I've been impressed with the "near" airboat performance at much less cost and size. Has anybody on the coast used them to any significant degree and what are your comments ie pro's and con's?

I've never used one on the coast but here's how i see it......a mud boat will go almost everywhere and an airboat will go everywhere! Both are expensive and loud.....and both are awesome and cool!

They work great down here on the coast. I mostly hunt the refuges here in SE TX and most places have a 25hp limit on motors, where as it used to be 40hp. Since they changed I think Im seeing alot more people go to a mud motor because a 25hp just cant do the same thing a 40hp in shallow water can.

That's what I want to hear. The pro's to me are less upfront expense and less expense to service and maintain. They will give "near" airboat performance. Also you can rig the boat as a blind. The cons are the availability of service. I was thinking about using one in the Matagorda Bay area where an airboat gives you an advantage.

Just becareful of your protected seagrass areas...places like rockport and estes flats.

To me the airboat runs double duty...better range/speed plus you can Make longer runs to the back lakes fishing reds in the summer.

You can always burn the shoreline in both, but you can build the front up on the airboat to handle the ugly days.

If you want the ultimate set up....add a greatlakes style layout boat to set up....that way you can get in the middle of some of the big flats and don't have to worry about cover.

Yeah bobo, BUT you know how I am about costs. You can double duty a mudboat for flats fishing and you can't use the airdrive for a blind. The airdrive makes finding and getting to the flyways in the shallows easy, but you have to find a place to hide the boat and make a hump in mud or shallow water or leave somebody in the boat. The mudboat gets you there, can function as a blind and you dump your dekes right there without the hassle.

True, no dought air boats air costly to run.

Plus to a mud is you can also run it on any freshwater in tx, where mainly lakes are not air boat friendly, but can't discount the fact more areas in the coast are getting more seagrass friendly.

I've hunted out of airboats down there and majek redfish boats... reddish will run in 4in. It won't get up in that but will run it. Just another option to think about .

But I do understand the park and walk...its never much fun.

Thinking of trying my homemade layout cross boat down there this year in some of the closer water...being its only 10ft I have to be little careful.

One of my summer projects is to build a true great lake style layout boat ..that I can tender out there...but I seem to have a hard time getting being excited about working in the heat

Yea, no fun at all other than the results of a job well done/accomplished

Yeah, I've thought about hunting from kayaks and commercially they're called stealthboats or ambush boats. A company called Beavertail makes them and supposively has the rep. All you'd really have to do is put a rack for them like some of the shallow bay boats have. I really like the saltmarsh duck hunting. Plenty of birds and NO lease fees, but you have to have the equipment to hunt it effectively.