Jetboat Pros And Cons

[Al Agnew]

We got to talking about jetboats on a thread in the new smallmouth section, which was a major thread hijacking. I thought I'd put my thoughts in here instead of continuing it in a thread that didn't say "jetboat" in the title...

First a little history. I floated and fished the Meramec River religiously during the late 1970s and the 1980s. Until about 1985, it was probably the best river in MO for big smallmouth. I didn't fish it in the winter back then, but all throughout the summer you could go anywhere from Steelville to the mouth of the Bourbeuse, and even well below there, and expect to catch one or two over 18 inches every time.

I saw my first jetboat on the Meramec sometime around 1980. I heard it coming for miles. It was a huge johnboat with an auto engine sitting in the middle of it, big exhaust pipes sticking up in the air, obviously no muffler. The thing literally shook leaves off the trees over the water as it went by me. I thought to myself that I hoped I'd never see anything like that again.

But by the mid-1980s, jetboats were becoming popular on the Meramec and other rivers. I absolutely hated them. Before the advent of jetboats, you never saw a boat with a motor on the Meramec except right around the accesses or occasionally in the vicinity of a cabin on the river, and it was always a small johnboat with a motor of less than ten horsepower. Most days the river was motorless.

Now there were other things going on along the Meramec at that time. The non-native spotted bass had invaded the river by then, and were well established below the mouth of the Bourbeuse, with a few beginning to show up between St. Clair and the Bourbeuse. The canoe rental business was booming. There weren't as many river dorks yet; you could only rent canoes, and if for no other reason, a lot of people weren't willing to risk their boom boxes in a canoe, so it wasn't quite so much the party atmosphere. And the weekdays were still pretty quiet, with only the weekends in good weather likely to be crowded. So an angler could certainly find peaceful fishing, and even on weekends you could avoid the crowds by putting in at daybreak and staying ahead of most of them all day.

What I first noticed about the proliferation of jetboats was that few people were using them to fish. Most were just running up and down the river. And I immediately saw what I thought could be an environmental problem with them, and that was the wakes, which were capable of muddying the whole river on crowded weekends.

Within a period of two or three years in the mid-80s when jetboats got popular, I noticed something very disquieting about the fishing. Suddenly, where before I would average 50 or so bass in a day of floating, I was now averaging about 20-25. But, I was still catching close to the usual numbers of large fish. It was like suddenly the little ones weren't there. Something appeared to be affecting the spawn, and I was sure I knew what it was. It was those jetboat wakes. Bass on these rivers usually spawn in relatively shallow water, close to the bank, in gentle current. That was exactly the places the wakes were affecting the most, those places along the bank where the water was shallow and the current not strong enough to move the silt away quickly. Bass have to keep their eggs clear of silt, and it seemed to be a losing battle with the constant pounding of the banks by big wakes on weekends. It also seemed possible to me that the commotion alone could be running bass off the beds.

I discounted the idea that it could be something else, because I saw no such decline in the numbers of fish I caught on the smaller, non-boatable streams I fished.

At about this same time, other people were raising concerns about jetboats. MDC supposedly addressed the impact of these boats on the resource in a well-publicized study on Current River, but in actuality the study did not even come close to addressing the problem of those wakes. All the study did was set up a test area in shallow water on Current River, sample the various bottom organisms and other life in that area, and then run both prop boats and jetboats over it, re-sampling the life in it and the disturbances to the gravel on the bottom. To nobody's surprise, they found more disruption from prop boats than jetboats. Duh. The outboard prop was closer to the bottom and stirred it up a lot more, as any fool could tell you. And that was the extent of the study, which was cited over and over again when the Missouri legislature was actually considering some kind of controls on jetboats. Jetboats? No problem!

Of course, the study did not address the effect of wakes on areas near the banks. It did not consider the fact that while one jetboat may not be any more, and possibly less, damaging than one prop boat, the problem is that there were now a hundred jetboats running a section of river that might have seen a couple of prop boats before. It was the cumulative effect that would be the problem, not the technology in itself.

The legislature was more concerned about the conflicts between jetboaters and other river users, and the possible dangers of these high speed craft operating in close proximity to canoeists and swimmers. There were other concerns raised, such as the effect of the wakes on banks, with possible erosion caused by them. But in the end, the legislature declined to do anything whatsoever about the proliferation of jetboats.

It got to where I didn't bother to fish the Meramec at all for several years. The steep decline in the numbers of young fish had finally turned into a decline just as steep in the bigger ones, since the little ones weren't there anymore to grow big. And during this time, the crowded conditions on many reservoirs began to turn some serious reservoir bass anglers to rivers and river tournaments, now made convenient by the use of jetboats. The fishing pressure on the bigger rivers multiplied. Understand, however, that it wasn't fishing pressure that caused the decline in bass numbers; that happened before the mass of new jetboat anglers. Remember that during the first few years of their popularity, not many people used jetboats for fishing. And remember that the decline started with small fish, which would not be the case if fishing pressure was the cause--in that case, the bigger fish would have declined first.

