Larry Miller never realized that a boat could change his lifestyle—or rather, his fishing style.

Larry Miller's specialized craft was designed and rigged for running in ultra shallow water. Hygraulic jack plate and tunnel hull configuration permit the operator to raise the engine so that the prop clears the bottom.

Miller, a transplant from Ohio to the Dunellon area, began his Florida west coast fishing believing, as many of us do, that one boat would serve his every need. His 21-footer was certainly adequate to fish offshore of Crystal River, Homosassa and Yankeetown. It also worked just fine on nearshore flats in the area. But there were drawbacks. For one, he was limited to using improved launching ramps, few and far between in the area. He was also restricted from those mysterious and fishy creeks and backwaters separated from navigable water by oyster, shell and sandbars.

Miller began looking for a second boat to use closer to shore. He considered several possibilities, including canoes, kayaks, aluminum and fiberglass johnboats with jet drives, technical poling skiffs and even airboats. Each had its advantages, but looking around, Miller still wasn’t satisfied. A combination of these boats was what he really wanted, one that would launch easily at primitive ramps, run shallow with a couple of fishermen aboard, provide lots of interior space and operate economically.

He found what he was hunting for in a 20-footer built by a Citrus County fishing guide. Captain Billy Henderson began selling his Micro Draft 20 a few years ago, and it has created a stir among Big Bend anglers for its ability to run and fish shallow and efficiently. After reading some reviews of the boat on the Florida Sportsman On-line Fishing Forum, Miller saw Henderson running over shallow flats near the hot water discharge of the Crystal River Energy Complex. Impressed, he contacted Henderson for a test drive. Already convinced that the boat would do the job, Miller admits that the test ride in the treacherous Ozello backwaters “sealed the deal.”

Price was another of Miller’s priorities. Although the Micro Draft is listed at less than $15,000 for boat, motor and galvanized trailer, he decided to ease the costs of dual-boat ownership by doing some of the fitting, rigging and finishing himself. Henderson obliged by selling Miller the hull and giving him guidance during the final outfitting, in-cluding a list of important sources for materials and power equipment.

The Micro Draft 20 is essentially a 20-foot flat-bottomed wooden skiff with a beam of about 8 feet. Remarkably, I’ve observed that it draws about 3 inches at rest, and I feel it may run less on plane. My first ride aboard Miller’s boat was a trip taken just to get the feel of the boat, its size and amenities, down one of the feeder creeks near the mouth of the Withlacoochee River at Yankeetown. I was impressed by the boat’s ability to plane quickly and with its layout and roominess. We ran in some relatively shallow water, but nothing like we encountered in the St. Martin’s Keys on another trip. On that trip, with Henderson at the tiller, we skittered over sandbars so shallow we could have walked without our ankles getting wet, yet the boat kept going with no indication of touching bottom with either the hull or the motor’s skeg. And, the boat easily came up on plane in just a few boat lengths, even with the 4-stroke 40-horse Mercury—in less than a foot of water.

Simplicity is a key to this boat’s performance. Built of marine plywood and pressure-treated timbers, it may have an advantage over similar designs built of fiberglass. As Henderson explained, the average piece of fiberglass will not float by itself, but a piece of wood will. This boat has no chines or keel and its tunnel is the key to keeping the prop off the bottom. As the boat runs, water is pushed through the tunnel and up to the outboard’s intake and prop. With a jack plate and a high-performance 4-blade stainless prop, the boat easily runs with the top half of the prop well above the bottom of the boat. The flat bottom tends to slide around corners, but that’s easily controlled by lowering the jack plate a bit when turning. Control is not really an issue, and most Micro Draft 20 owners operate their boats standing, either on the seat or on the footrest.