Northern rivers for jet boating

[Not afraid]

Hi I bought a jet boat and I'm looking to take it up north this year. I was wondering if someone could suggest a decent river to go up for moose that is not extreme. It is a 19 foot boat and I do not have a ton of river experience I would really like some tips from the pros thanks

[digginsweatinswearin]

The Omineca is nice

[digginsweatinswearin]

If you want a ton of response try www.meanchicken.net (http://www.meanchicken.net)

[Rock Doctor]

Muskwa, Nelson, Liard are all pretty tame, and have good Moose populations, no LEL required.

My daughter could do it when she was 4yrs old, I would imagine you can handle it too:-D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7xsTLnLWDQ

The Prophet and the Sikanni are a little more technical.
Toad, Gatho, and Tuchodi, might be a little out of your experience level at this point


RD

[digginsweatinswearin]

Well there ya go, top of the food chain, RD knows his stuff!

[ryanb]

Although I have no personal experience on them I have heard Kechika, turnagain, Stikine, and Dease rivers are pretty reasonable.

[gitnadoix]

Just be sure that you practice a bit with your boat carrying the weight it will be carrying while on your moose adventure before you travel way north on a river new to you. Figure out the weight of people and gear then take some empty clean garbage cans and a five gallon pail.

Then go out on one of your local rivers that you know real well and load the boat with a similar weight in water in the garbage cans using the 5 gallon pail to fill them up. Then get the feel of you new heavy boat so that when your exploring new country 200 kms from the nearest boat ramp you dont have an oopsy.........

[leatherlungs]

Great thread. I am in the same position and appreciate any advice.

[Philcott]

Muskwa, Nelson, Liard are all pretty tame, and have good Moose populations, no LEL required.

My daughter could do it when she was 4yrs old, I would imagine you can handle it too:-D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7xsTLnLWDQ

The Prophet and the Sikanni are a little more technical.
Toad, Gatho, and Tuchodi, might be a little out of your experience level at this point


RD

What's the music in that video? It sounds like Pharis and Jason Romero.

[GRIZZEZE]

after watching the videos and getting side tracked on you tube for a while, I think I know what I am going to buy if I can ever afford one.
Looks like a ton of fun

[Black Lab]

Although I have no personal experience on them I have heard Kechika, turnagain, Stikine, and Dease rivers are pretty reasonable.

The Kechika is no place for someone new to river boating. :twisted: One thing for you to think about when you go up a river is it quite often forks again and again. If you go up river like 10-20- 30 miles or more and forget exactlly which forks you turned up, you could find yourself sitting "High and Dry" on the way down. A lot of those forks can just piddle away to nothing but a dry gravel bar. Remember that you will be coming down faster than you went up. I can remember one guy on the Muskwa that we nicked name "Mike Fink and the River Rats" just like that. He looked like he knew what he was doing. But maybe Not. :cry:

[Rackmastr]

Not to overly hijack this thread, but since there seems to be some good guys with some knowledge here, about what size and power should a person look for if you were ever going to buy a jet boat for river hunting? Whats about the baseline? Can a guy buy a 'decent' river boat for around $10-14,000?

[Jetboat]

If you go up river like 10-20- 30 miles or more and forget exactlly which forks you turned up, you could find yourself sitting "High and Dry" on the way down.

So TRUE. When I bought my first jetboat, my wife and I went out for a rip and did exactly that, took the wrong fork coming down. Took us about 2 hours of backbreaking labour to get the boat back to where we could actually float again. Wifey was NOT impressed with my limited river navigating skills early on :mrgreen:
Rackmastr, you might find a beat to dogshit, worn out jetboat for that low but as for a RELIABLE boat that'll get you there AND back, you'd better save a few more pennies.

[ThinAir]

IF a guy has a GPS (nearly ever hunter now a days..) use the track function!! When your coming home you can see exactly the route you took. NO more guessing which channel or braid you took earlier! Works great, alot less stress involved.

[Riverratz]

Not to overly hijack this thread, but since there seems to be some good guys with some knowledge here, about what size and power should a person look for if you were ever going to buy a jet boat for river hunting? Whats about the baseline? Can a guy buy a 'decent' river boat for around $10-14,000?

