With hatchery brat season upon us its time for another Drift Boat vs. Jet Boat thread.

Being in a DB, I've formed certain opinions about jet boats, which I'm sure would be entirely different if I owned one. I will say that I can co-exist fine with most jet boaters, however there are always a couple that drive you nuts.

Here are the top things that drive me nuts about jet boaters.

1) Pick somewhere to fish, and fish it!! Some guys spend more time screaming up and down the river than they do fishing. I've had the same boat go by full tilt three times in less than 15 min. How are you going to catch anything if all you do is drive around?

2) Don't be an a$$ just because you can. I was floating down a while ago, wasn't that busy of a day on the river. Got to the next hole I wanted fish and there was a jet boat parked there. No problem I'll just float down to the next hole. He waits for me to commit to going to the next hole and then comes ripping downstream and parks in front of me. If that's not bad enough, he fishes that hole just long enough for me to commit to going over the next riffle and then busts back up to where he started. Next time I see that guy I'm anchoring on his lines.

3) Don't drive over where I'm fishing, unless you have to. I understand there are circumstances where there is only one way up or down. But you guys are always bragging how your boats can run in 6" of water. If there is room to go around please use it.

4) Don't boon-dog over where I'm fishing. If I'm anchored and casting or fishing from the shore, how hard is it to pick up your lines for the 20' you're in front of me, or better yet to go behind me. I don't cast on top of where your fishing, you shouldn't fish on top of where I'm casting. This applies to other drift boats going by too.

5) Just because you're boon-dogging a hole doesn't mean you own it. I say this because last year I was fishing and came down to a good plugging spot with a jet boat doing laps boon-dogging. I waited for a jet boat to start his pass and then started plugging down behind. On his next lap instead of starting behind me or giving me reasonable amount of space in front, he came back up even with me and dropped his bait right on top of my plugs. And then proceeded to do this for every pass after, until he ran out of room at the bottom of the hole. Then went back by at max wake speed.

It seems that common river etiquette says its OK to fish behind someone, or if that person is anchored or moving much slower than you, to fish in front of them if you give them plenty of room. Its not OK to repeatedly low hole someone who is moving down through a hole.

What most of this comes down to is this. I give other fisherman I encounter reasonable space to fish, be it bankies, other DB's, or jet boats and I expect to be given reasonable space to fish in return.

Jerks come in all flavors, it just seems to be a little easier to be one in jet boat.

Boss man,
Owning and fishing from both boats it's just kinda simple. A jerk is a jerk, no matter how he gets up or down the creek......... We all just need to remember that this world is round and the river is big enough for all of us if we choose to get along and respect each other.

I feel your pain.

i don't have a good answer. I use both a drift boat and a sled. I try to go out of my way to be polite, but sometimes just existing on a river is going to annoy somebody. It seems like on some days, no good deed goes unpunished.

Sounds like you ran into a couple examples of what I call nervous nellies. Folks who don't have their own fishing plan, and can't bear to think that someone else might get to a fish first. Roaring around, and cutting people off is indicative of that midset. All you can do is realize that the reason that they are behaving like that is that they aren't catching many fish.

Me, I like to get to a river about 8am. That lets the drift boats get down below me a ways, and get to their spot, if that is important to them. I'll work upriver at the beginning of the day, and downriver at the end of a day to cover water that they're not on. Maybe I'll rush to one or two spots if I think they're good. I've found that I can get plenty of fish, just by working slowly and carefully.

I do the same thing to drift boats with my sled that I do with my drift boat when I come to bank fishermen. We pull our lines in, and don't crowd them.

Now, if you''re plugging in the middle of the business drift in Fall City (300 yards long), and I'm free drifting, I am going to fish down to you, and then fish below you once I'm past your plugs. But I would find that to be reasonable behavior if you did it to me as well. What I won't do to you, but have seen done, is roar down on you at 45 mph, sweep in 40 yards below you, and start plugging your water. That would be reason for a discussion. Using golf words.

I'm eager for the winter season, but I'm not eager for the crowds that we know are coming.

One more thing. There's a reason for sleds to roar by you. If I roar by you on full plane, I throw a 12 inch wake. If I slow down to go by you at half speed, I throw a 24 inch wake. I truely believe it's better for sleds to move at a reasonably high speed on the water. If you disagree, talk to us.

As to the sleds going directly over the water you're fishing, I and I think most folks try to avoid doing that. It's not always clear what that water is, and I usually try to run over the water that I wouldn't fish. That may be different than what you consider to be the right spot. I haven't sucked a bobber through the pump yet, but the year is young.

