How far up can a boat with a prop go?

[MoFisher22]

Recently bought an aluminum bass tracker with a 25hp on it. Mostly going to be putting it on Truman but I was wondering how far up river I could make it? Bell Chutes? I know it depends on specific water level at the time but I was just curious if any of you could help me out. TIA

[45acp]

Where are you putting in?

At normal flow levels your chances of getting to Bell Chute with a prop are slim and none.

There are shoals on the Gasconade that will make a jet drive suck rocks.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I say no go at Belle Chutes too.  It's not as much the shoals but the real skinny water above them that gets real shallow.  

[fishinwrench]

It only takes knee deep water to safely run a prop outboard.  You just have to run it slowly a few times until you learn where to go.   

Go ahead and smack the prop (lightly) a few times so you can get a feel for what prop smacking water truly looks like.    You'll be surprised at how shallow you can run.   And it's really not a big deal to hop out and pull over a shoal on the way up.  No worries on the way back down.... just raise the motor and drift over it.

[45acp]

41 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

And it's really not a big deal to hop out and pull over a shoal on the way up.

25 years ago I would have agreed with you on that.  My boat-dragging days are over.

[snagged in outlet 3]

49 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

It only takes knee deep water to safely run a prop outboard.  You just have to run it slowly a few times until you learn where to go.   

Go ahead and smack the prop (lightly) a few times so you can get a feel for what prop smacking water truly looks like.    You'll be surprised at how shallow you can run.   And it's really not a big deal to hop out and pull over a shoal on the way up.  No worries on the way back down.... just raise the motor and drift over it.

At normal flows some of that boat dragging is going to be a long haul.  

[fishinwrench]

48 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

At normal flows some of that boat dragging is going to be a long haul.  

This old creampuff here made ALOT of river miles.   

Zero busted lower units, and only one trashed prop. 

[MoFisher22]

Thanks for all the help guys I really appreciate it. I’m 26 and in decent shape so I probably will experiment with the dragging although the boat mentioned above does look like it’s probably quite a bit lighter than mine. I’ve only floated the gasconade in my kayak and never went below Jerome in an effort to stay away from jet boats. I guess my question now is how close to the confluence with the Missouri is there still a stable smallmouth population? Assuming at some point it becomes a LM/Spots. 

[jdmidwest]

On 4/22/2020 at 4:45 PM, fishinwrench said:

This old creampuff here made ALOT of river miles.   

Zero busted lower units, and only one trashed prop. 

Lol. That's a long shaft too.

 

[fishinwrench]

5 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

Lol. That's a long shaft too.

 

You're used to seeing a lower cowling (makes the shaft look shorter).   That's a 17" shaft, and you can see I have it shimmed up 3/4".  

Those old small diameter prop motors are the best for running shallow rocky rivers. With the motor tilted up you can run them in 10" of water and still pull cooling water.