Two Killed And A Couple Injured

[SmallyWally]

Flysmallie- I was talking about REVENUE man. Does not matter who or what it is. As long as they (state) can make money off of it. They are the PIMPS of the rivers. Think about it.

[Troutnut69]

The chute this accident happened in is barely wide enough for two boats and it bends pretty hard at the narrowest spot so you can't see what is coming. The only truly safe way to run it would be to shut down on the down river side and listen for on coming boats. I've ran it plenty and I cross my fingers and hope nobody else is coming. It's one of worst spots on the river due to the blind spot. It's also a busy spot due to there being a big gravel bar right below it where people tend to congregate.

Speaking of floaters, I had to shut down in the middle of a chute and hit bottom just to avoid running a group of them over. They had the whole chute clogged and you could 't see them till it was already shallow. Had this happened in a few others areas in particular, I would have been having to push my boat off of gravel. I wouldn't be surprised to hear about an accident where a floater is struck by a jet boat one of these days. The lower the river gets, the riskier things get for everybody. I think you are crazy to float the Gasconade anywhere below Jerome or even highway 28 above there due to all the jet boat traffic. I know I sure won't so it regardless of having a jet boat.

So let me get this right , as a floater I should avoid all skinny water areas with blind spots. And if I do find myself in these areas I should drop what I'm doing and pull my watercraft out of the water and stand on shore so as to avoid you running me over (or worse yet , get your beloved jet stuck on a shallow shoal). The way I see it , if you can't navigate a narrow , twisty section of river without running balls to the wall you probably shouldn't have that watercraft on said body of water. Sounds like common sense...I know. I'm sure there are rivers in Missouri suited for jets but on most of the waters we're discussing here they're nothing but an accident waiting to happen. Kind of like me choosing to drive a truck down a bike trail , and being afraid to slow down because I might get stuck!

[Flysmallie]

Flysmallie- I was talking about REVENUE man.

Oh was I talking about something else? You are just not picking up what I'm laying down.

It's all good though, I've grown rather bored with this topic anyways.

[Seth]

I never said that a boat runs on free gas. I used to fish out of a bass boat all the time so I know that it gets expensive, probably more than the 30 to 40 bucks that you said. But most of the people in canoes out there have dropped 40 bucks on a canoe rental and there are a lot more canoes out there.

But I'm not against the fisherman like you Seth. Most of the time they are very courteous. The ones that drive me crazy are the pleasure jetters that just run back and forth up and down the river. I guess they are having fun but it looks boring as hell to me.

But guess what, I just don't float where a lot of jet boats will be. I love the Gasconade but there is a lot of water above jet territory. And I absolutely refuse to ever go on the Current again. That's the only place that I have ever had a real problem with jets.

You and I are on the same page here. We both have issues with the pleasure jetters taking over the rivers. We also both agree that it's better to go farther up river out of jet boat territory to float. I'm glad somebody understood my point of view.

So let me get this right , as a floater I should avoid all skinny water areas with blind spots. And if I do find myself in these areas I should drop what I'm doing and pull my watercraft out of the water and stand on shore so as to avoid you running me over (or worse yet , get your beloved jet stuck on a shallow shoal). The way I see it , if you can't navigate a narrow , twisty section of river without running balls to the wall you probably shouldn't have that watercraft on said body of water. Sounds like common sense...I know. I'm sure there are rivers in Missouri suited for jets but on most of the waters we're discussing here they're nothing but an accident waiting to happen. Kind of like me choosing to drive a truck down a bike trail , and being afraid to slow down because I might get stuck!

You don't have to avoid them at all but just keep in mind that a jet boat only has one path through some of those areas when the water is low. That means don't stretch your convoy of floaters across the river in these areas when you can easily line up and keep on floating like you have been while still allowing boats to get through. It's for your own safety and courtesy to the boaters. There is only a few spots like this and 99% of the river is wide enough for floaters to spread out with plenty of room for boats to go around. All it comes down to is being safe an courteous so that everybody can enjoy the river. Nobody wants an accident and in those situations, the floaters have more control over the situation. That's just my opinion.

