# PWCs for bay and marsh fishing



## tx8er (May 19, 2015)

Is it practical to use them in the bay and marsh or are they best suited for the jetties and open water? Can you pole the shallows?

Thanks in advance.


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## maskale (Sep 19, 2014)

seems a common misconception is that they shallow running jet power kayaks, they are not. 

They need a solid 2'-3' of water to operate safely and reliably. jet drives are susceptible to damage and shutting you down for the day if they suck trash up. 

even if running in clean sand or mud, you can slowly clog up you cooling passages, even a seadoo

never tried to pole one, probably wont work to well since you would not be polling from the back, but in the middle. 

Would do well for wading though.

If you have a beater jetski, then by all means run her shallow as you like.


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## Friendswoodmatt (Feb 22, 2005)

the other thing is you cannot operate before sun up or after sunset


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## Fishin' Soldier (Dec 25, 2007)

I mainly used mine for bay fishing. I tried to stay out of less than 1.5-2' of water but it worked out just fine. At idle speed it doesn't suck up much. I would idle to deeper water then jump up. It is a great way to run around to your wading spots. If you can imagine what the rentals are put through on a holiday weekend. With a little care these machines will last a long time.


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## Billygoat (Feb 1, 2013)

3' is the recommended minimum (from reading greenhulk forums), just in case you bump the throttle. I learned this the hard way - I was drift fishing and realized I was about to hit a shallow spot, started up and hit reverse, and sucked up some oyster shells.

Wrecked the wear ring and dinged up the impeller. $30 for a new wear ring, $200 for the impeller, and gut wrenching to tear apart a seadoo with 3 hours on it.


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## tx8er (May 19, 2015)

Thanks for the replies. Looks like a micro or solo will my best option.


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## JimD (May 25, 2004)

Not sure that you could not pull a kayak behind the JK out to areas that you cannot wade easily. I will try it the next time I am at the farm just to see how they pull.


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## maskale (Sep 19, 2014)

JimD said:


> Not sure that you could not pull a kayak behind the JK out to areas that you cannot wade easily. I will try it the next time I am at the farm just to see how they pull.


50-60' of rope will put the kayak behind the rooster tail.


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## Marsh Monkey (Jul 16, 2004)

I've been running my Sea Doos skinny since 1997 and they are still going strong. Have only had to change the wear rings a few times in the ridiculous number of hours I've put on them. They don't do near as well in areas with allot of shell like Port O or Rockport. Areas with mostly mud or sand bottom I can run where most boats cannot go. That being said it has taken years to learn where you can and can't go just like anything else.


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## ak (May 6, 2012)

Common misconception is that you cant run skis shallow. Do not idle in shallow water they will become vacuum cleaners and wont have enough pressure to blow out debris that is sucked up. I ran jetskis and even had a jet jon conversion built for years before I went to an outboard jet. These guys saying that you can't either have very little experience or read the wrong stuff off the internet. Your ski should have a pilot or "pisser" if this ever gets clogged simply stop and unclog. If you have an aluminum impeller and run a lot of sand then ya probably get a stainless pretty quick but anyone who thinks you can't take jets shallow is out of touch with the rest of the country that's all they run up north. I would always find about 12-18" before I would crank up and once you crank up drop the hammer and you will be fine. Idling in shallow water is waaaayyyy worse.


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## TrueblueTexican (Aug 29, 2005)

*Wrong answers*

ANY JET on ANY BOAT WILL SUCK UP bottom at idle if you are less than a foot deep - HOWEVER when you are on plane you pass over any object before it will suck it in EXCEPT for leaves or moss. Most jets running at 20+MPH will disturb the bottom when running in 2" of water but it falls away before it can get to the intake -

You can't jump on plane in less than a foot without some risk - there are aftermarket intake grates that will exclude most objects smaller than 1/4" in diameter or you can have one fabricated --

The mistake most jetters make is getting OFF the throttle, when in doubt you should FIREWALL it

There are also after market weed cutters that can be added to many jets - floating leaves and sticks are the worst problem with any jet - fall is a ***** in some areas.


