Here is the skinny. I'm in the process of turning a Minnesota fishing boat into a wanna be mud boat. What I'm starting with is a 1448 johnny. It's thin aluminum (.072 I think) and it's riveted. The last thing that it has going against it is that all the bracing is latteral. However it is the boat that I have to work with for now. I have some floatation pods coming that will be installed later this week. After the pods are on I plan to have the boat brought in and have the bottom sprayed with Line-X. I know that is not ideal, but I have seen this done before and it turns out fairly smooth with the worst spots having an orange peel sort of texture. I think this may be the best way to add some strength to the boat and seal the rivets which I would otherwise worry about. Attached below are some photos of the started project prior to the pods and line-X. Whatta you guys think of the idea. For power I have a 24 hp Beavertail long shaft which I am hoping will help counteract the bottom not being perfectly smooth.

I wouldnt line-x the bottom of the hull. It will just give you unwanted drag. Steelflex or something similar will give you some durability but more importantly will allow you to slide over things line-x would stick to. Ive also heard of people using coat-it with success. But if it was me i wouldnt put anything on it. Kind of a waste of money.

Thanks, that's good advice. Anybody on here that can let me know if the coat it product is any good. I think I would like to add some small bit of insurance, I really don't trust rivets. This kind of info is helpful since I'm new to the mud game.

You can put frog spit. www. chemical-supermarket.com. It is a epoxy you could roll it on your self. It is self leveling and come out slick. The line x would give you drag like barnacles on a boat.

You guys are probably right. I know that I don't have the right platform for a mudboat (hence he title of the thread). I thought that I may be advised to go to a totally different boat, I guess I was kind of hoping that wouldn't be the case. I think that you are also right in the fact that I'll be quite a bit happier with a different boat. I think if I'm going to a different skiff I will probably go to something around 16 or 17 feet. I'll have to do some shopping and search other threads for the best size boat for my BT to push. I don't want to crawl along if I can help it, so I'm kind of thinking a 1642 or 1742 something like that. Hope I can get some decent cash for my boat now for a jumpstart on a good platform.

18x42 skiff will be my next rig

I agree, which is why I would like to just get the right boat for the job. I'll have to do some shopping though, not to many folks up this way have mud boats, let alone mud boats for sale. Beavertail is a couple hours away from my place, but even those boats are hard to come by, there just isn't a big market up this way.

How about an 1848 Gator Tail?? The guy in Iowa has one for sale right now, and NW Iowa isn't terrible far from me. Any idea what speeds I'd be looking at with my 24? Possibly carrying a pretty good load and mainly hunting the river, so I don't want it to bog down and plow.