New To Jet Boats

[Al Agnew]

Thalweg, even though I own one, I think much along the same lines as you. I'd happily sell mine to somebody in a less enlightened state if they were ever banned on Ozark streams. But it ain't gonna happen. Way too many people own them now. The time to put controls on horsepower and limitations on where you could run them was back in the 1980s when they first appeared on the scene, but nobody had the foresight to do it back then.

I don't push the envelope with mine. I don't run it on some of the marginally jetboatable streams where I probably could, especially given the experience I now have with mine and the knowledge of what I can and can't do. I avoid the popular canoe stretches of rivers like the Meramec in the summer. Mine isn't a real big high horsepower model, either. And I use it strictly for fishing--I don't joy-ride up and down the river, ever. As a canoeist for many years, I've been on the bad end of jetboat joyriders way too many times. If you're on the river and see me go by, you'll only see me do it once because I'm either heading up to where I plan to start fishing for the day and drifting back down, or heading back up to the access after drifting downstream and fishing. I'm ALWAYS aware of the intrusiveness of a loud, high speed, high wake boat on other river users, and minimize it as much as possible. And it scares me half to death to think about running up a narrow riffle with limited visibility and coming upon kids swimming in the river, so I'm always extremely cautious when using mine, especially in the summer.

[ducksbit]

I have been a canoeist for years, but decided to try something else. I have been boating since I was a little kid and I have already used the jet about 20 times on the mississippi river just getting used to the handling and stopping. I only bought it to carry a few more people than a canoe and to make short day trips that aren't possible with canoes. The boat is only a 60 hp in reality, it only does a little under 30 mph.

[Bman]

Thalweg, I share Al's sentiments. Please don't toss all jet boaters into the same bunch, just because of some bad apples. I've been in a canoe up around Onondaga and had some dude with a 225 hp jet john buzzing me within feet of my canoe and daring me to call water patrol.

We are not all like that.