I’m looking for some insight on surface drive vs outboard. I will mostly be fishing and hunting in rivers and oxbow lakes. Any input appreciated

Need more info. But I would say outboard if possible. If you’re running shallows or heavy vegetation then that’s a different story. I like long tails because less can break and they’re quite a bit cheaper money wise.

If you are looking for a whole rig shoot me a pm. My son will have his excel with a 38hp surface drive for sale in a couple of weeks.

I live in the MS Delta. Most of my boating will be in oxbow lakes that stay trashed up most of the time due to the fluctuating water levels of the Mississippi River. I will also be hunting in some timber. Most of the fishing will be in open water but on the oxbow lakes. I’m either going outboard with jack plate or surface drive. There is a possibility of vegetation but shallow, trashy water will be the norm

I have heard the surface drives are obnoxiously loud?

Obnoxious is an understatement.

My next will be a long tail.

Outboard, 25hp preferably electric start. If you get in some shallow pick the motor up. 25 hp will allow you to hunt any of the wma’s for ducks that allow outboard.

I don’t think any more than a long tail...supped up lawn mowers is what they are

You need a tiller outboard with shallow drive or a jack plate. I've had all the mud motors. I run in Reelfoot which is 100% slap full of stumps and cypress knees under the water. Unless you are in vegetation you can get around with an outboard if you set it up right.

I remember I got a Pro Drive one time (this would have been early 2000's) and I was down there at Pro Drive's shop we went out to the basin and were running around and I thought I had the baddest thing I ever drove and I look up and a Crawfisherman comes hauling arse past me with a 40hp Tohatsu on a Jack plate running through the same place I was. The only place he couldn't go was across a mud flat with no water. The mud motor would do it there. I never seen a mud flat I could cross like that anywhere North of I10. The Mud isn't the same.

Vegetation is another matter. They shine in the weeds.