Bass Club Digest

“There are people waving their arms and trying to warn me about stuff and here I am going 50 miles per hour over the top of it,” said Bower. “I don’t have to waste my time idling out of a 2-mile long cove.”

When he prefished for a championship at Pittsburgh, Pa., Darin Doll discovered the best fishing was in the Youghiogheny River, a shallow river filled with gravel shoals. The York County Bass Club member knew he wouldn’t be able to run up the river with his 21-foot Nitro fiberglass boat, so he borrowed an aluminum boat from a friend. The switch paid off as Doll won the championship by running through the Youghiogheny’s shoals to reach pools filled with smallmouth bass.

Borrowing an aluminum boat from a friend also helped Abe Kalechman win a championship on the Connecticut River. The Tobacco Valley Bass Anglers club member had no problem running in shallows where no conventional bass boat could run to reach unpressured fish.

These three anglers could run through standing timber or over shoals without worrying about tearing up their boats because they all were running jet-driven outboard motors. Commonly called “jet boats”, these shallow-running boats are powered by an outboard or inboard motor equipped with a pump and nozzle assembly rather than a traditional propeller. “On an outboard, a jet is a turbine system,” says Jeff McMillen of Troutt & Sons, a boat dealership in St. James, Mo. “It pulls in water from the bottom through the intake and turns a turbine and when it releases the water, it propels the boat.”

Jet boats are ideal options for bass club anglers who do most of their fishing on rivers or shallow stump-filled impoundments. Bower used to fish Red Man tournaments out of his fiberglass boat on the big lakes, but switched to a jet boat for river fishing about 12 years ago. “I got to the point where I couldn’t run with the big guys anymore so I decided to stick around the home waters and fish the Gasconade and Osage rivers,” recalls Bower.

“The jet boats are the only way to fish those rivers, especially when they are low.”

The Linn, Mo., angler runs the rivers with a 21-foot Weldcraft aluminum boat powered by a 300-hp Yamaha outboard that allows him to run in about 1 inch of water at full speed. With the jet drive, he never has to worry about tearing up a lower unit while running through thin water or timber. “They are almost indestructible,” suggests Bower.

“You can get a stick hung up in them and all you have to do is pry the stick out and you are back going again. If you wedge a stick in a prop you are going to bust an ear off.”

During his championship run on the Youghiogheny, Doll skimmed over shoals about 2 inches deep with an Xpress 1756 VJ model. The lightweight aluminum boat also allowed him to drift fish in extremely shallow water. “A lot of boats are heavy and they will sink down 4 to 6 inches when you stop, but that Xpress stayed only about 1 inch under the water.” The Xpress boat also had a center console so Doll could stand up to get a better view for shooting through rapids.

Low maintenance is another advantage of running a jet boat. “All you have to do is grease the pump bearing (attached to the crankshaft) every other trip,” suggests McMillen. If the motor sucks up some gravel, you might have to sharpen the stainless steel impeller blade with a file, grinder or sander.

The cost of jet boats is also appealing to bass club anglers. Bower suggests an aluminum bass boat with a jet drive outboard can be purchased for one-third to one-half the price of a conventional fiberglass rig.

Seven bass clubs in Bower’s part of the state hold tournaments on the Gasconade, Osage and Meramec rivers where jet boats are a must. Bower is a member of the Gasconade Bass Club, which holds tournaments at various access areas on the three area rivers and three events at the Lake of the Ozarks. During one club event at the St. Thomas access on the Osage River, three club members fished out of fiberglass boats, but the rest relied on jet boats. “The jet boats were limited to a lock and dam that was 30 miles down river and Bagnell Dam (at Lake of the Ozarks) which is 55 miles up river,” says Bower. “So we had a long way to go whereas those other guys had only a few spots near the ramp to fish.”

Centrally located in a river region, Troutt & Sons, Inc., sells about 50 jet boats a year.

“We sell more jets than anything,” says McMillen, who estimates the dealership sold about 20 jet boats to members from three local bass clubs last year. The business also sold jet boats to some Illinois anglers who fish stump-filled impoundments in their home state. McMillan owns two jet boats and is a member of the Meramec Bass Club, which schedules 10 tournaments a year on the Meramec, Osage and Gasconade rivers along with Lake of the Ozarks and Pomme de Terre Lake.

When competing in a club tournament at Lake of the Ozarks or Truman Lake, Bower still uses his jet boat, which comes in handy when he wants to run up shallow tributaries and feeder creeks. However, his jet boat usually runs at a disadvantage on the wide, open waters of an impoundment.
“Whenever you are in rough water and it catches air you are pretty much sitting in the water dead,” he warns. The choppy water prevents the propulsion system from working properly so the boat loses power.

