How's an Outback handle the river?

I have had a Mad River Royalex Explorer for over 20 years and have taken it on many rivers fishing and exploring. Rivers like the Snake in Wyoming, the Deschutes in Oregon, etc, mostly flat moving water no class 2 or above. How does the Hobie Outback handle on this type of water? All I ever see are photos on lakes and in the salt.

I regularly take mine on the wapsi and cedar rivers here in eastern Iowa. It does well if you are careful to stay in deep enough water. I don't take the mirage anymore because the current does most of the work. These rivers are fairly gentle and slow moving rivers with nothing above class I just for reference. I wish I could help more but it's the only river experience I have so far in a hobie.

I would take an Outback on the flat water parts of the Deschutes - it can handle that stuff fine. The only drawback is where you encounter boils and eddies while using the Mirage drive. The fins being down in the water are affected by the turbulence, and it moves the boat around a bit. You can feel it, but it isn't hazardous. Rocks are also a problem for the Mirage drive. It takes a certain amount of depth to run it, and you can bend the masts if you hit something. The good thing is that the Mirage drive works with bent fins, and you can bend the masts back nearly straight with the use of a vise and some muscle.

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2011 Oasis (papaya)
2012 Revo (dune)

I have been down a few rivers with my 2010 outback. As mentioned before, the outback will ground in the shallows slightly sooner than most kayaks, but other than that it handles well.

I do not install the drive in most river paddles. However, I tie about a 4.5 foot rope to the drive and clamp it to the bow fixture (you don't want to have the thing go overboard and not be able to retrieve it), then I secure the drive, wedging it fin-first pointing to the front, into a small foot-long bungie cord that I string across the bow hatch cover. That way the drive is secured to the bow, yet it is handy to grab and install when my shallow river suddenly becomes deeper backwater, such as behind a dam.

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Absolute kayaking corrupts absolutely.

I figure you could lock the Mirage fins up against the hull with the supplied bungie for the thin sections. I did try the upper Deschutes out of Little Lava Lake last year for a small stretch and the drive did influence the tracking and ended up using the paddle instead.