JamiePatterson

How does the wetlander hold up? I put steel flex on the bottom of a mud boat once, but rocks ate it’s lunch pretty quickly. Thats shallow!!!

I’ve had several airboats and loved how tough the stuff is, so I incorporated it into this boat. It’s heavy and slows the rig down though 😩 I’ve jumped/skidded it over a couple gravel bar humps, just to see how it’d do -and ‘cause, you know, refreshments... 🤷‍♂️ 😂😂😂

We can start arguing about the benefits of a slick bottom aluminum boat if you guys want. They’re amazing when it comes to sliding off of stumps LOL Maybe we could talk about how rounded chains turn better but create more drag. How hard chines don’t corner worth a crap but typically are faster and will carry a load better. I could even go into how tunnels are typically around 5 mile an hour slower than a traditional boat, require a specialized prop, and usually have a crappy reverse because of it. Everything is about a trade off when it comes to boat.

Absolutely, I’ve pretty much exclusively had boats (story prop tunnels) that would run shallower than they would float. Read all this realizing that I’m trying to be very respectful. I understand differing opinions and all that. I sure don’t mean to be a smart butt. My jet, with tunnel will run ankle deep water -Obviously this is over P gravel or sand or mud. Gigantic rocks are spooky. You get a ton of lift running over a bottom that’s smooth. The boat squeezes water between itself and the stream bed to create lots of extra lift. A phantom boulder will get you in trouble in a hurry -hence the 1/2” airboat poly bolted (650 bolts) to the bottom of my rig. The prop driven tunnels need a little more water. I’ve seen your math Wrench, and I understand what you’re getting at. When you running the boats though, a lot of that goes out the window. I’m sorry but it’s true. I’ve been there and done it for a good 25 years. If you haven’t run a tunnel hall or run the places that I have, then I guess I can see why the concept doesn’t make sense. I don’t wanna argue, I just know what I’ve done and how I’ve had to set up boats to gain myself an advantage over your average guy who went and bought a bass tracker or whatever 😂 Actually experiencing it, versus theorizing about it are different. I can’t run a 20 foot flat bottom into my favorite duck holes if it has it got a tunnel. The main bottom of the boat, the part excluding the tunnel, is running just like a flat bottom when up on step. The tunnel definitely gives you five (or six, or whatever) bonus inches to raise your motor out of the water column. Yeah, but what about drag you might ask… You vent the leading edge of tunnel to break a little bit of the suction that it creates. The tubing runs out the back of the boat and is sucking like a vacuum cleaner when you’re zooming down the river. This is flat out truth. It works and is fairly amazing. If you choose not to believe me that’s fine, I don’t really care. If there’s a little nugget in here that could help someone avoid having to get out and push their boat then the last five minutes of typing this mess was worth it LOL good day gentleman 😊

PS: I’ve put gobs of hours on surface drive MM’s too. They have their place for sure, but don’t carry a load like an outboard or run sand like a jet. Everything is a trade off with boats 🤷‍♂️

Intake is 3/4” above the bottom of the boat. I fear no gravel shoal. Yeah, naturally I don’t go looking to whack boulders, but it’s reassuring to know I can skim over everything else. Also, I’ve ramped beaverdams (favorite duck hole) with all the big tunnel hull boats I’ve had -which I built myself- 90, 150, and 200hp motors. I most likely wouldn’t have made a regular habit of that without having so much motor elevated away from the bottom of the boat. I like em on jets and I love em on props. A tunnel goes more shallow on step, zero question about it. I’ve ran passed gobs of guys pushing their boats while I zoomed on by. Had a warden ask how I knew where the channel was once -1/4 mile sandy flat below the mulberry river. There was no channel, just 6”-8” water. We’re gonna just have to agree to disagree and think each other are wrong 😂😂😂

That’s pretty cool. Yeah, you can’t do that over rocks, but where the bottom will let you hit a little bit without tearing stuff up it opens up all sorts of new areas 🙂 I love being in a shallow running boat when you get in less than a foot of water and feel the hull rise up. Squeezing the water between the bottom and the boat creates tremendous lift. Speed starts increasing like crazy too!

That makes perfect sense NB👍

The math of skeg, prop diameter, and water intake height isn’t an exact science. The tunnel sends it shooting up like a fire hose. I realize that you know infinitely more about an outboard motor wrench. I just have gobs of experience running these things on the Arkansas River chasing ducks. Misspent youth and all that jazz 😂

I’ve built and ran a bunch of aluminum tunnel hulls with props. I’ve gone places that are downright scary, you definitely don’t want to stop LOL. The simple fact is they go skinnier than a flat bottom boat. Yeah, the bottom matters. It’s a calculated risk when you know you’re going to drag the skeg or chew mud, but they open up tons of areas a flat bottom can’t get to. With the jet, in the right situation, the same is true. I like ‘em 👍

👍 well there you go 😀 Since I don’t guide, the layout of fishermen hadn’t been something I thought about. I run the trolling motor and fish from the front deck with the guys with me standing wherever. I’m not worried about them at all 😂 I guess it would stink to be a paying customer standing in the middle of the boat. Makes perfect sense

I’ll beat the crap out of a 90 horse Etec on a duck boat. It was a beast! Every now and then it got to having a stutter at wide-open throttle. Turned out to be a $60 sensor that I replaced. When it was time for a new motor I bought a 150 Etech -then they quit making outboards two weeks later LOL

PS, I wanna show the guys at Double XX what UHMW looks like. They need to start selling this stuff!

I’m in the other school of thought. My jet boat has a tunnel and the intake/foot is mounted above the bottom of the boat. Yeah, this might cause the boat to sit in touch deeper in the water. It’s pretty negligible… Anyway, I’d rather hit the boat bottom than my jet foot. The hull is 3/16 aluminum with half-inch UHMW. I don’t mind whacking it into the stream bed LOL. I kind of don’t get it the aluminum drift boat. Actually, the glass drift boats either for that matter LOL. Are these things gonna hit bottom? I’d want it covered with polymer if so 👍 While on the subject, I really don’t get those kind of boats on the white river. It’s not a Montana, Alaska, or Wyoming, I get it if a guy just wants be different -I guess. It just kind of seems like, in Arkansas, people are trying to bring out the nostalgia of fishing out west LOL. All that being said, if everybody was just like this shire would be a boring world 😀

Oh, she’s a fisherman, errr, person...

I’ve got two little girls. One 10 years old one eight. The 10-year-old is tiny, only weighs 62 pounds. She might be my number one fishing buddy though LOL I cannot wait to get them down to South Louisiana and on some nice red fish! We’ve been on black drum the same size as her 😊

Oh man, I love fishing the marsh!! That’s a great fish 👍

I remember when I was a kid and I painted my outboard motor camouflage with spray paint. I was so proud! Then one day I got some gasoline on the page and it washed right off… I have used automotive paint ever since. I’m pretty sure Sherwin William’s offers a good option too, through their commercial coatings line. -the name escapes me though.

Awesome! I love that big water!

That’s a dandy spot. We’ve got a place about 2 miles up river from there. Wish I could be there more often. Summers are the best and worst -gotta mow the lawn lol.

Best thing about the White is it doesn’t matter the spot. There are browns all over 🙂

Some peoples kids... 😂

😂😂😂

No, this is that other spot...

Things are slow on the forum. I caught a fish yesterday lol...