Jet boats can also be a disadvantage to club anglers if they have to make a long run to reach their favorite spot.

“You might be able to go in shallower places but you are going half the speed,” advises Bower.

Propulsion from propeller outboards is about 30 to 45 percent higher than jets. Bower estimates his 300-hp jet runs at about the same speed (51 mph on a GPS reading) as a 150 hp outboard with a prop.

While venturing up the Connecticut River during his championship victory, Kalechman could only run 30 miles per hour with his jet rig of a Ranger Cherokee aluminum boat and 65 hp Mercury outboard.

A lack of fuel efficiency is another drawback of a jet boat. On the first competition day of the championship event at Pittsburgh, Doll underestimated the fuel consumption for his trip up the Youghiogheny and ran out of gas on the way back to the weigh-in site. Rather than put a larger tank of gas in the boat—and make the boat heavier—Doll decided to run the boat at three-quarter throttle the next two days to save fuel. Although it took him longer to reach his primary spot, Doll had enough fuel each day to make it back to the ramp without incident.

Letting off the throttle helps Bower run at about 6 miles per gallon. The Missouri angler estimates he gets about 4 miles per gallon when running at full speed. On the 40-mile round trip runs up the Connecticut River, Kalechman’s jet consumed about 12 gallons of gas each day.

Turns can be a problem for an inexperienced jet boat operator. “There is no keel,” warns Kalechman. “It is a flat-bottom boat. So if you are going as fast as it goes and you cut the wheel it will just completely spin around.”
Slowing down will make the boat turn easier. “The steering is fine whenever you are running straight,” says Bower, “but when you want to turn, you always want to back off on the throttle in the turn and then goose it a little bit.”

Although a jet boat can run at high speed in the shallows, it has to shut down in deeper water. “Make sure you know exactly where you are at when you are coming off plane to idle,” warns Doll. “You have to be in a little deeper water to set it down because if you don’t, you are going to bang up the boat.” The jet also tends to suck up gravel into the intake if the boat slows down in shallow water.

Aquatic vegetation can also be a nemesis to jet boats. “They are very bad in weeds if you are idling, but if you are running you will run right through them and blow them out because there is so much pressure going through one of these things that it sends the weeds right on through,” says Bower.
Despite these drawbacks, a jet boat is still the logical choice for any bass club angler who wants to run shallower than any conventional bass boat can run. Outboard jet engines range in horsepower from 25 hp to 300 hp and are available in nearly all lines of Yamaha, Mercury and Evinrude motors. Some of the companies manufacturing aluminum jet boat rigs ranging from 17 to 21 feet long include AlWeld, Blazer, Xpress, Alumacraft and Weldcraft.

McMillen lists 17- to 18-foot jet boats with 52- to 56-inch bottoms as the most popular sellers at Troutt & Sons. The best jet boats are constructed with either a true flat bottom or a 6-degree v-hull. McMillen recommends an 18- to 19-foot aluminum boat with a semi-v hull and a 150 to 250 hp outboard for bass club anglers looking for a jet boat that will allow them to run long distances on rivers.

A trolling motor with plenty of thrust is also essential for a jet boat used in river systems. Bower recommends equipping a jet boat with a trolling motor that has a 24- or 36-volt system and a minimum of 70 pounds of thrust. “You can’t stay out in the current all the time though (with a 70-pound thrust motor), you would have to get back behind eddies a lot,” advises Bower. “Most river systems have anywhere from 7 to 12 miles per hour flow and you really need a big trolling motor.” The Missouri angler can stay out in the current longer since his boat is equipped with a Minn Kota Maxxum featuring 101 pounds of thrust.

Any bass club anglers who prefer finding bass in skinny water should consider a jet boat. It will take them to hot spots that other tournament competitors are unable to reach.

Loaner plan

Borrowing a jet boat for a specific tournament is a viable alternative for bass club anglers who already own fiberglass bass boats.

Both Darin Doll and Abe Kalechman borrowed jet boats from friends so they could run up the shallows of rivers to spots that would have been unreachable with their fiberglass rigs. Both club anglers arranged to have the boat owners’ insurance policies cover them when they competed in their championships.

Doll paid $50 for one month on a rider policy which allowed him to be covered by his friend’s insurance company when he prefished and competed in his championship event.

“You have to be insured,” says Doll. “You have to make things right.”

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