Hi, I am new to this site but looks like a great one. My question is what size boat would work with a 6.5 H.P. motor? I am thinking of a 12 or 14 foot flat bottom jon boat as I will be useing it on a small creek 60-80 foot wide and 12"-3' deep with mostly all sand botton for trapping in the fall. Don't plan on any bigger water such as rivers and we don't have any marshs around here anyway. I will be mostly by myself or maybe one other with me. I don't care about any speed records just somthing that will get me from point a and back, maybe 15 mph tops. I am also thinking about building a motor from ebay plans and wondering how that unit would work verses the name brands? Thanks for any input or help. Otter1

Forget 15 mph with a 6.5, a 16 with a trapping load will be good to get that.

The absolute smallest I would go is a 14x36

12ft flat back pirogue

Sand is the devil on a MM. If you are diggin in sand all the time you might as well get a good push pole cause your prop won't take it. As far as a boat goes see if you could find a 1442 or somthing. I trap the mississippi and you dont wanna have a unstable boat in the winter even if its only a foot deep creek!