Advice for duck hunting boat motor

[crazywednesday]

Thinking about purchasing a duck hunting boat. It would mostly be used in estuaries and rivers, SW Washington. Anyone got experience with surface drives or longtails in the salt? There are lots of videos on youtube, but they are in the midwest or dirty south. Is the salt water a killer on these motors?

[Dukalr]

Honestly they’re really pretty dedicated for hunting shallow water.  I’m from the Midwest originally, definitely see their use back there on the weed filled marshes.  I bought  a 16ft sled with a jet and put a small kicker on it and it runs fantastic out here for just about everything I do.  I run the rivers hunting and fishing, fish/hunt the Columbia from Astoria to Vantage, and hunt Potholes with no issues.  The combo of the two motors allows me to hunt anywhere in the state, and fish for just about anything I want.  In fact, when I get done with the Army here in a few years I plan in taking the boat back home to hunt the lakes and big rivers in MO.  It’ll be perfect back there for that, and few others like it as versatile.

Surface drives aren’t bad, just not optimal for big waters like the Columbia or lakes if used in any sort of rough water (or for fishing/trolling for salmon).  Plus they’re loud.....

[Stein]

I would get a normal prop, far less trouble and much more reliability and versatility.


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[Pnwrider]

Everything with boats is a compromise. I’m lucky, I have an understanding wife who lets me have multiple boats. Do you only want a boat that is great at duck hunting? I’d go jet or mud motor. Been wanting to try a mud motor actually. I’d be curious to see how low of water I could run the tidal flats. Hard to beat a prop for a do anything boat though. It’s funny, when I had a jet, I hated it. Now I’ve got a prop on a bigger boat for duck hunting and miss the jet. I think duck boat #5 needs to have a mud motor and will be the widest, most sea worthy 16’ jon style boat I can find.

[h2ofowlr]

Surface drives are ideal in shall vegetation filled area where the bottoms are all mud.  The bays up in NW Wash. are sand bottoms where I am at.  Not the most ideal.  I used to run a jet but hated it.  It would suck up eel grass and seaweed constantly and I was always cleaning it out.  I switched to a prop and it worked way better. 

[fowl smacker]

Definitely a prop on a duck boat or at least a kicker or minn kota to use if you have a jet as your main.  As stated above, a jet WILL suck up grass and debris in areas us duck hunters like to go.  A prop will also give your main more power for the heavy loads us duck hunters like to carry.

[h2ofowlr]

Also didn’t mention that a jet was running me about $40-$60 every trip in fuel.  My prop would run me about $10-$15 in fuel.

[SuperX]

I had a mud buddy for a few years and hunted the salt almost exclusively.  It worked just fine, I could come off Fir Island on the last slurp of water and run all the way in and out on low tide.  The heavy grinding through sand sharpened the prop to the point where you can't touch it, and I had to replace the prop after 2-3 years.  Salt water rusted everything but the plastic on the motor, eventually I wanted a reverse for picking up dekes and got a conventional motor I could turn into a pump if I needed to.

[ridgefire]

My brother in law has a mud motor for duck hunting and it will almost hit 30mph on my phone GPS. They are loud and pretty much good for duck hunting only. Er have hunted in the Skagit bay and it does good out  there. I have a jet in my boat and it sucks for ducks, sucks up to much crap in the jet.

[crazywednesday]

Thanks for everyone sharing their experience. It sounds like the most practical for salt estuaries is a short shaft with prop.