And I have a bay boat to fish from, I am interested in building a rig strictly for hunting out of. 2-3 guys max. I'm torn on which size to go with. Here are my priorities in order.

1. Be able to draft as shallow as possible on a hard sandy bottom.
2. Be able to carry a 3 man load on plane about 24-25 mph
3. Be light enough to get unstuck on hard sandy bottom, lol. Not much soft mud up here.

I'm leaning towards a 1752 3/16" bottom, tapered chine with a stock GTR 35. No hunt deck, no catwalks, barebones for the most part.

Thoughts on this set up?

Pretty much what you just described is my boat. We floated out in 3" of wAter on a sandy bottom. Your not gonna get in it and take off with any boat

Might as well go 1860

Do you really need a 3/16 bottom.

Being that you hunt a lot of sand you get out the boat and wade. Get a hunt deck but everything else bare

I do hunt a few lakes that have stumps. And lots of em. Would rather be safe than sorry. Terry u gonna be seeing my old rig down that way soon.

I usually run my boat up in just a few inches of water. Never really saw the need on my other boats. Beings it's only 17ft, I think I'd rather have the extra space.

The competition

Ha. If I had a dime every time I've done that lol.

My new boat will be 17' and we hunt 4 guys with plenty room out of a 17' with the hunt deck. I even put 5 this year but it was tight

where are you at? Grew up in bossier city hunting red river

Yeah some of the lakes over here have alot of stumps. Water level determines where I'll hunt. Just font want to fork up a good hull if we find the birds there.[/quote]

West Monroe. You going to sacrifice some weight but it would be worth it if you run in alot of stumps. I understand about the water depths trust me!!

X2. Keep all that water out!

Y'all might have talked me into it. What is the shortest length I could go on it?

What is Gatortails? I want to say its 16" but not sure. As long as the front of your motor doesn't hit.

This is what I had planned.



This is what I ended up with after I put my motor on. But it's a short transom with short sides.

I'd say 1754, gut the exhaust, and do the heads. Should have no problems running those speeds.

Mine is an 1848 with dry storage, catwalks, a few extra braces, and a drivers box. 3 guys (1 big mf) and icechests and we easily run 24-25 mph. Stock motor with exhaust.

Full throttle don't let them talk you into 1/8 bottom! I know the areas you run and if you're talking about 3 people load max then 3/16 won't make that much difference but will last you forever. If you're not dying to have boat by opening weekend then come by the shop (only bout 1.5 hr away) and look at some different stuff we are working on.

Hunt deck like a lot of guys make (including gator tail and myself) doesn't take up any space. Most everyone puts a cross brace about 10" from bottom of transom. Then even with 18" hunt deck, false transom stops right in line with that cross brace. All you ever put back there is bilge and battery anyways.

Ok so whos boat was that dual rig? I bought a longtail from a fella named Chad Johnson who told me this was his rig?

Chad told me that his dad owned te boat, and just recently sold it.

Is someone an anonymous liar????