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good afternoon all and thanks for the ad.....

got a question for you all, have been a boat owner most of my adult life, owning all shapes and sizes of boats. but currently boatless. My wife and I want to get another boat, for fishing in the rivers and small lakes in Maryland. We really want to scale down and simplify our next purchase. thinking about 16 to 17 footer, basic jon with tiller, less is best this time around. My question to the group is jet or prop? I had a jet years ago, was a tracker pro-jet, was not a big fan of the inboard. So we want this next boat to be quiet and easy to maintain, with no concern at all about speed. The boat will be used in the upper potomac, so rocks are an issue but at that same time we also want the boat for the eastern shore ponds and rivers, so then we are dealing with weeds..... love to hear opinions...

I’ve been a boater my whole life but never done the rocky fast moving rivers so will defer to the other guys here on that.
However, I’ll tell you that when I lived near the upper Potomac my wife and I first Canoe fished , then Kayaked and had a great time catching smallies and running small rapids in those.
Maybe think about a boat for the lakes and marsh and something plastic on the Upper P.


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JLeephoto said:

I’ve been a boater my whole life but never done the rocky fast moving rivers so will defer to the other guys here on that.
However, I’ll tell you that when I lived near the upper Potomac my wife and I first Canoe fished , then Kayaked and had a great time catching smallies and running small rapids in those.
Maybe think about a boat for the lakes and marsh and something plastic on the Upper P.


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thanks for the advice but we aren't kayakers or canoers, fact we just sold our kayaks, just not our thing. Upper P is a beautiful place to paddle however.

look at cost vs fun. jet cost lots of $$$$$ prop still cost lots of $$$ but not as much. in my mind, the only way i could support a jet is if the only water i would fish would be one foot deep rocky creeks, where there are very few fish. maybe consider a trailer for your next boat?

poorthang said:

look at cost vs fun. jet cost lots of $$$$$ prop still cost lots of $$$ but not as much. in my mind, the only way i could support a jet is if the only water i would fish would be one foot deep rocky creeks, where there are very few fish. maybe consider a trailer for your next boat?

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got a trailer, don't float so good

emount said:

poorthang said:

look at cost vs fun. jet cost lots of $$$$$ prop still cost lots of $$$ but not as much. in my mind, the only way i could support a jet is if the only water i would fish would be one foot deep rocky creeks, where there are very few fish. maybe consider a trailer for your next boat?

Click to expand...

got a trailer, don't float so good

Click to expand...

u gotta add those fancy pods to the rear. 8)

I have a couple of buddies that have been running the upper Potomac with 15hp props on their 16’ jon boats for many years.
I personally would go with the prop over the jet, but that’s just MHO.

I run on the Delaware River where it's all flow and no tide. When the river gets low, the big boulders start to show up. So it's not about running in a foot of water and worrying about rocks, it's about running in 1-6' of water with 1-5' rocks. I've run prop motors for years and if you know where the rocks are and when to tilt it up in shallow water, you will survive without damage. But now I run a jet outboard in a boat that runs pretty shallow and is a jet tunnel hull so the motor is tucked up pretty good. I bought a used motor and I'm not as worried about running shallow vs the prop motors. The jet is not as efficient so you lose speed and use more gas but you can almost go wherever you want. I run a forward console to keep the weight balanced better, but if you're set on a tiller, then even with a jet, you will be sitting lower in the back and not be able to see rocks until it's too late to avoid them. Either way, I would look for a jet tunnel or prop tunnel hull which allows you to lift the motor as high as possible, especially if your motor doesn't have power trim. How far do you really plan to go in either of your locations for a day on the water? That might really determine what combination will work best. Here's my 1652 Lowe jet tunnel hull boat with a 60/45 Mercury 2 stroke, it's a great combo for my use.