# Fast water



## moark (Aug 7, 2014)

Looking for some expert advice. How do you guys fish/run thru fast water. I used to have a little 14' jon 36" wide and I used my foot controlled trolling with my prop just in the water deep enough to steer. I'm getting a bigger jet boat (16/52) and I doubt the trolling motor will get thru without hitting everything in site. Do you use reverse and go that route or do you just jet thru and fish on the other side of fast water? Thanks for any replies.


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## Ranchero50 (Aug 7, 2014)

Simplest answer is don't push up something you're gonna have trouble coming down through. I avoid fast water for fishing as it's too wearing to deal with the boat while trying to fish. I have pushed up some of the chutes to rescue stuck lures, basically just give it enough throttle to move against the flow, then throttle down once you are clear.


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## PSG-1 (Aug 7, 2014)

Kinda like this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7YPYe_PbN0


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## moark (Aug 8, 2014)

Thanks for the reply. 
I don't think I made my post clear enough. I meant to say when floating down the river and you come upon a fast curving shoot do you fire up and run it or just use the trolling motor and float thru?


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## Whitaker201 (Aug 8, 2014)

If it is a place I really want to fish I point the nose of the boat upstream and keep the TM in the water just enough to control the boat. If I don't want to fish the area I will fire up and run through it.


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## Ranchero50 (Aug 8, 2014)

Oh, float it with the troller stowed and a paddle handy. Summer low my flow is around 10-15 fpm, maybe 20 at the 'chutes'. At that speed when the boat touches I just wait a moment for the current to turn it or walk to the other end of the boat to float clear.

We are also getting to the point that I'll start idling up river as the Indians decided to put granite blocks on top of their fish wall at one place and they don't riffle the water like the limestone ridges do. My goofing off video had my oldest standing on one while I played around him in 3' water. If it gets really low I'll just walk upstream pulling the boat behind me. At that point the flats and normal deep water areas look like a field of weeds sticking 6-10" out of the water with little yellow blooms everywhere. You have to run through that to get to the shallow faster moving stuff to do any fishing.

There is one spot where the flow is pretty fast at a curve and I'll stay in the eddy and fish the current break for ambush predators.


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## icbronze (Aug 12, 2014)

I use a 2 foot heavy chain off the front of my 1652. Depending on the current you can control float speed by varying the amount of line you let out with the chain. I fish rocky bottom, 6" to 7' of water and catch fish in current as other boats are floating right thru good fishing water.


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