No such thing as the perfect river boat for every situation. There are jet boats and then there are real JET-BOATS !!! If you're planning on using it for hunting northern rivers get something that is built for the task.
18 ft. with minimum 175 SJ is a decent size that will carry a fairly good load, have good range, and still be maneuverable enough in the tight situations. The smaller the better in the skinny, twisty stuff, but then you have much less load capacity & range.
Bigger boats (22' and up) with inboard jets will carry tons of weight, but lose out on maneuverability, and if you ever end up in a jackpot with one of these beasts you better have lots of help to get it unstuck.
As for price, you'll be hard pressed to find anything in the way of an 18'er in the $14K range unless it's really been $hitcanned.........$25-$30K is more realistic for a fairly plain 'used' in good condition...........and have deep pockets to feed it once you get it on the water. For a rough estimation on fuel costs, you can figure on an average of 1 liter of gas per km. with the SJ's.

[Riverratz]

IF a guy has a GPS (nearly ever hunter now a days..) use the track function!! When your coming home you can see exactly the route you took. NO more guessing which channel or braid you took earlier! Works great, alot less stress involved.

YUP ! Works like a charm. The only draw back is that it's hard to study a tiny little GPS screen and still drive/steer the boat at the same time while the rain and sleet is drilling you in the face. Have the partner read the GPS and give you hand signals left/right/straight ahead while you drive......works perfect.........unless the water level has dropped in the previous 10-14 days while you were up river and the right channel is now the wrong channel.......then it's an "Oh $hit". But for the most part, yes it does work very well and makes the trip out much more relaxing.

[Barracuda]

our gps hasnt been replaced yet so comeing back down the Pitt last week was a treat , luckily our boat runs shallow and is easy to get unstuck unlike these big 20+ foot pigs that drag thier keester going upstream just after the bridge.:lol:

Normally leah will stand with the gps in her hand and say left or right or OH SHIT!!!:-D

Guys in NZ have been running water as nasty as anything here with 3 and 4m boats and a 1/4 the hp some of these NA clowns have in thier white water Winnibegos , its about power to weight and design.

exact ,firefish and several others are bulding smaller more usefull boats for just that reason.

and yes you can get into it for a very reasonable price as long as you are not trying to impress anyone.

[nap]

do alot of homework, alot depends on how your boat is made, some are made for the tuchodi, some are made for the fraser, expierence is the biggest thing. Few years ago a buddy bought an alicraft, great little boat made to go just about anywhere, BUT!! not made to go up the tuchodi by 2 greenhorns. Lots of damage, Not that there was anything wrong with the boat but we went where we should not have been. This site is great and there is alot of people that will help you. Where ever you go be careful and have fun.

[sako_300]

just came back from the kechika - lots of water this year.

A guy doesn't learn if he doesn't try... right?

On second thought, learn how to run boat before a "northern" adventure.

[nap]

you are so right sako, but you may not really learn to run a boat untill you take a northern adventure.

[Rock Doctor]

Not to overly hijack this thread, but since there seems to be some good guys with some knowledge here, about what size and power should a person look for if you were ever going to buy a jet boat for river hunting? Whats about the baseline? Can a guy buy a 'decent' river boat for around $10-14,000?

While you wouldn't be as cool as us guys that blast up the river burning hundreds of liters of fuel, you can still do it with smaller or old school type boats. My first Riverboat was 16' long with an 80HP jet drive and I can tell you it was nowhere near 25-30k brand new. Another option is the old "long and lean" wooden boat with maybe a 30hp prop drive. These types of boats have almost become......................obsolite? However, they have been tried, tested, and proven to work (Remember though, you couldn't possibly burn enough fuel in one to be as cool as the rest of us:-D). They will get you where you want to be, not as fast, and not as fun, but they will get you there. Actually, I can't think of too many places that I couldn't take a, slightly modified, 16ft Lund with maybe a 50-60hp OB Jet.

:wink:See ya on the river


IF a guy has a GPS (nearly ever hunter now a days..) use the track function!! When your coming home you can see exactly the route you took. NO more guessing which channel or braid you took earlier! Works great, alot less stress involved.

While this is true, to a certian extent, I would like to add that I have seen quite a few boats damaged and crashed due to guys being distracted or trusting their GPS on the way down the river (ME being one of those guys:)). By all means, I feel that a GPS is a good tool, but to just cruse up the river, trusting that your GPS will lead you home is ...........................dangerous, to say the least.


RD

[kitnayakwa77]

go somewhere like the skeena or nechako and practice with it, work up in difficulty from there. Don't wait until you're on a hunting trip in some remote area to practice your jetboating skills good point about practicing loaded too, the boat will be handling much different. my 2 cents.