Are you comfortable running on top in shallow water?

[Treker47]

Can’t see it can’t hit it. Good for me except for a few times.

[st041986]

I'm good up to 4" and then I can get even shallower through riffles if needed by "sliding" the rear end a bit.

[shfishinsticks]

Anything under 10ft puckers me up

Me too. I'm idling if it's in the single digits.

[smbass77]

really depends on the body of water. Some lakes are just very shallow everywhere and if you fish tidal water you almost have to run shallow and throwing up mud in the rooster tail.

I got rid of my talons for that reason, couldn't get on plane in super shallow water and it would take me a few minutes to idle to deep enough water.....PITA!! No problems now :)

[santee bass]

Come on down to the Santee Cooper Lakes.Dosn"t matter what depth,there will always be a stump looking for you.

[JoshKeller]

yall would shit if you saw the places i run wide open through

it was an 8 mile run through chutes, 3 major ledges, and a small waterfall to get to this area..

[bonecollector1]

Turn your graph off and Run it

[jigman51]

Lake Dardanelle in Arkansas has some sketchy shallow areas. Once I learned them, I would run in a couple of feet if I was trying to get in a bay.

[dean c]

Yeah pretty much

[1BADAIR]

Its not too shallow until the paint is missing halfway up your skeg

[TrackerPro16]

Not just missing. Tapered off at the paint line!!!
Was looking for a couple bodies in a stump filled lake. Worse at night using floods and spotlights seeing all of them. They ALL looked too shallow but we only bumped a few. Only idling though.

[grayline]

With my Atlas I can run in 1 foot only where I know I'm at and I can get on plane from a dead start in about 2 foot

[vafishing]

Here we fish coastal rivers, bays and sounds. It is very typical for me to run on plane in water less than three feet deep. If you idle in shallow water you would spend your day idling around. If I had a brand new boat I would be scared to death to run in these places but as you learn your way around and your boat gets a few "bruises" it just become second nature and you just do it.

Heck if you still have paint on your skeg you ain't running shallow enough for some of the spots on the Chick, James, and Appomattox. Like others have said it really just comes with having a comfort level of knowing the water you are running.

[doyce]

I learned to run relatively skinny water (3ft) on the Potomac. Was very nervous for a while down here in South LA. Now will run in 1 foot as long as I can get up on plane.

[CaymasRodney]

Grew up with my first boat in NE Texas and if the depth finder said 5 or 6 feet I was idling. So, when I moved to S. Louisiana I found myself idling everywhere for about 6 months. Then I slowly had to break that fear. All the water in S. Louisiana is 5 feet of less, or at least it seemed so. Now I would get up and run on top in 1.5 feet and more.

Now that I am back in NE Texas I still find myself wanting to get up on plane in skinny waters.

What about you guys?

I see guys running like that all the time on Ky Lake, just setting back ready to go fish them out. I know of two in the last few years who tried and failed, they lost their lives.

[Jeff Hahn]

Come on down to the Santee Cooper Lakes.Dosn"t matter what depth,there will always be a stump looking for you.

And that's the TRUTH!

[jomo924]

Too many rocks around here in the northeast.

say it aint so

[pgs]

Skinny water doesn't bother me
I have a depth finder on the front of my boat
And a rock finder on the back.

They both work.

[BSSCT98]

If you don't know the area and running on plane in 2 to 3 feet of water you are crazy. Come on down to Toledo Bend and run in skinny water or deep water and see how long you run.

[n2ratfishin]

Cut my teeth on Santee Cooper, a decade of it. If you don't run shallow water on that lake you'll be idling half the day.

Knock on wood the only lower unit I've knocked off was on Old Hickory, I hit a half sunk log in the middle of a channel.