Jet sled for fishing nw rivers

[JeffRaines]

So the other day me and the wife went on a fishing trip with a guide on one of the rivers here… needless to say I had a great time(better than the saltwater fishing I’ve done) and while I’m not looking to purchase something tomorrow I’m just browsing around and realize I know next to nothing about these things.

The guide had a 21’ I believe with a 225 outboard which is probably way overkill for me and my family.

I’d like to use it to run the rivers here locally(located in western Washington), and maybe a little bit of small lakes.

Anyone have any advice on looking used for something? Flat vs v vs mod v? Anything to watch out for(maybe makes/models to avoid)? Any other advice?

I trust most of y’all’s advice when it comes to gear, so I figured this would be the place to ask.

Thank you.

 

[roosiebull]

Sounds like an older sled with newer power is what you want unless money isn’t an option. Flat bottoms get blown around more while trolling (especially if you have a top on)

It depends on how skinny of water you want to run, unless you run a lot of skinny water, a flat bottom is a compromise in a few ways, but they do work

Another thing to figure out, is how many people are going to be on the boat at a given time? I am a smaller is better guy (within reason) i think for 3-4 people, usually 2 a 18’ sled is pretty versatile and not too cumbersome to fish solo, smaller is doable, but I would avoid smaller unless it’s fairly wide

I have a sled that can’t really be replaced without going full custom on dimensions, my sled is 14’x7’ and fishes 3 very easily, and 4 is not bad, but it’s mostly me, or my wife and I, and it’s such a perfect little sled for me

I have a 40/60hp pump and an 8hp Yamaha kicker. With the main power, it goes faster than I care to go and has plenty of power to plane with 4 people (or 2 people and a quartered roosie) my boat was a completely lucky find, the previous owner used it for the rogue river where it was made, and that’s an anchor up and fish fishery, so it had a canvas cover that the owner was proud of, so in the add, it looked really funky, but I saw what it was, called the seller to verify and took the next day off to go look at it

Mine is made of heavy gauge aluminum, full width sled, just short. Challenger marine is the make, it was a gold beach company and they made a lot of jet boats that do the charter trips they do running the river… they made really cool boats, and I think all of the mail boats were challengers, and mine was a 1995 and had a matching 50hp Yamaha pump of the same vintage and I paid 5500$ about 10yrs ago (which I still can’t believe) but probably have a little over 20k into it now.

Buying new, river wild would probably be the route I’d go because they make some nice boats and their shorter sleds are wide

If shopping used, set a budget, take your time and don’t make any big compromises, because that will end up costing a lot more

Your best deals will likely be an older boat with newer power, but there are plenty of nice older sleds. Cheapest new would probably be riverhawk boats

The old midjets are pretty cool boats and are made well, just not super easy to find

 

[JeffRaines]

Sounds like an older sled with newer power is what you want unless money isn’t an option. Flat bottoms get blown around more while trolling (especially if you have a top on)

It depends on how skinny of water you want to run, unless you run a lot of skinny water, a flat bottom is a compromise in a few ways, but they do work

Another thing to figure out, is how many people are going to be on the boat at a given time? I am a smaller is better guy (within reason) i think for 3-4 people, usually 2 a 18’ sled is pretty versatile and not too cumbersome to fish solo, smaller is doable, but I would avoid smaller unless it’s fairly wide

I have a sled that can’t really be replaced without going full custom on dimensions, my sled is 14’x7’ and fishes 3 very easily, and 4 is not bad, but it’s mostly me, or my wife and I, and it’s such a perfect little sled for me

I have a 40/60hp pump and an 8hp Yamaha kicker. With the main power, it goes faster than I care to go and has plenty of power to plane with 4 people (or 2 people and a quartered roosie) my boat was a completely lucky find, the previous owner used it for the rogue river where it was made, and that’s an anchor up and fish fishery, so it had a canvas cover that the owner was proud of, so in the add, it looked really funky, but I saw what it was, called the seller to verify and took the next day off to go look at it

Mine is made of heavy gauge aluminum, full width sled, just short. Challenger marine is the make, it was a gold beach company and they made a lot of jet boats that do the charter trips they do running the river… they made really cool boats, and I think all of the mail boats were challengers, and mine was a 1995 and had a matching 50hp Yamaha pump of the same vintage and I paid 5500$ about 10yrs ago (which I still can’t believe) but probably have a little over 20k into it now.

Buying new, river wild would probably be the route I’d go because they make some nice boats and their shorter sleds are wide

If shopping used, set a budget, take your time and don’t make any big compromises, because that will end up costing a lot more

Your best deals will likely be an older boat with newer power, but there are plenty of nice older sleds. Cheapest new would probably be riverhawk boats

The old midjets are pretty cool boats and are made well, just not super easy to find

Thanks for the response. Budget is big deal - its just hard to justify spending $$$$$$$ on what is essentially a toy - yes, it has a utility usage but at the end of the day its for pleasure. From my research so far I'd love to stay under $30k, and that's really the top end of the budget. Less is better. Significantly less is even better.

It would just be me, my wife and 2 younger kids tops. More often than not it would just be me... maybe the wife, or a friend. I'd like to run skinnier water. Honestly, most if not all of my fishing interest takes place in moving water of some sort. Not that lakes can't be good... but they just don't catch my interest. In fact, up until this trip the only salmon fishing I had done was on the sound(with the same guide). I had been interested in trying the rivers for salmon, but driving by some of the spots and seeing guys shoulder to shoulder fishing the same hole just gives me an ick. Thats not my idea of fishing. Out on the river in the boat, even though we seen other anglers there was plenty of room to get away.

I seen Smokercraft Sportsman get kicked around as a good entry level sled at an affordable price. Surely other manufacturers make something similar? I guess I need to understand what features make that and the alumawelds good for what I'm trying to do, so that I could apply that criteria to other options. I don't need anything fancy with covers and all that jazz(although the wife would probably appreciate it).

Speaking of the wife, she would like something to putz around in on smaller local lakes. I don't see why I couldn't use the same boat for that as well as it wouldn't be in bad weather or on massive lakes.