New to jet boat fishing

[Jim Spriggs]

Hi all.  I recently purchased my first jet boat--a used Blazer (17' x 52") with a 90 hp Evinrude 2 stroke.   I am looking for appropriate places to fish for smallmouth.  I live in St. Louis, so the Big River, Meramec, and Bourbeuse are the closest rivers.  I went to Brown's Ford on the Big River, and the river (due to log jams) was too narrow to go downstream.  I also went to the Meramec at the Onondaga Cave access (the Huzzah Valley MDC area).  It was too shallow to run a trolling motor but the depth was fine for running the boat (but the logjam below the boat ramp is quite tricky to traverse).  I would also like to fish the Gasconade in Jerome. I was told if the river gauge at Jerome is below 2' (it's about 1.5' now) that I should avoid that area.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

 

[Greasy B]

Welcome to the forum Jim. I can't give much advise about where your boat would be appropriate how how to run it but I do want to point out that when to run it is every bit as important. Dealing with mass recreational power boats, rafts and canoes is a pain. Week days or other non peak times is the only way to go. 

[Brian Jones]

Big River below Mammoth needs to be at least 3.25 on the Richwoods gauge for me to even consider running it.  Most years I cannot comfortably fish out of my jet boat on lower Big River after about  the middle of June. 

The Gasconade around Jerome is runnable at 1.5 IF you are VERY familar with the river.  It is much more comfortable to run when the river is above 2.2 or so.  

I haven't fished the upper Meramec much the past few summers but the water is still decently runnable around St. Clair and below.  Generally speaking, the river is pretty easy to navigate from Onondaga to Meramec Caverns as long as the gauge at Sullivan is reading above 3.00.  As Greasy said the recreational crowd can be a pain and I try to avoid the river as much as possible during the summer months.  Above Meramec Caverns there is a TON of commercial floater traffic.  Below Meramec Caverns, you'll run into the recreational power boat traffic; epsecially during wet summers like this one was.  On normal summers the power boat traffic isn't as bad after the first few weeks of summer.  One way to avoid the crowds on weekends in the summer is to put in at daylight and run up from where you put in so that you'll always be in front of the canoe traffic.  You're not going to get in a full day of fishing but you can get a few hours that'll be relatively peaceful.  

When I was learning how to run the river and drive our boat I always ran upriver from where I put in.  Running upstream makes it easier to read the river and you'll be going against the current which, as you'll soon find out, can affect the way your boat handles; especially when running down river.  Good Luck. 

[Jim Spriggs]

Thanks for the advice.  I am definitely a novice jet boater and am learning that it is quite different than running on the lakes.  Any advice on where I can go to learn more about how to safely maneuver in the rivers.  I have searched the web, and I was hoping there was someplace one could go to get lessons, similar to lessons one would get to learn to drive a car.  But, so far no luck. 

 

 

[moguy1973]

I think if you put in at George Winter Park and go upstream to Castlewood or even Glencoe you could get some good practice running some shallow water that isn't too crazy full of obstructions.  River is pretty low right now.

[Blazerman]

Welcome to the post Jim. I too had a Blazer 1752 and just this fall replaced it with a new 1856 Blazer. if you see me on the Meramec flag me down and we can chat.

Yeah like Brian said it doesn't take long to realize running upstream is way easier then running down. You have way more control and can see the appropriate channels and obstructions way easier as you head upstream versus down. And this time of year with the sun lower on the horizon you will get the glare off the water a lot too that makes it really tough to see going either way. 

I have run my boat pretty much around Redhorse on the Meramec up to the caverns and can tell you it is tough running right now with as low as the water is.

Unfortunately, i have never heard of a jet boat driver training school and the only way i know to get good at it is running your boat. You will learn by experience what your boat can do and where it can go by using it. And you will also have your share of incidents like everyone else. Which leads to stories to tell down the road. Just ask any jet boater and they will have plenty of them.    