I wouldn't consider the middle Gasconade a "bike trail" by any means. It's much larger than a lot of the waters you all are referring to.

[Al Agnew]

Since I'm nearly always floating popular rivers only during the week or in cool to cold weather, I don't have to deal with the rental craft congestion, either. But I tend to look at these issues to some extent from the standpoint of what it's doing to the resource. A conflict between users seldom has one right and one wrong, but the impact to the resource itself, the streams, is more quantifiable and comparable. All those hordes of rental canoe, kayak, raft, and tube floaters are certainly obnoxious, but their impact is for the most part temporary. Yep, they pee in the water a lot and they litter the river and shoreline, but the litter can be and periodically is cleaned up. However, the constant pounding of the banks by the wakes of big, high speed watercraft has a cumulative and permanent effect. The bigger rivers have wider and shallower riffles and even pools than they did pre-jetboats. Also, it can't be good to disturb the bottom in the way that jetboats do in shallow water, up to 18 inches deep. On another board, it was recently noted that a big inboard jet at wide open throttle has 800 lbs of suction at the intake, water comes out of the nozzle at 80mph, and it moves roughly 46.67 gallons of water per second. In my opinion, the jetboat crowd has a greater impact than the much larger (so far) rental floating crowd.

There is also the safety factor. Some drunk in a raft is dangerous only to themselves. Some drunk in a jetboat is dangerous to everybody else on the river.

[405z06]

But guess what, I just don't float where a lot of jet boats will be. I love the Gasconade but there is a lot of water above jet territory. And I absolutely refuse to ever go on the Current again. That's the only place that I have ever had a real problem with jets.

No joke! I have only floated the Current 1 time, from Round Spring to Two Rivers on a 4th of July Weekend (!!!!) last year. This is federally protected river. Gorgeous. But I have never seen so many jet boats in my life (and I often float the Meramec on Summer weekends, for the record). It made me sick to my stomach, I thought I was going to be out in some protected, wild wilderness, and it was like an interstate instead.

I don't want to exaggerate, but I probably saw 40 jets on that float. Exactly one (1) of them had a trolling motor. These were all pleasure boaters, similar to the flock at Lake Of the Ozarks. LOTS of young kids as owners. I think they give away a Blazer SS with a 40HP Merc upon graduating from 10th grade.

I have stated it before, but I would be thrilled if they banned jets on our rivers. Knowing that will never happen, I think they should restrict Jet usage on our Ozark rivers. No jets, for example, above Sappington Bridge on the Meramec ( or maybe Onandoga). Perhaps no jets on any ONSR protected water?

[Flysmallie]

No joke! I have only floated the Current 1 time, from Round Spring to Two Rivers on a 4th of July Weekend (!!!!) last year. This is federally protected river. Gorgeous. But I have never seen so many jet boats in my life (and I often float the Meramec on Summer weekends, for the record). It made me sick to my stomach, I thought I was going to be out in some protected, wild wilderness, and it was like an interstate

Yep that's the exact section I'm talking about. And don't let the holiday weekend fool you. It's that way every weekend. Just plain dangerous and those fools don't give two shits about canoers. Had one of our guys get hit twice by a jet on one weekend. Both were minor bumps but one almost swamped him and that one was a law enforcement boat. Beautiful place but I don't miss it.

[fishinwrench]

Now that the the MOHP is throwing hiway guys into boats with minimal training I'd be darn careful of any water patrol jet boats.

[ALLSTAR1]

Is a hp limit an option that might be acceptable to both sides in this issue? Or is that just begging the issue. If anyone wants to vote I would vote for that. Or second a ban.

[Al Agnew]

A horsepower limit, if low enough, would help with safety issues, but not with resource damage issues. Wakes are pretty similar no matter the horsepower; in fact, some really fast boats probably throw less of a wake.

Of course, it ain't gonna happen anyway. Far too many people that already own high horsepower boats and far too many boat dealers wanting to sell more of them.