Ok, let me apologize right now for my ignorance. I'm not a real big fisherman I'm more of a hunter so boats are a shady zone for me. I've been fishing down in port Isabel for speckled trout and love it. But now I want to go without a guide on my own every year, and the water is so shallow I can't use a v bottom or regular Jon boat because it'll get stuck, or so I'm guessing. One guide had a boat like the one pictured below, just bigger. Does anyone know where I can get the boat below? If not I want to make a shallow water boat, I can weld fairly good so metal fabrication is no problem. Or even plans so during Ag class this coming year I can work on it. Or if anyone has any suggestions let me know, I'm open to ideas. and I'm not looking to spend very much on this boat at all.
P.s. what about the pelican bass raider?


And I thought about making this dude right here but getting a steering wheel and a jet ski motor for this would be challenging. I'm not worried about getting it titled after making it, I'll call tpwd and they'll help me on that.



I don't have another picture because I found this on the Internet, and this was the first and most informative place I could think of.

Thanks in advance

There a bunch of guys down on the coast that make scooter boats like you have pictured with the guy standing. They are popular, effective, and pretty reasonable. Get in touch with a guy that post on here named Pat Goff. He is the skinny water guru and can head you in the right direction.

http://www.sportsmanboats.com/new-boats/shallowsport-15-scooter/

http://www.dargel.com/

http://www.cougarmarineusa.com/

here is a small shallow boat http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=497792
but there is no reason to have one that small as long as you have a good tunnel hull boat you will be ok you just need to learn the water

That model you posted is called a s-10. I have a flats master getting rebuilt with all fiberglass so no rot. It has a 40 mercury on it with a jack plate. I may sell it if the price is right. I just put 2000$ into getting it rebuilt.

I've had a 10' scooter, gets a little crowded with 2. I went to a 12' with a 40 mariner/Yamaha with a hydraulic plate, low water pickups and a cleaver 4 blade, it could run where my jet runs now, but it couldn't get up in the same water.

Mine's 16' with a 90 jet, it's just about perfect for what I want, it'll run in less than 2" and get up in 4" without problems, and it's light enough I can get it out of whatever mischief I get into. Will it carry six people, 120 croakers and nine cases of keystone? Not even. So to each his own.

Your choices:
Jet or Prop. Jet will run shallower, get up shallower. Prop will be faster and run in rough water better.
Aluminum or glass. Glass is easier to work with, aluminum is more rugged.
Tunnel will depend if you're going to run a prop or a jet. Proper setup with a tunnel prop will include a hydraulic plate, four blade prop and compression plate, *maybe* trim tabs.
Jet just stays where it's at.
Jets need modifications to run through thick grass. Props get torn up on oyster beds...
Choices....lots of choices.

here is another one for ya
http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=497441

I still dont know how that boat hasn't sold yet. I sold one last year for 5500 but everything worked on it.

I'd highly recommend starting cheap. Go tear some stuff up as you're learning what you're doing. You will stick it aground, you will put yourself in places you didn't really want to be in, you will learn your own fishing style and what works for you.

If you fish POC south, a true flats rig is actually simple to navigate, if it's a dark bottom, you're good to go, if it's white sand it's going to be dicey and depends on the tide. Also, you'll know a 4" wave is at least 8" deep, which will show you depth you can and can't run in. You'll also learn quite quickly that you don't go cutting across a big bay in two foot whitecaps. You'll find your shallow routes that you can navigate without beating yourself up in. You don't need rough water ride if you never get in rough water...

^ he said it very well. I know someone that just spent 40k+ on a boat and has no clue how to run it. I own two boats one is a 21' shallow sport and the other is 13' flats master scooter.

Try scooter boat plans there are several size options. If your are good at do it yourself projects. The one you show is probably a Mowby 10' good shallow water. The scooters are pretty common along coaster water for bay fishing

Have you ever thought about getting a mud rig?

Surface drive motor with an all welded flatbottom?

I've got one of the longtail mud motors and go all over the place...no way would I use a longtail in POC but a bigger surface drive would be a different story.

Cool thing about shallow running rigs, there's a lot of choices. Bad thing? there's a lot of choices.
1. Figure out what part of the coast you're going to spend the MOST time at, and work from there. That 10' scooter running out of arroyo city wouldn't be worth two dead flies in Galveston.

You really have four choices for how you're going to power:
Air Boat.
Plus: Will run on dry land.
Minus: LOUD, dangerous in rough water, uses a LOT of gas.
Tunnel prop.
Plus: runs a lot shallower than no tunnel, lots of hull choices, and *everyone* has one.
Minus: Not *that* shallow, and takes a lot more water to get up in than it can run in.
Jet.
Plus: runs in a lot less than a prop, gets up in a lot less than a prop can. Quiet, won't spook fish.
Minus: SUCKS in rough water. Un modified will catch a lot of grass. Loses about 30% of power vs. a prop.
Mud motors:
Plus: can run in mud without water. Won't over heat, cheap to buy and run.
Minus: Hard sand will knock it down. SLOW. Rough water isn't much fun.

There's the lineup, pick your compromise, because they'll all have one.

Ooooohhhh, an airboat. I've wanted one so dang bad for so many different things. But I have absolutely NO idea on how to build one. If its not an airboat then I'd have to pick tunnel prop

Yeah, that one right there will work very nicely. It'll run in less that 2" of water, bounce off oyster reefs, and just keep on going...

If I didn't have *mine* that one would be taken for sure.