netboy

Well than I guess the guys at Supreme boats and Topwater boats here on the White river haven't got your message. What are those strange little tunnels doing on their boats????

Well bottom line is that a tunnel hull will run shallower than an a non tunnel.

Once again.... There ain't no gravel or rocks down there. Whole point of this discussion is "necessity is the mother of invention". The South Texas guys have modified shallow running outboards over the last 60 years and have come up with some great innovations to get you where you want to go. I think Double xx has a good idea also.

I almost forgot this old video that my neighbor, Matthew took running his boat in water that was less than a foot and some less that 6 inches... This is where we fished. Skinny water running shallow laguna madre flats - Bing video

Here is picture of a typical South Texas skinny water setup. The jack plate not only lifts the motor higher but sets it back about 8 inches from the transom. The prop sucks water up thru the tunnel and the compression plate keeps the water on the prop. Once on plane you can jack the motor higher where the bottom of the skeg is actually higher than the hull and still run. These boats are rigged with low water pickup nose cone to keep the water flowing. Here is a video of one running over a 4 inch sandbar, which is common down there to get to some of the better fishing areas. (1) New Water Boat Works IBIS - YouTube Another good one... (1) Shallow Water Hand Off - YouTube

Well your scenario is probably great for spin fishing but when you have 2 clients that want to sling double hook streamer flies you need some separation and you want to be the lowest profile in the middle of the boat or you are going to be digging a few hooks out of your head.

No gravel in the Laguna. Mostly hard sand bottom.

Forgot to mention that most of these boats are rigged with a large compression plate and a low water pickup nose cone. Shallow Runner nose cone kit (bobsmachine.com)

Here is a video of a south Texas shallow running tunnel hull. Unbelievable - Bing video

I have to disagree with this Wrench. Previously I lived on North Padre Island on the Laguna Madre in South Texas. That is a very shallow bay system with an average depth of around 2-3 feet. To get to some of the better fishing areas I had to cross shallow areas that were less than a foot in depth. I had a 20 foot tunnel hull skiff with a Bob's Hydraulic jack plate and could run that boat over 6 inches of water on plane with the jack plate raised up. Most all the boats down there had tunnel hulls. Once up on plane they will run way shallower than a boat with no tunnel. The tunnel shoots water up to the lower unit and when you jack the plate up it will run scary shallow. I had a 140hp Suzuki prop drive. I can only imagine what it it would do with a jet drive but jet drives wouldn't work down there because there was so much floating seagrass to clog up the intakes. If I get a new jet boat up here it will have a tunnel.

Most all the fly fishing guides here on the White drift fish with one client in the front of the boat and another in the stern. The guide sits in the middle and controls the drift with oars typically working the edges of the river and keeping the boat parallel to the bank. I have rowed 3 or 4 different river Jon boats and I can say that the drift style hull was much easier to control as that is what they are designed to do.

I have 2 friends that have XX drifters and both of them love the boats. Danny has his rigged with a 60/40 Mercury jet and Bruce has his with a 30hp Mercury prop motor rigged with a hydraulic jack plate. I have fished on Bruce's rig and was very impressed at how easy it was to row and how it handled under power. They are built like a tank and laid out very well inside. Their shop is the cattle pasture just across the road from the Ranger boat plant here in Flippin. Here is a recent video that shows lots of the features... (1) Facebook

I haven't heard of any plan to stock more. Hopefully some stay put in the C&R area so they don't end up in hot grease.

Forgot to mention that they are moving down the river. I have caught 2 around Wildcat and 1 just below the Cotter access.

No they only stocked in the C&R area below BS dam. There were 2,500 stocked and they are triploids so will not reproduce but are growing pretty fast.

I got my second Pfizer Covid shot yesterday afternoon and woke up around 3 am this morning with soreness in the arm. Felt like a mule kicked me in the arm. I took a couple Tylenols and was also kind of dehydrated but 3 bottles of water helped that. I had some chills when I got up but went fishing anyway. Went to the dam around noon and caught a dozen or so nice rainbows, 2 tigers, a couple of browns and 1 cutthroat. I had to get out of the water a couple times to warm up. I am sure it was chills from the shot as the temps were in the 60's, sunny and little wind. Saw a few more caddis and caught 1 and missed another on the caddis dries. The rest were on eggs and midges. I think it will be another couple weeks before the caddis really get going. Pain is gone and pretty much back to normal now. If you get the Pfizer shot be prepared for a little discomfort after the second one. I had no after effects from the first Here's a pic of a nice rainbow and a tiger.

Very nice. Those are some really nice trout. So, what was the magic lure/fly???

And another one today. They ran 1 unit all day today so I could only wade the edge but did get this decent brown along with some rainbows.

Went back to the dam again this afternoon (Baxter county side this time) and got this pretty rainbow. Also NO DARN HORN BLOWING today.

Yea, me and about 6 other old guys. They probably had fun watching.

We used to call it OMG bridge because that is what my daughter said the first time we drove across it.

It was frustrating because there were some fish rising in the middle of the river and when I worked my out to them the darn horn would blow. That happened twice so I gave up on that idea.

The Spring is challenging when it comes to dry fly fishing. The only thing that worked for me was a size 20 Griffith's gnat. And then I would get 1 trout to 5 of those little hardhead sucker/chub things. Never really saw many caddis or sulphur hatches over there. Best fly was a weighed Y2K bounced on the bottom.

The Spring river is a real hidden gem. We had a second house in Cherokee Village before we moved up here permanently and I fished there most every day when were here. It's great to live in this area with so many fishing options to choose from every day.