Houseboating

Not exactly, but for the past 30+ years my father and his buddies have rented boats on Dale Hollow reservoir on the Tenn / Ky border. Over the years I have been able to make this trip 4 or 5 times and get to go again this May for bluegill and bass fishing. Very cool and worth it. What would you like to know?

Did it for about 3 or 4 years, but many, many years ago. A clue as to how long it has been the houseboat for monday thru friday was $300.00. Had a hoot each and every time, but things have changed quite a bit I would suspect. I know the cost has increased, but there again the boats have gotten bigger. For us it was cheaper to rent the house boat than get a resort and rent a fishing boat.

When I first got to go the boats were small steel hull barges that were converted to houseboats. They had no electric, well very little like 12 water pump and 3 12 volt lights. Every thing else was LP, Stove, fridge, water heater, and grill. The engine was supposed to charge the 12 volt battery bank but if you did not travel every day it never did. Today the boats are a whole different story.

Garmp1 ... swallow your coffee before looking at prices today Here is a link to some of today's prices on Dale Hollow.

I will say this is a trip that is very special for a family to take together, but you better like each other before you get on the boat for a week.

Never rented a houseboat, ugly things, but did rent a skiff for a day on Lake Barkley. It was OK for a day. Nothing special to us but we have been spoiled with over 20 years of boating some of the prettiest water on Earth.



Lake Barkley does not look like this. Over 6' to that coral.

We also rented a houseboat on Dale Hollow. We did it on our honeymoon 17 yrs ago. At that time there were cheaper rates before May 15 and after Oct 15th. It was well worth the money we spent and we had a 50' that slept 6, huge living room area, full kitchen, full bathroom. Front deck had a gas grill, patio table and chairs and the rear had a fish cleaning station and it came with a fishing boat with trolling motor.

Veebyes wrote:
Over 6' to that coral.

I spent four years on Antigua - spoiled me for any water anywhere in the US.

We rented a hose boat on Lake Cumberland in KY 10-12 or so years ago. They have or had a big fleet, think it was a state or local gov operation and they had a big fleet of rentals. Also is or was a dry area so no place to by beer. Big nice lake but understand the water levels can get low and water quality go down so might want to check that. Think Norris Lake is bigger and more scenic and fewer people (except on hoidays) but then we have a cabin there so not objective opinion. They have house boats rentals at Norris Dam.

Here are the links:
Ky Lake/Lake Barkley

Lake Cumberland

I've never been to either one, but I googled them for you.