Different jetboats for different places

[Scottinva]

This site is great. It is cool seeing everybody's jetboats and the different styles for the different areas. I had a few questions for the guys with the Legends, Blazers, etc in the middle of the US. Most of the boats I see on here have a standard seated side console or a tiller. Most boats on the East coast have a center front console or front stick steer. A lot are designed to drive while standing so the driver can see. Do you have issues seeing from the seated position? Also, a lot of them don't have trolling motors - do you not fish out of them? Are they just for cruising or racing? Just curious. All of them on the East coast that I have seen are for fishing and that is about it. Just curious. I like them all.


Scott

 

[minicuda]

Yeah what he said^^^^^
I'm going nutz for these custom flat bottom jets!

 

[moelkhuntr]

Mine has the trolling motor cause my son and I use it for fishing. We have anchors, rod holders, catfish bait in the storage boxes in ours, all the weight we carry extra and weight slows you down in a jet more than a prop rig. The nice looks just come from working on it every empty minutes we have since last fall. We get one thing done and pick something out to do the next week or two. This week or next will be the stereo week if it ever comes in. Most of the ones I am seeing with out trolling motors are sort of built for speed and the sleek looks makes them look very nice.

 

[bassboy1]

I don't yet have a jetboat (because, right now, I don't have any boat), but in my neck of the woods, the Legends and whatnot, that are fast, but with thin hulls, wouldn't last very long.

Best I can tell, those midwest boats are for running shallow, wide rivers, where the hazards are mostly shallow gravel bars and whatnot. Around here, in the North Georgia mountains and foothills, we don't really have shallow wide rivers, with gravel bars and whatnot. We've got narrow, curvy rivers with ledges, shoals, sharp rocks (many of these are young rivers, so the rocks aren't smoothed over), Indian fish traps, and pig iron (slag) from civil war cannon making (they would repair some of these Indian fish traps by pouring molten iron in, making a real sharp, yellowed from rust, "rock" that will rip the bottom out of a boat).

Just about everyone set up to really run these rivers have UHMW. There are a handful of people without it, but, especially on the Etowah, those that can truly run it all day every day, and don't have to work with the generation, have 3/8 or thicker UHMW. Our boats are generally quite slow in comparison to the midwest boats, but they are also significantly heavier (many have 3/16 hulls), so the main goal is hole shot, not speed. Besides, because our rivers are narrower, and quite curvy, the speed doesn't have much value - it's not safe to rocket around the blind turns.

The forward console is to give the operator the best possible view of the water ahead, to clear as many obstacles as possible, as well as to move weight forward, to get the nose down. I'm not sure about those midwest boats, as I haven't been on one, but I think they ride on, or almost on pad, so nose light isn't a problem. I think in clear water, the midwest boats will be able to run shallower, but once they hit ground, they can't keep going. We will run shoals and whatnot, bouncing over what is to shallow to run over.

Ours are nowhere near as pretty as the midwest ones though. We have quite a few welded 16 - 17' welded mod vees that have been retrofitted with UHMW on the bottom, and a couple inches up the sides, and run UHMW intakes. The new boats built specifically for this type of river aren't ugly, but they aren't the sleek bass boat looking rigs that the Legends are.

 

[Lil' Blue Rude]

All of the boats I've posted have been riding boats, except for two of them are full blown racers. we set these boats up to be quick and handle good. I've never had any trouble seeing fro my boat and I have the seat about as far back as I can in my boat. The rivers we run aren't to dangerous but they are only around 30ft across in many places and in some places only 3 inches deep. Most people around here don't run a center console because it gets in the way. There are plenty of fishing boats around here I just don't have any pics of them to post. I love outboard jets and wouldn't want anything else. :mrgreen:

 

[turne032]

i personally like to be in the rear of the boat. i like seeing where my boat is in the river. putting the bow where i need it. if you sitting in front you might be 5 to 10 feet further up but at 30-40 mph you wont get any more time before you have to make a decision on where to go and you have no idea where your rear end is........and your motor is attached to that.

 

[Seth]

My boat is setup specifically for river bass fishing. I do enjoy cruising, but my boat is mainly used for fishing. It's got a 55# MK Edge trolling motor on the front and I also have some Monster 33/45 rod holders for the back for when I catfish. I plan on adding some more rod holders all around the boat for drift fishing and anchored catfishing in still water. In the fall I do a lot of sucker gigging as well so I have as dual 400w metal halide housings and a 3500w generator for that as well.

A center console would be fine if you fish alone a lot and if you have at 60" or wider bottom. Most of the boats we have are not very wide so the center console would be in the way like somebody else already mentioned.