Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire strange "flats" boat???

Spent the weekend in Galveston and saw a very small, very strange boat in a guy's yard. The boat looked about 8' long and maybe 5' wide with sides only about 6-8" high. It had a center stand up console and about a 30 horse evinrude outboard mounted very high on what looked like a jack plate. The bottom looked flat (could have had a slight tunnel). I figure it was made for fishing very shallow flats. The only name I could see on one side said POMA.

I did a google search and found something similar, called a "chiquita", but, according to their website, the chiquita is 14'6" long and 7' wide, much larger than the boat I saw:


I'd never seen anything like it and was wondering if anyone knows anything about it?? Looks like a good shallow water bowfishing rig! Wish I had taken a photo of the one I saw!!

They aren't common in the south, nor are they rate. Several of them roam the waters in my area.

They are wet....

That would be a HOOT in a 5 foot Lake Erie chop!

Same thing as the old scooters... totally sealed hull full of foam basically... you let water over.. just hang on in rough stuff plus its a flat bottom.

I've seen quite a few around at times... IIRC Academy may have sold them at one time or thats where I see most in Academy parking lots...

FWIW the ideal flats boat for me.. is my airboat... dry ground, water, you name it... only really sticky mud, really green grass and sand can stop an airboat basically.
No motor noise in the water means reds don't spook until we are literally on top of them, or the water wake hits em.. and they don't go very far.

Yeah, I have seen my share of them as well. Great for getting into the skinny water but they are really popular with the dedicated wade fishermen. Easy to get onto/off of when you reach your destination. You just have to make sure EVERYTHING is tied down...take a turn too hard and things will slide. Just ask my buddy about his tackle bag.

That motor has to get in fairly deep to pump water. What runs it when the water's too shallow?

It's hard to tell from that picture - is that a prop?

A boat like that needs a jet.

their common here

They normally plug the top sets of hole(s) in the lower unit so it doesn't suck air.

Me personally if I have to drive where I'm worried about my lower unit I'd rather use my go-devil powered boat, but it's not near as fast as a tunnel hull flats boat. But even if I run it on dry ground I don't have to worry about engine damage.

They suck up too much mud down here. As long as you can get water in the bottom set of holes in a lower unit you'll be alright, even if the bottom of the prop is turning in mud.

One of these, maybe? I did own one for a while...

http://www.craigcat.com/

Nope, wasn't like that, but that looks like a blast!!

'Bout as rare as cheeseburgers in the Corpus area. They get used in the inland waters for trout, reds, black drum, and gigging flounder. Outside the shipping channels, water depths are commonly very shallow - what looks like a vast lake, is actually barely-covered land.

They work good for evening skinny-dippin' too.

Nathan has it right.

Jets suck up too much mud. Alot of your dedicated flats rigs and tunnel hull skiffs are running low water pickups on the nose cone of the foot. A well outfitted skiff and a good operator can usually run in a foot of water or maybe a tad less in good conditions.

And then you have the john boats rigged with go-devils. Most of those rigs are are only used by duck hunters in this area though.

Found something that looks very close, it's a 10" Flatsmaster cove stalker.

That's not a boat , that's a raft


Mike

Mine's a full tunnel,13.6 Dargel Scooter with a 60hp Etech.Wet and rough but she'll get skinny,run like a spotted ape, and is a hoot to fish from.

Most of the motors on those have lowered the water intakes too boot.

almost bought a mud motor, glad I didn't when I found they were a compromise vs buying the airboat... Last weekend it was very nice to be where NO one else could get... except 2 more of my fellow airboaters.