembly.

The only specs I gave him was that it needed to fit between the seats and that I would like him to incorporate some foam that I removed from a gun case I previously purchased. I also mentioned that it needed to be lockable. While its legal to open carry in Arizona its not legal to transport a pistol type firearm in a boat unless its in a lockable case. I am cool with that.

There are 2 pieces of foam and both are removable, that gives us a lot of flexibility with what we can place in it.

Pictured on the left are a few items that will help you judge the amount of storage we added.

In the other picture is what my wife throws in it, she likes the additional storage as much as I do. And by design the trouble life cushion fits right on top of the lid, adding a bit of cushion for the middle seat passenger

The only thing I may add in the near future is a thinner piece of foam that we can line the bottom with. That will give us even more storage space when we don't have a need to transport a firearm or extremely bulky objects.

If your interested in something like this for your boat, the guy that made this can be contacted on Facebook. His name is Justin and his page is www.facebook.com/justin.mcdowell.505

Happy fishing and please visit some of the ad sponsors on this blog, especially if you got some ideas out of this post, doing so helps us pay for our habit. Next up is addressing the lack of storage in the bow as well as making it more user friendly. Few things are worse than having to get off the trolling motor when your on fish on a windy day.