Hello Fellas,

I've been trying to educate myself on surface drives, longtails, and hulls/boats that work best with both.

So, I need a rig that can navigate shallow water...w/ wood and often times, rock. But, I also need to handle some big, open water...safely. I also need something that performs well when empty or with a heavy load.

I've been thinking a surface drive is the way to go. But, I'm a bit concerned about a flat bottom mud hull boat won't be the best for my open water situations. It seems like an Excel boat may be a decent compromise...or perhaps something like a mod-V Alumacraft of similar.

I can spend $10K...maybe more.

Please give me some ideas/suggestions.

Thanks!

Excel boats are not the way to go if running rocks and woods/stumps. You would be better getting custom boat

$10K for a complete rig.

The Gatortail boats/motors look awesome, but they sure are spendy.

And, I really struggle with how much boat I need. My buddy has an 18' GD w/ 35 surface drive. That just seems like a lot of boat for rat and beaver trapping.

A smaller Phowler (Basic Jon) w/ a 18 hp Copperhead seems like it might be a nice, little rig. I'm not sure how it would be running across open water with 2-3 foot rollers and whitecaps.

Any input is appreciated.

Check out cottonmouth boats. Corey's a sponsor on here and has some nice smaller setups in that price range I believe.


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I got a complete rig for sale in the classifieds for 9000 $. If you're interested in a used rig.

It's -7 degrees w/ a -25 wind chill.

Can't believe I'm shopping for a boat, but I did see this:

I trap a ton on the Mississippi River, I run a 1854 Phowler with a modded mud buddy 35, run a lot of back sloughs and sand bottom and mine holds up great. been running a Phowler for 4 years now. Its nice to have a large open layout in the boat to haul gear,traps or whatever... Go devil makes a good strong boat but its nice to have at least have neutral in a motor. U wont want a ribbed bottom boat u will just tear em up

Can anyone give me some feedback on a 1650 Xpress drop deck? Which motors would be good for such a boat?

Thanks!

An outboard.

That's what I thought.

What about the Gatortrax w/ the "V rake"? This seems like it may be a good boat. But, again that's getting kind of spendy I'm guessing it would need a bigger SD motor. It looks like it would be about $7K just for the boat.

go about 18' you need the reach for rough water, 3/16 bottom (a little extra weight and a little loss of speed up front,but the boat will run faster down the line because it won't be hooked or dented up)
Go with 20' TRANSOM you don't need a hunt deck. you are going to have to find a used boat.
JD