[tkwalker]

Originally Posted by Travis C.

There is guy that runs one on the Caney a lot.

Travis, It does not take a Jet to fish the Caney ... I have fished out of my 23 foot 8.5 foot wide 25 inch transom Bay boat with a 250 HP Blue water Merc all the way up to the pump station ... Way past the cabin and drippy rock ... With no generation ... Yes at Times the motor was trimmed up so high you could see the prop blades out of the water .. And yes I had the guide party to go to the front deck to flatten the boat out ...

This is a 4500 pound rig with 4 people ... 90 gallons of fuel, 5 batteries ... 80 gallons of live wells... But I was successful ...

I look at jets as a specialty boat ... that is really limited to the overall versatility of our Middle Tennessee fisheries ... ... After I got into guiding and was making a little money I decided I was going to be different and buy and use a specialty boat ... I thought a 125 HP Tiller Merc. was the ticket (Something like what you see on Swamp People now ..) on a center console boat (Landau) Special made in Missouri .. The motor was a hand full until you got her trimmed out ... It worked great in tight quarters like the tributaries ...

But then I discovered well ... 75% of my fishing is in a lake or Larger river environment ... So the tiller and boat became more of a headache under these conditions ... So I converted to a remote steer ... Then It was apparent my boat was to small and my business was to large for it to be profitable any longer ... So the next step was the bay boat ...

Now you are a multiple Species fisherman ... I was a one species fisherman at the time ,"stripers" ...( Already spent my time on the Bass tourneys ).. So you may want to reconsider going to the extreme on a limited usage boat ... (Similar to, Do I really want the body piercing in this particular body part and live with it for the rest of my life, or spend /lose $$ getting rid of it !!)...Think about the same boat ... tunnel Hull ... with a propped motor with a Hydraulic jack plate ... I have a couple of Striper friends who I maintain their rigs that say ... this is the way to go ... Since they fish bass as well as stripers ... ... Just my observation and thoughts ... also look at the resale .. It is Kinda like camo boats and motors ... Their is only a select market for these .... <'TK><