Fast forward to the present. Except for sections of the Current, Jacks Fork, and Eleven Point, the only "control" of jetboats is the guts of the people running them. Not many will run upper sections and smaller rivers except during high water. A few will run sections of smaller rivers, but in most cases they can't run far because of rocky riffles and log jams. But the James, Niangua, Gasconade, Big Piney, Meramec, Big, Black, Current, Eleven Point all see a LOT of jetboat use in lower and middle sections. On summer weekends, it's a zoo on these rivers. Of course, on some, like the middle Meramec, the zoo also contains a huge number of river dorks in canoes, kayaks, rafts, and inner tubes, with the jetboat partiers adding to the commotion. But the middle and lower Gasconade, the lower Niangua below Prosperine, and lower Black have never had all that many rental businesses, and in them the jetboat idiots dominate the dorkage.

And what about the fishing? In my opinion, the bass have to some extent "learned" to exist (and spawn) while dealing with boat wakes. I still think the numbers aren't there the way they were pre-jetboats, but it's possible to have 50 fish days again sometimes. But in the opinion of many, definitely including myself, the jetboats have allowed illegal giggers to have a much greater impact on the numbers of large game fish.

So overall, I think the rivers would have been much better off without jetboats, and looking back, the powers that be, both in MDC and in the state legislature, should have instituted controls on them back when it was possible. In my opinion, horsepower limits should have been put on all the rivers. Many of the motorheads probably wouldn't have gotten into running the rivers if they were limited to 60 horsepower or less--it's the speed that thrills them. Horsepower limits (unless low enough to totally preclude jets) wouldn't have totally addressed the wake issue, but it would have probably limited numbers to some extent (and would have been a little safer for other river users).

It would have been possible back then. Think about this. Most lakes have no wake zones, including areas within a certain number of feet from the banks, to protect the banks from erosion. If these same rules applied to rivers, the use of jetboats would be impossible, because they seldom get MORE than 50 feet from one bank or the other. It would have been easy when there weren't many jetboat owners or dealers to put that kind of rule on, or to limit horsepower, or to make certain sections of rivers off limits to jetboats.

It isn't feasible now. I have more or less learned to live with jetboats. I even own one, and use it mostly in the cold weather months or on the largest downstream sections of the rivers I fish. But I'd get rid of mine with no real qualms if I could wave a magic wand and make them illegal on our Ozark streams. I have no problem with most anglers who use them. They run to where they want to start fishing and then only run them from one good fishing area to the next, they don't buzz up and down the river constantly. The jetboat river dorks who do so are just a subset of the ever-increasing numbers of people who care about the rivers only as party playgrounds, not for the intrinsic value that makes any Ozark stream a truly special place.

[gotmuddy]

When I read the title I was thinking more of a list. I never get on the rivers on the weekends so I dont know how it is, but when I am out on mondays I hardly ever see anyone.

[Greasy B]

“We have met the enemy and he is us”. I own a jet boat and have cringed at times when I needed to be on plane and found myself in proximity to other river users. When the rivers are peopled I try to park the big boat and float creeks.

[Mitch f]

According to the MDC, the biggest problem with our rivers is siltation due to bad land practices. When you add gravel mining, four wheelers, otters, invasive species, cattle and horses, industrial waste, illegal gigging, over harvest, littering, etc. IMO, the jet boats are just another piece of the puzzle that get too much blame. I usually don't take my jet out in the summer because I don't want to interfere with floaters. Heck, I don't even go to the upper end of rivers unless it's flooded. I mainly use it in the winter when it's not practical or safe to go out in a canoe.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Just making sure I am keeping up to speed here.

We want to ban:

Giggers

Jet boats

River Dorks

Live bait users

Meat eaters

Spotted Bass

Non-MSA members. (I was just kidding, don't get any ideas!)

[ColdWaterFshr]

Good one Chief. Thats a good start, but you forgot a-rigs and felt (but thats already been accomplished).

[Al Agnew]

Chief, your post DOES bring up a point I've been thinking about for a while, as does Mitch's post.

