[Sonny Palma Sola]

My obserations of y'all's conversation is: 1) I doubt that a skiff coming out of HB's shop isn't set up to run properly, no matter where you live. 2) Over my last 5-6 skiffs I've tried most of what you suggest to run skinny. 3) No offense to Scissorhands, but what I saw him do getting his skiff up was no way to protect our bay bottoms. Again, no offense, I've done that many times, however as I am now in "Senior" staus I know that in order for the following generations to have a place to fish in the future we need to find deeper water to get up and run. Take a look at google maps and see the "kicker trails" where you fish. 4) I have a HB's Eldora tiller being built as we speak, cap to hopefully go on this week, but we all should strive to pilot our skiffs in an environmentally friendly manner and not try to run in water where we shouldn't. Get over how shallow your skiff will get up or run and learn the channels to your to spots as crboggs suggests. "Just sayin" as they say!

 

[CKEAT]

There is no doubt getting up on mud bottom isn’t a good ruler to gauge hole shot. That needs to be done on hard sand bottom to see if a tunnel boat is rigger properly. No offense at all her either, just lessons learned.

 

[BPancamo]

His tunnel pro is rigged with a jp and short-shaft Mercury. With a foreman prop to boot. I’m not sure it can be rigged anymore aggressive. Maybe w a Shaw Wing, but c’mon dude.

 

[Stevie]

My obserations of y'all's conversation is: 1) I doubt that a skiff coming out of HB's shop isn't set up to run properly, no matter where you live. 2) Over my last 5-6 skiffs I've tried most of what you suggest to run skinny. 3) No offense to Scissorhands, but what I saw him do getting his skiff up was no way to protect our bay bottoms. Again, no offense, I've done that many times, however as I am now in "Senior" staus I know that in order for the following generations to have a place to fish in the future we need to find deeper water to get up and run. Take a look at google maps and see the "kicker trails" where you fish. 4) I have a HB's Eldora tiller being built as we speak, cap to hopefully go on this week, but we all should strive to pilot our skiffs in an environmentally friendly manner and not try to run in water where we shouldn't. Get over how shallow your skiff will get up or run and learn the channels to your to spots as crboggs suggests. "Just sayin" as they say!

I recently moved from TX to FL. Understand your comments about finding the channel etc., especially protecting the turtle grass, which isn’t present much in TX— it’s mostly widgeon grass... The terrain for large stretches of the TX Coast is extremely shallow and doesn’t provide close access to channels as you describe. Probably a result of the geography that TX bays run a narrow path along the entire coast between barrier islands and & the mainland, and deep water is channeled through the ICW. Knowing and testing a skiff’s shallow water capability is important to safely exploring the Texas Coast.

Agree w/ @CKEAT that testing on sand is a better gauge. I previously ran a 178 w/o tunnel & Yamaha 70 2 stroke... we could blow out of just about anywhere with a Jack Foreman prop with mud & 9 or 10 inches water .... not the way I liked to run, though.

@scissorhands- your skiff is beautiful and I love the sound of that Mercury 60R... strong & torquey

 

[crboggs]

Get over how shallow your skiff will get up or run and learn the channels to your to spots as crboggs suggests.

I'm neither an expert nor a saint. I'm just willing to pole a bit deeper if it lets me get up cleanly...

 

[scissorhands]

Mostly where I fish is mud/clay bottom, I would never try and jump up in a grassy area (we dont have many left in the upper coast). Is jumping up in mud right or wrong? I don’t know, but I only did that for test purposes and only do that when needed. In Texas we get some mean negative tides in the winter, if you can’t or don’t have the guts to run shallow back lakes you wont be sight fishing where the fish are. The lake I was in was super shallow that day and the only way to get out was to jump up. No offense taken, just how we have to do it sometimes in Texas and I like to know how my skiff will perform in those scenarios.

 

[jay.bush1434]

My obserations of y'all's conversation is: 1) I doubt that a skiff coming out of HB's shop isn't set up to run properly, no matter where you live. 2) Over my last 5-6 skiffs I've tried most of what you suggest to run skinny. 3) No offense to Scissorhands, but what I saw him do getting his skiff up was no way to protect our bay bottoms. Again, no offense, I've done that many times, however as I am now in "Senior" staus I know that in order for the following generations to have a place to fish in the future we need to find deeper water to get up and run. Take a look at google maps and see the "kicker trails" where you fish. 4) I have a HB's Eldora tiller being built as we speak, cap to hopefully go on this week, but we all should strive to pilot our skiffs in an environmentally friendly manner and not try to run in water where we shouldn't. Get over how shallow your skiff will get up or run and learn the channels to your to spots as crboggs suggests. "Just sayin" as they say!

I know where @scissorhands made that video and let me tell you its all mud bottom and is mud bottom year round. There's no sea grass and no channel in or out, just shallow gooey bottom. So other than leaving a big muddy streak in the water and sanding some paint off the skeg there was no damage done. Also, where we fish on the upper Texas coast, we don't have a lot of channels that provide easy access to the flats and back lake marshes. The bottom is usually gooey mud that doesn't allow for easy poling when each push sinks the pole a foot or more into the bottom. If you were to try and pole from where he was to "deep" water, you'd be at it for miles and I'm not talking about an easy down wind drift either. We have a very different environment than the typical flat fishing in Florida. He wanted to see just what his boat was capable of doing, chose a safe spot and made a quick video because a bunch of folks have been asking him questions about the boat and motor performance.

