Can Anyone Give Me A Quick Rundown On Outboard Jets?

[LittleRedFisherman]

The heck with that, convince her that you need to keep the other boat for use on the Buffalo and get the jet for the other rivers

Ha Ha, I love it!

Jason, i'll second Grizs advice on the Little Red. The only time I have trouble on that river, is when 2 unit just get to ya. I stopped up my water system last year, but I was way down past Lobo, on 2 unit water I fish I put in a JFK with no problems, water is a lot cleaner..

[Seth]

1) Check how many shims are below the impeller and the lock nut. If there are several, then your impeller has a lot of life left in it. There should be 1/32" of clearance between the liner and the impeller. Pulling the impeller and sharpening is easy. Outboard jets recommends sharpening from the bottom (as it sits in the motor) but I've had better luck sharpening from the top (as it sits in the motor). A guy on tinboats.net who tweaks smaller jets for peak performance recommended this method and it worked great!

2) Give the grease fitting on the jet a few squirts of lube (the owner should have some handy if they use this boat at all) and make sure water doesn't come out. If so, the bearing seals are wore out and will need replaced soon. My first boat leaked a little and I just greased it up after every trip on the water for a few years and it held up fine. As long as the water doesn't sit in there for extended periods of time you should be ok. Greasing it after each trip purges any water.

Jets are very simple to maintain. The hardest part about driving one is when you are idling around. You learn to compensate when steering at slow speeds like when loading a boat. After you do it a few times, you won't think anything of it but you will probably look like you've never driven a boat before the first few times.

I run an 1860 semi V Legend SS with a 150/105 Evinrude Etec and I love my jet rig for river fishing!

[Jason R.]

Thanks fellas- I really appreciate the advice. A jet of some sort is definitely my next boat. Problem is (as always) cash flow- man these jet boats go for some serious money! My current rig isn't bad for the Little Red on low water but the sides are so low it gets pretty gnarly if there is any sort of wake, chop or serious current- and of course having a prop really limits where you can go with low water.

[fishinwrench]

I have a standing issue with jets, and it is that for fishing purposes I prefer to move along slow enough to study the stretch of water I'm on, and I also prefer to wade and fish IF the water is shallow enough.

I can easily run knee-deep water with a prop outboard, and when it gets ankle deep it's not a huge inconvenience to just step out and walk the boat over the shoal. I usually intend to fish the head and tail of most shoals anyway so it works out just fine.

I guess if I didn't have any intentions on picking up a rod until I was 6-8 miles up/down from the place where I launched then I would prefer a jet. But usually I can launch closer than that to the places I want to fish.

Water is always deeper than it looks, and I haven't destroyed a prop in over 15 years (knock on wood)

I've also caught a bunch of river fish in my no-jet owning years. Just as many as I would have caught if I had been running a jet all these years I think, and possibly more since I am forced to slow down in all the truly good spots.

[Jason R.]

I have a standing issue with jets, and it is that for fishing purposes I prefer to move along slow enough to study the stretch of water I'm on, and I also prefer to wade and fish IF the water is shallow enough.

I can easily run knee-deep water with a prop outboard, and when it gets ankle deep it's not a huge inconvenience to just step out and walk the boat over the shoal. I usually intend to fish the head and tail of most shoals anyway so it works out just fine.

I guess if I didn't have any intentions on picking up a rod until I was 6-8 miles up/down from the place where I launched then I would prefer a jet. But usually I can launch closer than that to the places I want to fish.

Water is always deeper than it looks, and I haven't destroyed a prop in over 15 years (knock on wood)

I've also caught a bunch of river fish in my no-jet owning years. Just as many as I would have caught if I had been running a jet all these years I think, and possibly more since I am forced to slow down in all the truly good spots.

Again, some sage advice. I have been doing just what you do- dragging through the shoals. I haven't hit my new prop yet but I have hit rocks with the skeg. Odds are this boat will sell before I can get a chance to check it out. I also am concerned that I wouldn't like how loud a 30 hp 2 stroke jet would be. I hear them on the river pretty often and they are a bit obnoxious. I probably just need a different boat to conquer most of my issues- low sides, tippiness, lack of space etc. Although my little boat is super easy to maneuver and handle.

[Seth]

Jet's may be loud and obnoxious, but when you need to cover a lot of water with a lot of shallow water in between your holes, it's the right tool for the job without a doubt! If you can make due with a prop, then by all means stick with the prop. They are far more efficient and easier to drive at low speeds than a jet. If you are serious about fishing a lot of rivers, I'd highly recommend the jet though. You can cover 20 miles of river in a day no problem with a jet setup versus a couple miles if you were constantly dragging a prop rig. I'd be lost without my jet boat!

The biggest annoyance with jet boats is the pleasure jetters that swarm the rivers during the warm months. As a jet boat loving fishermen, that drives me crazy! They are equivalent us river rats as the cruisers are to the lake anglers on LoZ.

[fishinwrench]

Yeah I find it harder and harder to be cordial when I'm fishing a shoal area and a jet comes blasting thru.

With my little 15 prop I can idle down, or stop if need be, and keep from disturbing everything and ruining somebody's day.

A lot of jet guys seem to be appalled at the thought of getting their shoes wet. They just shrug thier shoulders as they blow the piss out of a riffle as if to say "Hey sorry but I CAN'T shut it down here".

Well, yeah you could have....But you bought a jet so that you wouldn't have to, so you don't. I get it.

[BilletHead]

Well Wrench my friend I'm not physically able to drag the shoals anymore. That and there are not many people where I go, that and you won't be there unless you go with me will you? That and still no boat yet, that and I am still working on it and you may not want to go in a four stroke boat motor? I said that a bunch and that is that

[Al Agnew]

A jet isn't the be-all and end-all of river fishing...far from it. You can fish a lot of water efficiently with it, but there is also a lot of water that you can't fish as effectively as the wading angler or somebody who is paddling; such as fast water areas where the only water deep enough to run the trolling motor is the only water where the fish are. And while the jet allows you to cover a lot of water, there's only so much of a 20 mile stretch that you have time to fish in a day, so although the jet gets you from one "good" spot to the next, you're also zooming right by a lot of water that holds fish.

Jets have two advantages. One is, you can put in, run upstream or drift downstream as far as you want to fish in a day, and then get back to the same access. The other is, you can zoom over a lot of water that IS unproductive in the winter. In fact, the ONLY time I use my jetboat is from mid-October to mid-April. It never sees the water during the warmer months. The rivers you can run one on are simply not my most productive summertime rivers, and I don't want to have to worry about canoes and kayaks and swimmers and tubers and wading anglers. On the other hand, the canoes seldom see the water during the cold months, because the jetboatable rivers ARE better fishing then, and it's difficult to impossible to find somebody to shuttle you for a float trip when the canoe rental places are closed for the season.

[Kcdangler]

I've got a Johnson 25 /2 stroke ona Lowe 16 ft I love it I still drag shoals once Ina while but it goes everywhere look at the front of the boot and the grate use a mirror to look at the liner and impeller look for general wear you cover a lot of water been using it on rivers in ks mo and ark.