Navigating "The Big Drop," with a jet

[Keiththom]

I kayaked down this stretch of river once. It's a section about two miles upriver from the Riverton access. With a Kayak it's not bad. It's actually very fun. Today I had to navigate it with my jet, which made me a tad nervous. Going upriver was easier than going down. Lot's of water spray both directions. Going down I did hear a hit to my motor or boat but never could see where I might have touched rock. I'm pretty conservative with this boat and don't want to damage it. Not sure if I'll try navigating it again or not?

Is there anyone here that does it regularly that has tips on how to navigate this stretch safely?

I only fished briefly but managed to haul in one decent smallie on a jerkbait.

[jdmidwest]

I don't run it.  If camping at Riverton, I will run up and float down from Hall's Bay Shoal.  Or I will put in at Whitten and run up and down from there.

That one is a bugger.  The run to the right below the shoal was a channel that you could run, but its a dry private riverbed now.  It stopped up many years ago.

Running up, the forces of the current pull the nose down and create problems.  Under normal river conditions and stages.  Same as going down over it.  There is a big rock in the middle of the main flow.

Maybe, with something other than a 25 hp and a really light boat, its doable.  They do run it from time to time.

[Gavin]

Check the river guage to see the CFS flow and river level. Add 6” of level and your probably fine.

[jdmidwest]

7 hours ago, Gavin said:

Check the river guage to see the CFS flow and river level. Add 6” of level and your probably fine.

Have you made it in jet boat?

[Keiththom]

After doing it once, I doubt I'll ever do it again. Too much risk. I could see a jet boat sinking there.

It's a little bit of a shame where they placed the boat ramp at Riverton because if you put in there, you can only go two miles upstream without hitting this falls. And I prefer to put in and fish upstream, NOT downstream. That way if you run into trouble, it's easier getting back. And there's some great smallie stretches above Bose Mill!

[steve l]

We used to camp on the island formed by Halls Bay and the channel jd mentioned.  Best float campsite we have ever had, doing two nights there for quite a number of years.  The view of the rapid, good fishing, the kids would go up & down the rapid on air mattresses many times.  Staying there one year a jet went screaming up that side channel and missed a turn and ended up going into and up the bank a bit.  Luckily no one hurt - which allows us to laugh about that to this day.

Not even sure we could pull canoes in there anymore - the closing of that side channel really changed to flow over the rapid.  Plus those were a string of very dry years.  Heck, we were able to walk across to the other bank a few years.  It's inneresting to see how much that bank there past the gravel has eroded away since then as well.

[jdmidwest]

That could have been us.  We crunched the front of the boat first trip down at the curve in that chute.  We backed off throttle after that.

His first time out in the boat and he thought wot was only way to run it an keep shallow.