 

[fishnogeek]

I'll second (third?) what Jay and Rob said with first-hand evidence: those back bays here are mostly deep mucky mud with no grass, very little shell, and no channels. They can get stupid skinny, particularly at this time of year, and our tidal movements are frequently small enough that you can't count on getting more water even if you wait it out. Given that viz here should usually be measured in nanometers, it's often tough to tell if you're running in 4" or 14" of water. When those factors combine, knowing how skinny you can safely run and how to bounce back up if you accidentally drop somewhere murky are important things to know.

Related, I'm trying to remember if I've ever seen a skeg here that wasn't naked. Can't think of one.

 

[coconutgroves]

Related, I'm trying to remember if I've ever seen a skeg here that wasn't naked. Can't think of one.

Mine is worse than naked! It is bare, exposed bones and missing a femur! If I jack up to much the stern of the boat gyrates slowing left and right with the prop. A rebuild is on the list. That is thanks to running across sand. But my Jack Foreman heavy cup pop is a honey badger - I've ran across shell (accidentally of course, who does it on purpose?) and it looked like a salad shooter from the rear of my boat. Not one gash on the prop.

 

[crboggs]

But my Jack Foreman heavy cup pop is a honey badger - I've ran across shell (accidentally of course, who does it on purpose?) and it looked like a salad shooter from the rear of my boat.

That's funny. When we see the inevitable Yankee's in Whalers or ******* bait soakers in their tower boats churning up the bottom around here, I often say they are "chopping salad"...

 

[Matts]

Not necessarily true in all cases....

A cav plate goes above the prop to prevent wash out. It does not wrap the entire engine like a compression plate.

A compression plate, like the ShawWing, wraps the entire lower unit. It helps with wash out, but also channels water downward to surround the prop and water pick ups.

I've had both on my B2 - it came with a cav plate and was pretty much useless, imo. It did nothing for increasing water pressure or allowing me to get up skinny. I took it off and did a trip - I could tell no difference.

The compression plate, on the other hand, has been killer. I was able to raise my engine to the highest bolt and can run with jack plate at 5.5 while keeping water pressure (it drops at 6). It has changed where I fish and how skinny I can get up.

But, I currently don't have a tunnel. Tunnels channel water more effectively to the engine, so one could argue if a compression plate is useful.

However, I had a boat that was a tunnel and I also had a compression plate. I could run so skinny in areas that if I stopped, I would probably still be there trying to get the boat out. . The combination of a tunnel and compression allowed me to run the prop nearly above the water line. Awesome, but can get you into some trouble if not careful.

The heavy cup will help with bite getting up shallow, and help prevent wash out, but it depends on how high you are jacked up. Even a heavy cup has limitations with a tunnel - there is a point where there isn't enough water surrounding even the heavy cup and it will blow out. This is where a compression plate would help eliminate that issue.

Also, I run a Jack Foreman 3 blade prop with heavy cup on my B2.

Totally agree. I have the Shaw Wing on my non-tunnel LM and the engine and jack plate are mounted as high as possible. Not much engine in the water and compression plate holds water. seems to make a big difference.

 

[coconutgroves]

Totally agree. I have the Shaw Wing on my non-tunnel LM and the engine and jack plate are mounted as high as possible. Not much engine in the water and compression plate holds water. seems to make a big difference.

Personally, I think this is a must here in Texas without a tunnel. Honestly, I would consider not running a tunnel and going with this approach. It provides better displacement to float a bit higher. Chittum says it is about a 2" trade off while on plane between tunnel and non-tunnel.

 

[CKEAT]

Stephen has his tunnel he picked up in November and he had that set up without before. He could give a pretty good review of the two pretty soon I would think. Thought he does have the low water pick up now and that is a game changer.

 

[CKEAT]

Though not thought

 

[devrep]

if you can jump on plane in very shallow water in Homosassa or Crystal River I'll be impressed. I can. bring a spare prop.

 

[CKEAT]

if you can jump on plane in very shallow water in Homosassa or Crystal River I'll be impressed. I can. bring a spare prop.

I think you need some time in the laguna madre to learn what shallow water work actually is!

 

[Smackdaddy53]

Stephen has his tunnel he picked up in November and he had that set up without before. He could give a pretty good review of the two pretty soon I would think. Thought he does have the low water pick up now and that is a game changer.

Stephen’s skiff in my video is a vented tunnel. They don’t draft 2” more on plane or off plane than a non tunnel. Internet misconceptions are born this way. That tunnel is not very big and I’ve done average sized tunnel calculations on here showing about 1/8” added draft (and the Chittum tunnel is smaller than what mine are based on) if the skiff is sitting level which these hulls do well while poling. I think people get ideas in their head without actually experiencing first hand then other people believe what they claim. My Maverick HPX-Tunnel will run over hard sand while hull is dragging bottom so I really don’t think whaf a skiff drafts on plane could be a deal breaker on a much lighter hull like a Chittum or other light hull.
A non vented tunnel can suck down the stern on take off but you can cancel that out by tabbing down. I can perform a CLEAN hole shot in 6-8” my skiff with the outboard trimmed level and jacked all the way up with the prop above the bottom of the hull. This is where a XXX cup three blade and good compression plate shine other than jacked way up and turning without blowing out.