However, consider this. If a sled comes through within 200 yards, fish know it. The difference between me going over the fish, and going next to the fish, 50 feet away, is minor, I believe. It is pretty well known that steelhead bite quite well within 5 minutes of being disturbed and moved. Heck, Jim Teeny throws rocks at fish right before he fishes them, just to MAKE them bite. So don't get too worried just because a sled comes through. I've caught lots of fish from water that power boats have been moving through. Especially if you are plugging, a disturbed fish is often a biter.

So really, you owe me, don't you think?

Hey Boss man, I also used to own a drift boat and sold it. I made the mistake of taking it down to blue creek one day. Never again! The thing that irritates me about drift boats and other sleds down at the Blue Cr. area is when they decide to anchor up along the wall and pitch halfway across the river while the boondoggin is going on., before they even got down their in the first place! I guess they think they own that part of the river ,or maybe they should pull their lines up and let the sleds drift by. I will be more than glad to give the respect to drift boaters and sleds that anchor up as soon as they decide to show consideration to the boon doggin people .
Blue creek has pretty much been a boon doggin river from the corner down and if people decide to anchor up and toss their gear then they will always be frustrated. How many guide sleds do you see anchorin along the wall? not too many,why ? because blue creek has primarily ,from the corner down past the mary ellen, been a boon doggin area. If drift boaters dont like the traffic then maybe they ought to move on down the river, along w/ the other sleds that dont care to boon dog.

annie, I've never fished the Cowliz and probably won't ever take my DB down there, escpecially around Blue Creek for the very reasons you mention.

Silver Hilton, I don't mind boon-dogger's fishing around me on a long run. As long they pick up when they go by and give me reasonable space in front of my plugs before they put back in, and they don't start every pass on top off my plugs.

I thought of one more thing about jet boats. Be carefull, those things are big and fast and if you hit someone, people could get killed. I bring this up because this fall I was fishing on the Snohomish, and if you've ever fished there you know how foggy it can get.

Early one morning I'm trolling away and hear a roar through the fog and this 20+ foot Thunder Jet comes out of the fog doing about 45mph. Luckily I wasn't in his path. I have serious doubts about whether he could have avoided me if I was.

Bossman,

I bank fish, float, and use my sled on some rivers. I try to treat other anglers the way I wish they would treat me. My observation is that anglers, like most humans, don't follow the golden rule.

Perhaps jet boating is like driving. The real purpose of driving isn't to get from point A to point B. The real purpose is to pass any car you can see in front of you. (t.i.c.) With a jet or even drift boat, maybe the goal is to fish any piece of water ahead of any other angler you can see. I do agree that it's nigh on impossible to produce a logical explanation for some of the behavior commonly observed on rivers. But that's not restricted to boats, witness the styrofoam bait containers, miles of waste monofilament, etc.

Although I don't like to be low-holed either, my greatest concern is jet sleds and safety on small rivers. Sometimes there is only one thread for safe passage, both upstream and down. What if you're powering your sled up that thread and a driftboat appears around the corner coming downstream. The rules of navigation require the powerboat to yield, but if you cut power, the boat is likely to ground out in a shallow riffle, which can be dangerous in a lot of places. I'm inclined to take my sled only on larger rivers as a safety and courtesey consideration.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Boss man post this thread after we get some water in the sky and the cow.

There have been a number of times that I have fished Anderson Bar for an hour or two. We get ready to pull out for our ONE shot freedrifting and as soon as we get on the river, a sled will pull up in FRONT of us and get on the motor to Boon Dog. As I am freedrifting obviously I am going to run into you if you are on the motor. Could you please start 10 yards above me rather than 10 yards below??? Please?

When my partner and I fish a river, which is rare, we usually don't know the holes that hold fish. We may see someone catching fish, so we'll try that same spot. If he is drifting, we will get in line 50 yards or so above him and let him drift through first. Sometimes it is ring-around -the-rosie with several boats drifting through, and then cruising up to the top of the hole to start drifting again. Kinda' like a dosey-doe. The thing we try to do is see how far they are casting and try to stay up stream twice that amount. There is really no excuse to snag someone else's line on a river unless you are just too close. If someone gets annoyed at us, depending on their tone and attitude we will either leave them to fish the hole or remind them that it is a public river and they don't own it and they can simply plant a juicy one where the sun don't shine! No one owns the river, nor should anyone act as they do no matter what they are fishing in. I give plenty of way to smaller boats and drifters because I realise they can't get out of my way near as easy as I can get out of theirs.