I think we have to differentiate between conservation issues and river use/conflict issues, even though some have an element of both. We also have to differentiate between conservation issues that cause permanent or long term damage versus those that only cause short term damage that is easily repaired if they are addressed. If you look at Mitch's list, poor land use practices in the watersheds is causing the kind of long term damage that isn't all that obvious but is insidious. You need look no farther for the reasons some streams are being choked with gravel that bad land use practices in the watershed, both now and in the past. Gravel mining, especially gravel mining in stream, causes both immediate and long term damage. ATV use in the streams is more of a thing that, when it is stopped, the problems go away fairly quickly. Otters...I suspect that they cause long term depression of fish populations in some creeks, especially those that are already suffering from poor land use practices, but I think and hope that they will prove to be a relatively short term problem as they come into balance with their habitat and prey species. Invasive species have varying degrees of impact, but it can be very long term damage. Cattle and horses is another facet of poor land use practices. Industrial waste causes both short term and long term damage. Illegal gigging, overharvest, littering are all short term problems in that, if they could be slowed or stopped, the fish populations would rebound very quickly.

As for your list, except for spotted bass (where they are an invasive species), they are all short term conservation issues and river conflict issues.

Jetboats have an element of all three if you buy into the assertion that their wakes have caused bank erosion, but they are mostly a short term conservation issue and a user conflict issue.

Note that I didn't advocate banning jetboats at this point, though I would have been ecstatic if they had been banned when they first appeared. The technology is inherently intrusive to other river users. But so is a bunch of river dorks no matter what they are using to get down the river. What it all boils down to, really, is as I said somewhere before. We are using these rivers to death. And far too many people are using them just as water parks without rules. One or two jetboats going up the river in the winter are causing few if any problems, but 50 of them buzzing up and down the river on a summer weekend is causing problems for both other users and for the river itself. One or two canoes, kayaks, or rafts drifting down the river on a summer weekday morning are fine, but 400 of them clogging the river on a Saturday is another story entirely. The same can be said of everything on the lists. One landowner clearing off a hillside has a limited impact on the stream below, but 50 of them doing it all over the watershed is having a horrible impact. One illegal gigger is only wiping out a few big gamefish in one small section of river, but 20 of them over 100 miles of river are making a difference.

I started seriously floating and fishing Ozark streams back in the late 1960s. I've seen a lot of both good and bad happen to them since then. But I have to say that it really hurts to see some of the changes. It's that real hurt that causes me to rail against the things I have seen causing it. It wasn't all rosy back 40 years ago. The fishing wasn't as good then as it is now on some of the smaller streams, and in a few cases the pollution was worse. But I experienced the rivers back before the hordes of unfeeling, uncaring, obnoxious people descended upon them, and I miss that. I know you can't turn back the clock and I know I don't have the right to have the river only to myself and those like me who value the beauty and quiet and solitude. But I see nothing but further decline in the experience I go to the river to find as long as the attitudes of so many people are unchanged. One of my greatest fears is that some new technology comes along that allows the dorks to invade the small streams in hordes on some kind of motorized craft, destroying all that's good about the places I can still retreat to now.

[Wayne SW/MO]

There is no way that you can go upstream, against the grain so to speak, in a jet boat and not cause riparian damage. It is what it is. If pollution is bad, construction to close is bad, and mining gravel in the stream bed is bad, you can't ignore the waves undercutting the banks by coming from a direction counter to what is normal.

[Mark]

Very well put, Wayne!! You can't rationalize that "my jet boat doesn't cause as much damage because I use my jet boat responsibly but I am against jet boat owners who use their jet boat irresponsibly". But the genie is already out of the bottle. I hate floating my favorite river on weekends with all the thoughtless jet boat traffic flying up and down the river. Just like the loud fraternity crowds, they have as much right to be on river as me and if I don't like it then I don't have to be on the river.

I have often thought of the erosion damage each and every jet boat causes on each and every trip up and down the river. The accumulative effect over years will be devastating.

My biggest complaint is they break the law when they don't slow down for canoes. I haven't read the law, but I am pretty sure it is against the law to speed by canoes and very few jet props slow down. I have seen countless canoes tip over because of the ways. I have also seen a grandmother with 2 young teenage girls get tipped over in very dangerous rapids and it scared the hell out of all of them besides losing all their stuff, all because a jet prop came screaming upstream with no regard for the canoers.

[ozark trout fisher]

Jet boats are what they are. They're a big part of the reason why I spend 95% of my time fishing smaller streams, and why I don't spend much time on rivers like the 11 Pt. or G'nade even though I love those rivers otherwise. But I am just as annoyed with the party floaters, which is why I don't spend much time on rivers that have canoe rentals...Which pretty much limits most of my (summertime) fishing to marginally floatable and smaller streams, or streams that are not desirable to most for one reason or another.

Not to say that jetboaters or dumb party floaters shouldn't be allowed to do their thing...But I'll just be a curmudgeon and spend my time on the Bourbeuse and other rivers that nobody else likes:)