Double XX Boats

[snagged in outlet 3]

10 minutes ago, JamiePatterson said:

👍 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 stand on the front deck and my buddy fishes on the back deck.  He loves it!   He gets first shot at everything since we’re drifting backwards.   I’ve never liked drift boats unless you need them for rough water.  

[Quillback]

45 minutes ago, netboy said:

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. 

They are really popular for floating rivers in the Pacific Northwest, they can handle some pretty nasty rapids.  A buddy of mine had one and I'd get on the oars every once in a while and it takes surprising little effort to row them.  Backtrolling with plugs was a popular way to fish for steelhead out of a drift boat, you move slowly downstream and across back and forth through a pool, the idea being to "herd" the fish into the tail out and then they'll get mad and attack that plug.  Vicious strikes, it was pretty cool.  

 

[fishinwrench]

2 hours ago, JamiePatterson said:

Anyway, I’d rather hit the boat bottom than my jet foot

Really?   

 

Swapping out a jet foot..... ain't about nuttin' 😅  But to each their own. 👍

[netboy]

5 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

That's a sexy looking drifter, but I'd forgo a tunnel Hull design.  

 

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. 

[fishinwrench]

20 minutes ago, netboy said:

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.

Now Now..... Let's at least set the exaggeration factor at a setting that makes it somewhat possible.  

The skeg is 6 1/4" , the prop is 10.5" diameter on a 140hp, and the water intake is 14 " from the bottom of the skeg. 

I'll buy that you chewed sandy silt for 25-35' but you didn't "clear" 6" clean.   Had there been a rock in your path you would have been on a boat camping trip until the tide came in.   No matter how flat the hull is at plane.... you still need water from the cavitation plate to the end of the skeg, or you'll blow out.  And on a 140 that's about 22"

[netboy]

38 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

 

 

[netboy]

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

Unbelievable - Bing video

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, netboy said:

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

Unbelievable - Bing video

Try that with gravel instead of sand or silt.  I dare ya.       😅

[netboy]

9 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Try that with gravel instead of sand or silt.  I dare ya.       😅

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)

 

[JamiePatterson]

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 👍