Pogo: A Flat-Bottom Paddle-Wheel Boat for Weedy Water

Anyone who has fished a weed-choked lake knows the misery of a fouled propeller. Jimmy Tench's Pogo sidesteps the problem entirely with an engine-driven paddle wheel at the stern. The hull is flat-bottomed plywood, simple to build and happy in shallow water. It has the cheerful look of a tiny stern-wheeler, and it gets you to the lily pads where the fish hide without stopping to clear the prop every few minutes.

Pogo at a glance

Detail	Pogo
Type	Paddle-wheel boat
Construction	Flat-bottom plywood boat with engine-driven stern paddle wheel; no propeller to foul in weeds
Designer	Jimmy Tench
Plan sheets	6

No propeller, no tangles

A stern paddle wheel pushes water rather than slicing through it, so weeds and reeds slide off instead of wrapping around a shaft. On a shallow, overgrown lake that difference is everything. The flat-bottom plywood hull keeps building straightforward and draft shallow. Six plan sheets cover the hull and the paddle-wheel drive, giving you a practical, slightly quirky boat that works where others struggle.

The original plan sheets

These are the 6 original sheets, scanned from the magazine. For building, use the full-size PDF in the download section below.

Who designed it

Jimmy Tench designed Pogo around an engine-driven stern paddle wheel. The six original plan sheets cover the flat-bottom plywood hull and the drive arrangement. It is a quirky, practical answer to weedy water and shallow fishing spots.

Before you build

• Build a guard around the stern wheel so nothing and nobody can be caught by it while it turns.
• Seal all plywood edges thoroughly, since a shallow-water boat spends time scraping on mud and weeds.
• Keep Pogo on calm, sheltered water and carry a paddle for the trip home if the engine stops.

Download the plan

Jimmy Tench's six Pogo sheets together in one file, ready to print or keep on a tablet in the workshop.

Download the complete plan (PDF, 6 sheets, 1 MB)