I cant find an exact thread on this, but I wanted to know about riding a longtail in open water. Ive got some spots where I am going through 30ft deep water to get to a river. I am looking at getting a whole new setup so I have nothing now.
Is it more important about having a bigger boat to not put so much weight in the back of the boat, or better if I just had a higher hp motor that would cruise through the water faster and not bog down?

Nothing wrong with crossing g open water as long as the boat is not overloaded and has plenty of freeboard. I travel 15+ miles down the Atchafalaya river during hunting season on calm days usually with a loaded boat and have never been nervous of the deep water.

A 1'+ plus chop will pucker you up at times if you are hitting them wrong. Standing and driving gets sketchy.
The last thing you want to do is be underpowered on rough water. Get a big boat and motor. I run a 18x42 with a 24hp motor and it handles rough water pretty well.
Be prepared to be worn out though. We have a 10 mile ride to our camp up the river and I am pretty wore out when I get there

So you think surface drive would be better? I wanna use it for fishing and occasional just running around hitin the beach or whatever

For what your saying so far surface drive would be better. It also depends what kind of shallow/no water you are going through. If it's timber, go with a long tail. If it's marsh/grass, I like my surface drive.


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Guess I just feel more in control with a SD. Just me though.


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When you going to take that beast out of storage? I still want to see how she rides, maybe soon now that there are lakes again!

I want to bad. Lake Michigan is starting to open up but all the small lakes are still frozen solid. One of our marinas on the big lake was 4' thick this year.


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