I hunt a river with a lot of gravel & rock shallows - less than a foot deep. We're not talking boulders, but 3 - 6 inch rocks. What's the best motor for the job?

Jet motor. Mud motors aren't real happy running gravel,sand, and rock.

I've seen a couple of rigs running what looked like surface drives. Could they have been jets or rigged to handle the hard stuff?

Could be, but I think even a novice could tell the difference between what a outboard motor and mudmotor looks like.


As far as an ouboard motor with a jet drive, they have big hp motors available, they are alot easier to drive and (when combined with the right boat set up) can plane out is some very shallow water. However, all it takes is 1 rock or 1 piece of ice to end your day. On the other hand, a mudmotor (when equipped with a rock guard) is a hell of alot more durable, espicically when you are on plane and skirting over those shallow areas. But they take deeper water to plane the boat out.

I used to run a 200 jet now I have dual 35s. The mud motors are far better. They get better gas milage and less breakin down. I will never go back to a jet.

I run the Snake River... Hard Bottom - Gravel - Lava Rock and have no problems running a Sureface drive... 5 years ago you saw nothing but Jet Drives... now every year more and more Mud motors are showing up at the ramp... they are slower but can carry a load just as well... plus you can run the veg and ice... Jets can't run in thick veg and can and will clog up in the slush.. sheet ice will shut the jet down but will not plug up the pump... your going to burn thru more fuel with a jet... I hate having to hunt with my buddies in the jets since I have to fork out 20.00 a trip and for 20.00 in my boat I can run two or three trips... I would love to own a Inboard phantom Jet boat just because of the speed and load it can haul... but in the end I would not use it as much as I do my Mud Motor sled because of fuel cost...

Im from NC and I m studying which motor myself. Jet or long tail? I will primaryly be on a soft sandy bottom with rocks also being a concern. The jets work great in the shallows but cost.

thanks

havent seen a place the jets go that i cant. and when i go to the bottoms there is no place a jet can run. even in the river when the leaves fall the jets get clogged. if i had to have a huge boat then a jet may be a must have, but any thing up to 18 foot a sd will work. as for rocks i hit them all the time. a jet would have let me down by now. the sd just keeps going.

i think boat size needs to determine sd or jet. i see alot of small boats with way too much jet on them. when i refer to hp im talking power head not output. when you start seeing 60/40 hp power heads jet on 14x36 boats thats a little unsafe. and a 25/20 hp jet just doesnt cut it. the four strokes are even worse. now a monster 20x72 with a v6 jet is fine if you need that much boat but that boat needs alot of room to move and some small rivers wont allow such a large boat. if the area only allows a small boat i think a sd is a better option. gas, proformance vs. weight , price, durability, all play towards the sd.

We run Go Devil motors, surface drives and longtails, and have a few Go Devil boats on the water all season. We also run other "jon" type boats but a mud boat, smooth bottom, design is better. 12" of water is plenty. Use to run a jet but now I know better. Lot of reasons already listed on this post as to why a mud motor is a good option. A couple things I did not see mentioned above are mud motors do well in "slow speed" operation, no water pump to plug up, air cooled so when your dry, stuck, you are ok to run the motor, no jet shoe and impeller to plug with stones. The type of water we run depends on where we go. Routinely run deep salt water with rock bottom and walls, hard packed sand and mud flats and rocky swift water rivers. Fuel consumption is peanuts compared to a jet and at $4 to $6 bucks per gal. that alone means alot to me. Hunted the other day, ran about 33 salt water miles and burned 4.2 gal in my 35 HP GDSD. Just my opinion. Duckdon

Rock guard? Tell me more.

depending which motor it goes on it could be a piece of flat bar that runs down the skegg under the prop too a large multi tine device that go in the same place. they help guard the prop from a direct strike. they will slow you down some, but can be added to any motor. i have a mb mini that has a different skegg design that kinda works the same way so i dont run one, but i do hit rocks. my bro-in-law has a mb hyper and he runs the same places. he has the mb guard (single blat bar type) and it does a good job of protecting the prop. its the least bulky of the guards and doesnt seem to hurt the speed that bad. a friend has a gdsd with the beast of a guard they sell. its huge and has to take its toll on speed.

all that being said my prop looks like hell with nicks and gouges but its in good shape. all the cup is in tact and the leading edge itnt really worn much. it will cut you like a steak knife though.

I run a rock guard when in the rivers and the salt as that is where we have rocks. They are not any good in mud and heavy weeds. I install it or remove it as needed. 3 bolts and its on or off. The rock guard works great on larger stuff and the little rocks and gravel is not a problem.