Floating leaves and pine needles

[reedjj]

Was wondering how you guys deal with floating debris on the water in the fall?

Im on the St Marys River in NE Florida near Folkston,Ga. It is the border of FL and GA. Once I moved here and started running this river and fishing here back in June I thought it would b perfect for a jet (some of you know how Ive gone back and forth with the decision) . Had my mind made up to get a G3 1860 next year. but the past few days there has been alot of leaves and pine needles on the water. Just wondering how you all deal with it.

 

[tigfisher]

i have a home made jet jon boat , and when i feel the motor loading up with leaves, i stop and drop the trolling motor and go full speed backwards to flush the leaves out the intake or impeller (as i got no intake grate) , i will do this every few miles on the river..depending on leaves on the water. sometimes ill goose the throttle and it will spit it right out. now if you have a outboard, i dont have a clue.

 

[PSG-1]

I built a stomp grate for my jetboat, for clearing leaves, etc. This time of year, I may have to stop once every 5-10 miles to clear the leaves. Take a look at my jetboat thread to see how to build a stomp grate.

 

[Lennyg3]

maybe it's just me, but I suck them right through. I've never had an issue with leaves.... Rocks occasionally, but I usually just shut the motor off, wait a few seconds and that cures it..

 

[reedjj]

I guess it would only be an issue a few weeks out of the year anyway.

 

[user 6672]

reedjj » Yesterday, 08:56[/url]"]I guess it would only be an issue a few weeks out of the year anyway.

Yea.. the leaves up this way in the fall can cause a lot of clogging issues also.. If it is getting bad i either try to hit reverse a couple of times and clear it.. or tilt it up and do it by hand..

 

[BigTerp]

I usually tilt my outboard up and just pull the debris out of the intake. But I find mine only gets plugged up if I start up in grassy areas, or going relatively slow. When up on plane and moving pretty good it doesn't seem to plug up at all when I go through those grassy areas.

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

In slow moving water with lots of leaves, the only thing I've found that works is tilt up and clear it manually. I would like to invest in a stomp grate for my OB jet, but man are they expensive and I don't have any clue how well they hold up on impacts.

 

[Seth]

BigTerp » Today, 09:40[/url]"]I usually tilt my outboard up and just pull the debris out of the intake. But I find mine only gets plugged up if I start up in grassy areas, or going relatively slow. When up on plane and moving pretty good it doesn't seem to plug up at all when I go through those grassy areas.

Same here. I've never clogged my intake while running around on plane. It does happen quite a bit idling around gigging suckers in the fall though. Water is always shallow though where we are gigging so I just jump out, pull the wad of junk out continue on for a while. That's about all a guy can do.

 

[PSG-1]

That's an advantage that the OB jets have over inboard jets, if they get clogged, you can tilt up and clear the debris.

Inboard jets take a little more work, sometimes doing a quick hamilton spin (180 at throttle) and cutting the engine will back-wash the debris. Sometimes, you have to cut the engine and rock the boat continuously. Putting it in reverse, gunning the throttle, then cutting the engine and pulling up the reverse bucket will work, too. But sometimes, none of these methods gets the debris clear, and that's when the stomp grate comes in real handy. I ran for about a year or so without a stomp grate, but one day, I had to idle 5 miles back to the landing with something stuck in the grate (don't know what it was, because, naturally, it came out right about the time I got to the ramp) After that, I went ahead and modified the boat for a stomp grate.

 

[user 6672]

PSG-1 » Today, 16:05[/url]"]That's an advantage that the OB jets have over inboard jets, if they get clogged, you can tilt up and clear the debris.

Last year I drove by the local DNR on shore with his River pro, he was soaked digging stuff out of the grate..

 

[PSG-1]

Canoeman » Yesterday, 23:02[/url]"]

PSG-1 » Today, 16:05[/url]"]That's an advantage that the OB jets have over inboard jets, if they get clogged, you can tilt up and clear the debris.

Last year I drove by the local DNR on shore with his River pro, he was soaked digging stuff out of the grate..

I know that had to suck. Hope it wasn't cold weather. Again, this is exactly why I modified my jet for the stomp grate, so I wouldn't be in that same kind of situation, having to dive under the boat and clear debris.

 

[reedjj]

Thanks everyone for your responses. Seems like its no big deal. Just a bit of a annoyance.