re: Pass A Loutre help.

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I've camped in PAL

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Well excuse me Captain Eads, no doubt your handful of trips warrants you to shite on the standard safety advice given by numerous posters with more experience when this topic comes up.

Pretty much everyone has agreed a trip downriver solely in a mud boat is possible and people do it fairly regularly. We are just saying it is not advised.

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Where did I do this?

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You can tell who in this thread hunts Venice and is getting aggravated because they don't have it to themselves like they used to, therefore they act like it's the most dangerous place on the planet.

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due diligence and use some common sense and you'll be okay.

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Just use your brain and you won't have an issue

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Be prepared, be confident, be safe and you’ll be okay.

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The point everyone has been making in this thread is that it is not safe to travel solely in a mudboat downriver. You throwing out useless platitudes like, "be prepared, be confident, be safe and you'll be okay" to someone who has never made the trip downriver and asking for info on how to make the trip in a mudboat are ignorant at best. This is absolutely shitting on everyone else's advice.

You can also tell who in this thread has never found themselves in a completely unexpected but very dangerous situation in a boat in the river. Hammer’s advice wasn’t discouraging at all; it was real. I know the dude and he’s just as qualified to give advice about the river as anyone. If you’ve spent any measurable amount of time around Venice marina the last 5ish years, then you know where he’s coming from. OP seemed to have taken his advice into his planning/preparation for his trip, which is the purpose of this board.

You’re telling people to “read the internet,” but passively giving Hammer shite for offering legitimate, sound, experienced advice on the internet. Doesn’t make much sense.

@OP, I have an 1852 duck boat with a 60hp tiller Yamaha and I have spent a lot of time navigating the river in my life. I’m not comfortable in the river in my boat. Doesn’t mean I haven’t done it, because I have on good days, but I’d advise against it. Especially with the limited torque of a surface drive. I’ve been in multiple situations in a 25’ Reno that would’ve sunk my boat without question.

I used to hunt down there a good bit, and I would take my 16x48 go devil long tail down to PAL. Was it dangerous? Yes. Can it be done safely? Yes.

The problem with the river is you can plan all you want and have perfect weather, but all it takes is one crew boat wave to sink you quickly. The hunting down there is great. The reason I quit is because it's not worth it for 6 birds. Too many people now and too long of a sketchy drive down there and back. There are more safer and easier ways to kill your ducks than going all the way down there.

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The problem with the river is you can plan all you want and have perfect weather, but all it takes is one crew boat wave to sink you quickly.

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Indeed.

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My entire point was that people in the past on this board have constantly discouraged hunting in Venice and I’ll I’m saying is that if you do your research and plan appropriately, you will not have a problem. That’s it. Not shitting on anything

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Understood. I don’t think he was doing that. There’s just a lot of unpredictability with the river and it’s multiplied for those with limited experience navigating it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been running back upriver and seen surface drives just aimlessly running down the middle of the river ha.

At the end of the day I hope people realize it’s a lot of work and planning down there. Just because a boat can run 30 miles an hour doesn’t make it safe to be in the river.

Lastly something that hasn’t been covered.... A fricking GPS breadcrumb trail is NOT safe in the fog!!! Can’t tell you all how often I hear the opposite in the fog

I don't think I saw mentioned, but something else to watch out for are the sandbars in PAL and South pass.

To follow up everyone else. I used to run it in an 18x54 center console gator tail. If you’re going to do it, bring a mother ship for gear and run bare boat. It’s a lot easier to run without any weight and there’s the comfort of knowing that your buddies in the bigger boat are riding near you.

I moved to a 24ft bay boat this year and even that feels small on the river. Higher sides and a ton more but it’s still no match for some of the wakes put out by the bigger ships.

Also. If you’ve never run the river before, wait until daylight. Plenty of birds to be killed in Venice after first light. Good luck.


Eta. If you’re going to do Atchaflaya delta, following the buoys. There’s some serious sand bars out there. Some even come out a hundred yards or so. There’s also an island in the river with a shallow and sandy flat that runs a couple hundred yards out. Far less boat traffic than the Mississippi but it can easily get rough and dangerous because of other hazards.