Hi, I'm new to the mud motor world. I'm looking on purchasing one soon. Question is I'm looking at a PD 36 on 1754 excel boat. But I want to do this once so I'm looking for yr advise. The reason excel? We'll I like the layout. Don't know nothing about performance on this boat. That where I need yr help. Why the PD? Well 3 friends have em. One of them is a 2006 and this guy is HARD on things, if he has torn it up I won't . 2 of friends are on Prowler boats. Nothing wrong with prowler in my opinion , I just want more on fishing boat hunting 2nd. I live in iowa and travel all over Midwest walleye fishing with My walleye boat. There is a small river 1/2 mile from my house and the is great fishing, but is low a lot. So to take advantage of the closeness I have to have a mud motor. So here is where I need yr help. I do duck hunt also "most on flight days" so not a lot. I want a boat that performs well. Doesn't have to be fast one out there but don't want a slug either, let her rip! Thanks robb

The concensus is that Excel hulls seem to have a lack of performance. You could always add options to another brand so as to create what you call a "fishing boat".

I hate to beat a dead horse, but prodigy can build you exactly what you want. The prodigy hulls are proven performers, and don't have that chicken-shit bracing that excel is famous for.

X2^^^ you can also check out HAVOC. a friend of mine had one out at the river opening weekend and it was a slick boat. had a layout very similar to the excel. I have heard nothing but great things about both havoc and prodigy. either would be a fine choice. on the prodrive note, I love mine. the guys at prodrive are more than willing to help out with any questions I have when I need to do some work to it. I would steer clear of excel. I haven't heard many good reviews about their boat in a while.

I'd keep your walleye boat for walleye fishing and get a mud boat for duck hunting. I have both and I thinking walleye fishing out of a flat bottom mud boat with mud motor would suck donkey dick! You'll end up building a mud boat that will be poor for both fishing and hunting.

Back trolling? Haha you just spoke Chinese to me. Like I said, y'all know this stuff far better than myself. I was just trying to think about what my ideal fishing/mud boat would be for rivers. I spend my winters chasing ducks and my springs chasing the hatches fly fishing

There's a reason why most walleye guys run them big ass deep v Lund rigs and MNGunner hit the nail on the head.

I could see the downfall in backtrolling, but usually when backtrolling the water is deep enough for a walleye rig. I use my duck boat for walleye fishing the locks and dams on the Miss, drive up and drift down using the trolling motor. It may be a totally different scenario for the OP tho.

I live in cedar falls iowa. I have an excel 1754 SWV F4 with a 5500 HD. People can say what they want but I love my rig. I've caught walleyes out of it. Not back trolling of course but I've trolled with it. I've long lined with it. I've vertical jigged with it. Tied off to down trees and fished every situation that i fish with my alumacraft jon boat with it. Just to prove to myself that I can catch walleyes with my mud boat. Trolling isn't quite as productive but if u can drive a boat u can maneuver my rig into anything. Then in the fall I put the blind on and I kill ducks out of it all over the state and into Missouri. Will I say it's a good dual rig? No. But I have caught alotta walleyes from my mud boat. But if I wanna get real serious about fishin walleyes I just take my alumacraft out and troll, jig and longline whatever I need to do. My excel handles the river great and I don't beat the hell out of it. It's a .125 hull and I've hit logs and sand bars and what have ya and its clean. No dents or hooks. Runs 34 with me n the dog, fishin gear and a cooler. Depending on what river ur gonna run I wouldn't be afraid to get it and use it to fish but I wouldn't buy it for a dual rig. My dad runs my old PD and he uses it to walleye fish and run bank lines for cats on the shell rock all the time. Hell I even caught walleyes trollin with that rig. And as far as the exhaust noise? Where's the exhaust go on an outboard? Out the prop. Underwater. So what's louder to fish? To the OP, lemme know where ur from and how close u are to CF. I gotta lotta friends here with mud rigs and the one guy catches alotta walleyes in his.

I think I just found ur rig on CL. That motor might is pry a CDI engine. So it might troll a little better. The hull is damn close to what my alumacraft waterfowler is. I don't think I'll be able to troll down to under a mile an hour but u might if ur in heavy current. Looks like a nice rig but like I said before, Im not gonna say it's a perfect dual rig. but if ur willing to work with how u fish depending on what u do, it could work out. Just night have to get creative! And if ur from that area illowa marine will be more that glad to service that motor for ya!

I didn't mean to imply it's impossible to catch walleyes out of a mud boat, just that it's WAY less than ideal (especially for the areas/techniques I fish). I also know a guy that shoots ducks on Mille Lacs out of a Ranger.

I've found over the years, if you get a compromise piece of equipment, it's usually not good at any of the tasks.

Oh it's not the perfect rig by no means! but on our smaller rivers it can work out. I don't think we fish the same kinda structure u do MNg. We have a lotta limestone drop offs, down trees and sand bar washes in my area. Lots of creek mouths and backwater openings. Small holes in the middle of a 100 to 150 yard wide river. Curves with small washouts about the size of a truck bed to troll over. Stuff like that.

To the OP: if that is the boat on CL Id question the seller on the year of the boat. Definitely not a 2012 excel. It's an excel but not a 2012. But it might be a total coincidence that there's an excel with a 2012 PD with 36 hrs on it for sale close to iowa.

I fish and hunt the Cedar River near Conesville out of the Mckeown ramp. I also use it on the Mississippi out of Muscatine, Its a 1648 Alumacraft with a 50hp MB Hyperdrive, It'll run 34.7 MPH and carry a decent load. Works great and you won't have bunches of money wrapped up in it.

Thanks for the replies guys! The boat I am looking into is on CL. It is the one your talking about. The river is the Wapsi that I want the boat for fishing . It is real shallow in late summer. Most of fishing is done in 3-4 water in log jams. Or sand drop offs.to get to these spots have to run though 3-4 inches of water, As for now I'm. Gonna keep looking for a good fit. Keep the opinions coming though. Thanks Robb

That boat will run the wapsi decent in medium water. There's alotta log jams and bug sand bars tho. Youll have the learn how to run sand. By that I mean you'll have to learn not to dig ur prop in the sand thinkin it'll push that boat off a sand bar if u get hung up. Unless u wanna go through a prop every week. I've ran my rig from the mouth at the Mississippi to the hwy 61 bridge. Fun ride but ya gotta be careful. I've also ran the wapsi up here by independence and its shallow too. These boats will do 3-4" of water but u better be going good clip and it better not be a long sand bar or ur gonna get hung up. Ill tell ya one thing, my rig has a built in winch and it's saved my a$$ a few times!