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## troutsupport (May 22, 2006)

ak said:


> Common misconception is that you cant run skis shallow. Do not idle in shallow water they will become vacuum cleaners and wont have enough pressure to blow out debris that is sucked up. I ran jetskis and even had a jet jon conversion built for years before I went to an outboard jet. I would always find about 12-18" before I would crank up and once you crank up drop the hammer and you will be fine. Idling in shallow water is waaaayyyy worse.


This ^ and TrueBlueTexans post are accurate and anyone else that says that you can run shallow. I don't like being controversial, especially inside this controversial topic... but its true and doable if you learn your riggs specific depth that you need. I fished off a jet ski for over 10 years and ran shallow much of the time. I fished the Lower Laguna, Baffin, Port Aransas, RockPort, POC, East and West Matty, Christmas, Chocolate, West G and East G, and Sabine with it and not just out deep. Running shallow flats and marsh ponds. Even went teal hunting with one and got busted by the warden for running before daylight. He let me go at daylight and handed me the ticket. LOL. I'll try to add a little more specific information on what to avoid shallow from my experience to help.

If you are smart and stay away from running super shallow in 2 types of bottoms then you'll be fine. Those, like mentioned above, are hard sand bottom and loose shell bits like what forms up on old reefs. Examples of this are Shell Island Reef in Galveston and Bulls shoals in east galveston.. any Lavaca ship channel reef, or rockport chain of island reef, but even some smaller oyster or clam reefs have these small shell bits. They are 'floaty' almost buoyant with very little water movement. And when I say shallow I won't idle over this material when it's less than a foot of water between the intake and the bottom. Know your crafts intake great depth and know what that depth looks like while either idling or running on plane. It's very easy to avoid these areas, there's plenty water to run in, even shallow, to avoid running or idling in these bottom types.

Floating grass isn't much problem at all, I can count on one hand the times I had to reach under it to pull the grass off the grate in those 10 years.. and I'd still have a few fingers left on that hand. Idling long distances in heavy grass with less than a foot between the intake grate and bottom or running barely on plane along and in floating grass matts can rarely clog the grate. Most times I've been able to dislodge the material in this case by increasing speed and hitting full throttle for a ways. Speed will pull and cut that material off the grate. How to avoid this. Don't idle long distance in shallow grass, learn to jump it up in little deep pockets or pinches between islands. Once you are on plane, steer to clean water to minimize float grass mats. You're still going to run over a little floating grass and that's ok, as long as you run mid range the little bit that you run over is not a problem at all.

Sand. Same thing, idling over sand with less than a foot of water between the sand and the intake grate is the same deal... or running on plane with less than 9 inches between bottom and grate is asking for trouble. You'll get sand in the intake tube and it will clog.. not too bad a fix with a flat head you take the hose off where it hits the motor block and remove the material from the tube. But, the easiest way is to avoid running over sandy points or barrier type islands on the flats or sand shoals. There is always a way around these areas. If you are on plane and have 9 inches or more water between the grate and the bottom ... I like a foot of water while on fast plan for this.. then you're clear. But again, it's better to go around just a little ways and not run over shallow sand bars or points, these tend to only line the outer edges of the flats. Follow channels into flats and you can still run the flats. I've stayed on plane in flats in as little as 6 inches.

Shell bits around any reef.. I just push the ski out to deeper water before firing up. You don't have to go far, just get the intake at least a foot over hard shell. I'm not saying be in a foot of water, you need a foot of water over the shell to get on plane or idle. And don't run on plane over oyster reefs.. you're asking for trouble and that's dangerous. Besides, thats where the fish are... drive it like a boat and you'll be fine.

Mud, soft marsh mud is not a problem at all. You can idle just fine even with minimal clearance is available.. stay off the throttle.. just let it idle. I'm not talking mud shell mix though, but just marsh mud. You will have to idle to a deeper spot to get on plane.. I'd estimate that you'd need about 18" to 2' to get up.. some of the bigger rigs might require 3 feet to get up / hole shot. The shallowest I ever got up was about 12 inches... by leaning the ski on it's side and doing the circle, then riding the next wave crest for further lift.

I ran a yamaha wave runner 700 cc 3 seater and I was able to run in 4 inches over mud... albeit my but was puckering the whole time. Now this was after expert experience and many hours and knowing where to run and not run and my rigs specifics. That you'll have to learn for your rig. I don't advocate burning or running shorelines with it either, it really ****** people off. Drive it like its an 18' center console and respect people just as you would running a boat and you can run a lot of shallow water. Your impeller will eventually wear down a little and you'll loose about 3 mph off the top end.. but that's all, not enough to worry about and some of that loss is just hours of run time on any motor / prop. It's par for the territory.

