Anyone have any experience with tunnel jet jon boats with jet drives? Thinking of getting one next year for fishing the Cedar & Shell Rock because they get so shallow during the summer and fall. Any advice, likes, dislikes, how they handle cold weather (30s).
Thx, Kyle
Tunnel Jet Boats with Jet Drives
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jighead-two
- Posts: 314
- Joined: January 21st, 2010, 12:13 am
Re: Tunnel Jet Boats with Jet Drives
Save your money, there aren't any fish in either of those rivers!
Re: Tunnel Jet Boats with Jet Drives
My first time posting on your forum but thought I'd share.
I ran a jet a lot in Alaska. They will get you into real skinny water for sure but only if you're up on plane. They don't do so well if your going slow. They suck up everything in sight. Not a bad deal if the river bottom is rock but just terrible if you have any moss, grass, weeds in the water. If that's what you would be running in then you would constantly be lifting the motor and cleaning off the grate. And that happens a whole lot. Even small rocks get sucked up and jammed in the grate and you have to stop the motor, lift it out of the water, lean out over the backend and pry out the debris, drop the motor back in the water, start it and get back up on plane before drifting downstream into any log jams, bends or anything else in the river. I have even had them suck up chunks of floating bark and cut down the motors ability to keep the boat on plane.
They work great in the right waters (Alaska's Lake Creek River and the Yentna River, don't have weeds or moss in excess like we do around here), which is where we ran them up there. They do run some real skinny water for sure. We would typically run a 18' flat bottom with a 40hp. Yamaha jet loaded with 4 full sized guys in 12" of water and just yourself in the same boat in only 4-6" of water. But suck up any debris or small rocks and it was: stop, clean out the grate and then get back up on plane.
Now on the fun part of running them....... They are a hoot to run, first off, most of the time you are standing up braced against the transom with your calves and power sliding around corners, rocks or log jams. Its a rush for sure. Hope this helps a little.....
crawler
I ran a jet a lot in Alaska. They will get you into real skinny water for sure but only if you're up on plane. They don't do so well if your going slow. They suck up everything in sight. Not a bad deal if the river bottom is rock but just terrible if you have any moss, grass, weeds in the water. If that's what you would be running in then you would constantly be lifting the motor and cleaning off the grate. And that happens a whole lot. Even small rocks get sucked up and jammed in the grate and you have to stop the motor, lift it out of the water, lean out over the backend and pry out the debris, drop the motor back in the water, start it and get back up on plane before drifting downstream into any log jams, bends or anything else in the river. I have even had them suck up chunks of floating bark and cut down the motors ability to keep the boat on plane.
They work great in the right waters (Alaska's Lake Creek River and the Yentna River, don't have weeds or moss in excess like we do around here), which is where we ran them up there. They do run some real skinny water for sure. We would typically run a 18' flat bottom with a 40hp. Yamaha jet loaded with 4 full sized guys in 12" of water and just yourself in the same boat in only 4-6" of water. But suck up any debris or small rocks and it was: stop, clean out the grate and then get back up on plane.
Now on the fun part of running them....... They are a hoot to run, first off, most of the time you are standing up braced against the transom with your calves and power sliding around corners, rocks or log jams. Its a rush for sure. Hope this helps a little.....
crawler