Thanks for all the additional replies; keep them coming. I had thought about a tunnel hull, but after reading about them I thought for my purposes a plain old flat bottom might work better. I have reasonable drives to the Tallapoosa and the Cahaba. I can fish on them with my prop boat, but it's likely a question of time before I really tear something up. My prop already looks sad.

I think I would like a jet much better for the rivers, but I still want to be able to fish Lay lake and Miller's ferry and such. I don't mind going slower, but I'm concerned about not having reverse and some of the other issues. A smaller boat would probably suit me better. I was thinking of a 1545 with SS and maybe a 40/25 jet. Extreme will make one like that with a .190 bottom that I might not be able to tear up.

But it's probably a bad idea. It will be cheaper to just buy new props and lower units. But the jet looks like so much fun.