[Jim Spriggs]

I'll continue learning by trial and error, hoping for only minor errors.  I'm planning to make the Meramec my home base, and I am really interested in fishing for smallmouth.  It seems most of the prime smallmouth water is currently too shallow for my skill level.  Here's wishing for some more rain...  

Thanks, guys, for giving me information; it's helpful for someone like me who knows liittle about jets.

 

 

[Mitch f]

 

I'll continue learning by trial and error, hoping for only minor errors.  I'm planning to make the Meramec my home base, and I am really interested in fishing for smallmouth.  It seems most of the prime smallmouth water is currently too shallow for my skill level.  Here's wishing for some more rain...  

Thanks, guys, for giving me information; it's helpful for someone like me who knows liittle about jets.

 

 

Though I don't have one, I've been encouraged to use a "whale tail" that sits just above your squirt gun. They are supposed to help you get on plane faster and maintain plane at a slower speed, which in turn will give you a couple of more seconds to react.

I also encourage you to real ease all the smallmouth and largemouth you catch.?

[Whiskey Joe]

Sorry dude, I only canoe.

If I did have a jet boat, I'd probably frequent Gasconade at Jerome and go upstream past Big Piney convergence. That's an awesome stretch of river and I believe it's a trophy smallmouth area, so should be a bunch of 12-15" to keep busy with a few monsters to make you happy.

Meramac off season around huzzah may get too skinny but good fishing.

Boubeuse at Reiker's ford would be fun with motor boat, the ford is more like a dam making upstream like a lake. I crappie fished it unsuccessfully this April, but think there are some lunkers in there. 

[Al Agnew]

Just want to note (again) my crusade to use the flow in cfs rather than the level in feet when using the river gauges...it gives people who aren't familiar with that river and gauge a far better understanding of the river conditions.  200 cfs is the actual volume of water flowing down the river, no matter what river it is.  2.5 feet doesn't tell you anything unless you already know what the river looks like at 2.5 feet, since 2.5 feet at one gauge does not mean the same thing as 2.5 feet on a different gauge.

Having said all that...the Bourbeuse is not often runnable anywhere, it simply gets too low by early summer most years.  Big River is seldom runnable above Mammoth Bridge, and probably not advisable to run above there even when there's enough water to run.  I want the river to be flowing at least 300 cfs at the Richwoods gauge (it's near Merrill Horse Access) to run it in the stretch between Mammoth and Browns Ford, and even at that flow and higher there are tricky spots.  A very experienced jet boat operator can certainly push that envelope, but the inexperienced are asking for trouble trying to run Big at lower water levels.

The Meramec will have tricky spots on just about every stretch when the water is lower than about 300 cfs on the Steelville gauge and 500 cfs on the Sullivan gauge.  Most riffles are easily runnable, but log jams, split channels, and a few very rocky riffles will be serious problems for the inexperienced.  The rocky riffles are the most dangerous to your boat and yourself.  There are really bad ones about a mile or so downstream of Bird's Nest, about two miles downstream from Onondaga, and right below Sand Ford (that one got me a few years ago), as well as a couple miles downstream of Sand Ford.  Split channels and log jams are scattered throughout.

Gasconade above Jerome is runnable at 600 cfs on the Jerome gauge, up to the mouth of the Big Piney.  Actually I've found the scariest spots on that stretch to be in long, shallow flats that have a few scattered rocks--if the light is wrong and the wind is riffling the water, you simply can't see rocks in the middle of those flats.  The Piney adds a lot of water to the Gasconade, and it often isn't easily runnable above the Piney.

Basically, larger, wider rivers like the Gasconade below the mouth of the Big Piney and the Meramec below the mouth of the Huzzah need to be flowing at least 800 cfs to be comfortable for the novice.  Narrower rivers like the lower end of the Big Piney, the Gasconade above the Piney, Big River, and the Bourbeuse can appear comfortably runnable if the flow is above about 500 cfs--the narrower channels mean that the same flows will result in deeper riffles.  But the narrower streams are also more likely to be log-jammed and require more maneuvering, and maneuvering a jetboat on plane requires a steep learning curve.