Do youu nos someone that has a sc unit?if you do you might want to go out on real foot with them,just to see how affective sc will be on that mud bottom there.(hard bottom makes these units work the best)
Theres always a possibility of getting interference,might want to experiment with cable location
I no that running into something with the 360 is always a big concern,especially in a lake such as reel foot.
While in real shallow water I run my transducer pod no lower than the bottom of my boat and it still works just fine. Actually it can be run a little higher than the bottom and still work.