Hi, I'm dockboy. I'm a serious fisherman for anything that swims but flyfishing is right up there in my passion with fishing for bass. On a recent trip to the Sierras, my dad & I were fishing from our 14 ft. Valco & were having a great time except for the fact of me casting a fly rod in the bow section without harpooning my dad or myself. As we were heading in, my dad had an idea about a casting deck for me when flyfishin'. He said that, once we could draw a template & get measurements, we could have his stainless steel guy at work build a "temporary" deck strecthing from the end of the middle seat to the bow end. I already tried to persuade my dad into building a permeanent front deck on our boat but he won't, so this maybe my chance at some form of deck. This way the deck could removed if it waasn't needed. Will the deck be stable enough to support me? Would it add too much weight to the boat? I know we would use thick stainless steel but would this be a fruitless attempt? :o

You should look at Kens boat project. I dont think metal is a good idea it is too heavy, and expensive.

If you know some one who works with metal, aluminium would be a better option. When I worked a a sheet metal shop I made the deck support frame for a couple of boats out of aluminuim and was able to use thinner plywood for the deck, which saved weight. Kens boat is a good project to look at for some ideas, though I am not sure how easy it will be to make a deck that you can remove quick and easy. Keep us posted on how it turns out.

I'm in the process of doing a deck myself and found some good info on the internet. Just search Jon boat projects and a ton of stuff comes up. Definately some good ideas out there. I know I saw a few v-bottom boats too.

I agree that stainless steel would be too heavy, you should be able to go with aluminum and get the strength you need and be light enough to handle. Take a look at the v-hull jon boat that I modified with wood.
http://www.calfishing.com/gallery/Boat-project

I used 1/2" plywood but had supports under it. Without supports it would be a little flimsy so if using plywood I would use 3/4". A little heavy. you can see that a 4x8 sheet left some gaps on the sides. Can't really see them when it's carpeted.
I made a template by using a big piece of cardboard from a shipping box I had. Made some quick measurements to rough it out and then trimmed it in place. Make sure you leave a little boarder around the sides, especially if adding carpet.
You wouldn't have to worry about the deck slidding forward, maybe you could add a lip on the front edge that would fit over the front seat and hold it from sliding backwards. That way you could just lift it out when you want to remove it.
Let me know if I can help more.
Ken

You could get tricky and use Dzus tabs to lock the panels in place. If you plan on using a metal brace under the deck then you could attatch them to that.

Dzus tabs are the tabs they use on race cars to attatch panels to the car. A simple 1/4 turn with a flat blade screwdriver will pop them off. The pop rivet in place to the wood so the posistion won't change. Fairly cheap like $5 a peice with the backing plates and springs and tabs. There's a place down in OC that has them called McKenzies in Orange, CA. It's a off road/Sand Buggy supply shop. Also you can try Coleman Racing Products. I don't know the websites but you can do a search and it will come up

Thanks for the ideas guys. I think we'll use aluminum; maybe we could secure 1/2" plywood on top of that. I bet we could make tabs in both ends to hold the deck to the edge of the benches & lock it in place. In reality it only needs to come up to the end of the front bench; the boat is a wide but has a V-hull, so the front space before the first bench is pretty much worthless when it come to modification. It gets used as storage for the front anchor, pull line,& more. I thnk if we could secure the panels, they would be pretty strong. On top of the panels we're thinking of using the no slick surface stuff, which is better for flyfishing because it has better traction. If you guys would like pics of the boat to get a better idea of it, I'll take them gladly. :-)