Make sure you're getting a good flush with freshwater on that impeller bearing, that may be the more important thing.


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## TrueblueTexican (Aug 29, 2005)

*Exactly -*



troutsupport said:


> This ^ and TrueBlueTexans post are accurate and anyone else that says that you can run shallow. I don't like being controversial, especially inside this controversial topic... but its true and doable if you learn your riggs specific depth that you need. I fished off a jet ski for over 10 years and ran shallow much of the time. I fished the Lower Laguna, Baffin, Port Aransas, RockPort, POC, East and West Matty, Christmas, Chocolate, West G and East G, and Sabine with it and not just out deep. Running shallow flats and marsh ponds. Even went teal hunting with one and got busted by the warden for running before daylight. He let me go at daylight and handed me the ticket. LOL. I'll try to add a little more specific information on what to avoid shallow from my experience to help.
> 
> If you are smart and stay away from running super shallow in 2 types of bottoms then you'll be fine. Those, like mentioned above, are hard sand bottom and loose shell bits like what forms up on old reefs. Examples of this are Shell Island Reef in Galveston and Bulls shoals in east galveston.. any Lavaca ship channel reef, or rockport chain of island reef, but even some smaller oyster or clam reefs have these small shell bits. They are 'floaty' almost buoyant with very little water movement. And when I say shallow I won't idle over this material when it's less than a foot of water between the intake and the bottom. Know your crafts intake great depth and know what that depth looks like while either idling or running on plane. It's very easy to avoid these areas, there's plenty water to run in, even shallow, to avoid running or idling in these bottom types.
> 
> ...


I've run OB jets on custom tunnels aluminum's in the LLM as far back as 1971, and inboard jets (Mercury Sport Jets) in custom aluminum flats boats, a jet is a jet - the above advice is spot on - (Mercury Sport Jets lust a little tougher than Bombardier, Yamaha, etc.) - gotta learn em all and sometimes mistakes geyt costly - only thing I would add is RELIGIOUSLY flush your engine after every use , install a water prefilter screen inline before the block intake with a screw off cap - will save some headaches in the future.


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## Billygoat (Feb 1, 2013)

ak said:


> Common misconception is that you cant run skis shallow. Do not idle in shallow water they will become vacuum cleaners and wont have enough pressure to blow out debris that is sucked up. I ran jetskis and even had a jet jon conversion built for years before I went to an outboard jet. These guys saying that you can't either have very little experience or read the wrong stuff off the internet. Your ski should have a pilot or "pisser" if this ever gets clogged simply stop and unclog. If you have an aluminum impeller and run a lot of sand then ya probably get a stainless pretty quick but anyone who thinks you can't take jets shallow is out of touch with the rest of the country that's all they run up north. I would always find about 12-18" before I would crank up and once you crank up drop the hammer and you will be fine. Idling in shallow water is waaaayyyy worse.


We can start by reading the owner's manual cover-to-cover. Mine says 3 ft minimum running depth, any shallower, cut the engine.

If you want to follow other's advice, go for it, but manufacturer says otherwise.


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## ak (May 6, 2012)

Theres a reason for that and its because some people don't understand how things really work. Its your ski run it like you want to. Anyone that says you cant run jets shallow is very misinformed


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## ak (May 6, 2012)

These guys in New Zealand put jetski motors in these hulls. This was part of the inspiration I used to have one built. I probably put 120 hours on my used 650 Yamaha engine from the 90's before I decided to upgrade to an outboard jet. I ran shallow stuff all the time just because your book says it can't doesn't mean squat.

Risk you take is clogging the cooling line which you will know if your monitoring your pisser or wearing your impeller which I always knew was just part of it. I only had to buy a new stainless steel impeller once the aluminums are junk and wouldn't last long at all. Also probably they say that also because people use them for recreation and drive them pretty crazy you don't want to fly off at 60 mph in 1 ft of water.

Its your ski as I said drive it however you want but if you know what your doing those things go waaayyy shallower than any standard prop boat.


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