Quick question. Never had a shallow bay boat, but bought a new 20 ft with a 5 inch tunnel. Yamaha 115 with CMC jackplate going on it now, should I put a cavitation plate on ? To get up quicker in shallow water and for better water intake while running shallow. ? It�s a lite boat with Spontons. 1300lbs

Yes...and it's not a cavitation plate, it's a compression plate.
There's more than a few on the market, I've used the shallow blaster and stiffy, Any of them will probably work good.
What it does, it traps the loose water out of the tunnel and compresses it down on your prop, you can definitely run shallower, and get up shallower with it than without.
But...that still depends on your prop, you have to have a flats cupped prop to take advantage of what you have. Powertech makes a good out of the box wheel, if you want the ultimate in shallow running, crossroads prop in Victoria, Jack makes a really durable and shallow running wheel.

Hope that helps.

Mr Goff, thank you so much for that info. Really don't think I want to make a habit of running fast and shallow just thought if I got in trouble it would help. I have had to push a few
boats in my time and it's not exactly my favorite thing to do. Lol

When you get a proper setup, it makes navigating much easier. You can look ahead, if it's a dark bottom, you KNOW it's good to go, if you see white sand, not so much.
And you can use wave height to judge depth, wave is 1/2 water depth, so if it's a four inch wave, you know it's eight inches deep, and you're good to roll.

I'm running a shaw wing and it allows me to get up on plane faster and shallower than anything i've used. Yes, it's worth it.

Faster does not mean shallower, it's very easy to outrun your tunnel's ability to hold water. There's a whole new world you can discover if you know how to use your equipment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXLDKaVb0Vw

I appreciate it guys, and troutsupport thank you for the 4 pack. Been watching for the last few days, after watching some of the redfish videos I have also watched some of the youtube fishing reports around Rockport and it sure makes a lot more sense now why the fish are, where they are. Thanks again!

How long would a prop last running in all that mud?

Anyone run a jet prop on the flats? That's all the rage for flat bottom river boats now. You lose some of the HP of your motor, but they sure can push though skinny water.

I've been running jets for a long time, and yes, only an airboat goes in less. Takes a lot less water to run in, less than two inches and a whole lot less water to get going in.
Negatives? Jets hate rough water, and if you don't do some modifications floating grass will shut you down, but that's easy enough to fix.

Sand eats them faster than mud. Most of the flats prop guys build really stout wheels that can take a beating.

As Pat mentioned, PowerTech builds a good prop (it's what I run). But the gentleman he mentioned, Jack Foreman at Crossroads Propeller Service in Port Lavaca, is THE skinny water prop guru in Texas, and he builds a heavier prop than the PowerTech that will outlast the competition unless you intentionally abuse it. And regarding compression plates, the Tran has a good reputation too.

Thank you Pat and Jim. I will be giving Mr Foreman a call or stop by his place. Wife and I are going to start venturing away from Rockport and start fishing and staying I think around POC. So I will be through Lavaca soon. We really want to buy a lot and build a metal building we can put our RV under and most everything south of austwell is restricted or priced crazy high. Thanks again for all the advice.