Small outboards on NSR?

[SKSniper]

Just wondering if anyone has experience with using smaller boats on the NSR(or any big river for that matter). I have a 14' Lund with a fairly new (under 5 years old) 8HP Honda 4-stroke. It has enough power to boogie at about 20km/hr. on a lake, I'm just a little skeptical about taking it on the river without a little advice from people who have. Last summer while I was shore fishing there was always a kayak instructor who would cruise along beside her students in a little boat like mine with what looked like a smaller outboard than mine and she seemed to have no issues.
I am aware of the boulder/sand bar dangers, I would never go without someone up front keeping an eye out and I would try to always stay a ways out from shore in case of boulders just under the surface.

Good idea/bad idea??? A jetboat is not an option for me this year.

Here is a pic of it just to get an idea


Thanks for any help!

[jim summit]

It will work if you know your river, but give that honda a lift.
Get the anti-ventilation plate that is just above the prop level with the bottom of the boat hull. Now it hangs down an extra 3".
Easiest way to get more of a prop driven boat in shallow water.

[CanadianBadass]

Originally Posted by SKSniper

Just wondering if anyone has experience with using smaller boats on the NSR(or any big river for that matter). I have a 14' Lund with a fairly new (under 5 years old) 8HP Honda 4-stroke. It has enough power to boogie at about 20km/hr. on a lake, I'm just a little skeptical about taking it on the river without a little advice from people who have. Last summer while I was shore fishing there was always a kayak instructor who would cruise along beside her students in a little boat like mine with what looked like a smaller outboard than mine and she seemed to have no issues.
I am aware of the boulder/sand bar dangers, I would never go without someone up front keeping an eye out and I would try to always stay a ways out from shore in case of boulders just under the surface.

Good idea/bad idea??? A jetboat is not an option for me this year.

Here is a pic of it just to get an idea


Thanks for any help!

TBH, it will be time for a new prop if you drop it in like that , I have seen guys run props on there, but raised transom, and spare props. Talk to YeeHaw on AO forums, he runs a prop , but is very limited to distance he can travel !

[SKSniper]

Originally Posted by CanadianBadass

TBH, it will be time for a new prop if you drop it in like that , I have seen guys run props on there, but raised transom, and spare props. Talk to YeeHaw on AO forums, he runs a prop , but is very limited to distance he can travel !

No, I don't put it in like this, the pin is removed in that picture. It normally sits higher up for sure!

[curtis_rak]

I used to put my 16.5' Sylvan/50hp Merc in the North Sask all the time without any engine mount modifications and drove using regular trim levels. I spent my time on the river in Edmonton and using the Goldbar Launch as my home base.

That being said I never launched the boat in the river before August or until the water cleared enough to see obstructions. Once the water clears there are really no issues. I never had any.

If you want to go earlier in the summer that's a whole different story. You need to know the river and know where the channels are. Even then you still run the risk of hitting debris.

[Dewey Cox]

I put in my 12 footer with a 5 horse motor. Hit a boulder pretty hard. Limped it back to the launch. It's never run right since.

[Red Bullets]

Take your boat upstream of Edmonton to Devon or Genesee to launch your boat and do a drift down to a pull out location. Leave the Honda motor at home and use a set of good paddles. A small shortleg motor to assist if you want. One trip down will give you a better idea of what kind of river you are dealing with.

20 years ago I was fishing upstream at a spot on the river I had to walk into. While I was fishing on shore a man and a his wife were in a 14 ft. boat with a prop motor trying to go upstream along the main channel. They hit a rock and it damaged the transom and prop enough that the motor was useless. I could hear the mans wife screaming at him for 15 minutes as they beached the boat on the opposite shore. They were about 7 miles from where they could drift to get pulled out. No nearby roads. Must have been a romantic moonlit paddle downstream for them.

[yetiseeker]

I agree with Curtis Rak - first you have to wait until late summer and the water clears to navigate the river without incident - lots of boulders but if you have someone at the front of the boat spotting and directing you, you can react quickly enough avoid anything large enough to cause damage.

The other thing is to elevate the motor or tilt so that the water just covers your prop when operating. In other words, use your pin to angle the motor so it sits at an angle where the prop isn't sitting straight up and down like on a lake. Doing this will avoid a lot of knicks and dents, but will still have enough power to propel you upstream (again - water level is key).

And lastly, I always make sure I head upstream of where I launch so that if I do have a problem with my motor, I can drift back to the launch.

[SKSniper]

Awesome guys, just the kind of info I was looking for, thanks a lot! I think I will hold off for a while, doesn't seem worth it to me to bust up my motor. Hondas don't usually break but smashing them against boulders might do the trick .

[waterninja]

It's a bit more of a drive if you live in Edm, but launching your boat from the Ft. Sask. launch and heading upstream puts you in deeper water all the way to rundle, and there are some nice sturgeon holes along the way.
Iv'e seen jet boats get hung up on a very shallow section just downriver from pedistrian bridge connecting rundle to goldbar parks.

[cube]

Guys on here have certainly done it and there were some threads on it a couple of years ago. If memory serves you might want to PM Geezle as I believe he did this in the past.

You might consider getting an adjustable jack plate for your motor and a river runner prop saver (see below)
http://www.propsavers.com/River%20Runner.html

If memory serves one of the posters to the previous threads used a pitch fork attached to the front of his lower leg to function as a prop saver and he even had photo's.

If I recall one suggestion was to use undersized/ home made shear pins so they would break before any real damaged occurred, and to bring plenty of them and of course a spare prop.

The other thing that was mentioned which I thought was very good advice was to always start by going up stream, that way if something happens you can always drift back.

Make sure you do not have your motor locked down, that way if you hit something the leg will bounce up and not just shear off.

Couple of the older threads

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showt...ighlight=river

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showt...ighlight=river




Good luck

[Bigwoodsman]

I don't know the NSR that well, but I have spent some time walking the banks in the area west of Fort Edmonton Park where the foot bridge crosses over the river.

About 25 yards or so East of the bridge and a little South of mid stream there is a huge rock or maybe a few. Last summer on one particularly warm Saturday afternoon several boats hit these rocks. The water had a great deal of clarity as well. The boats that hit it were all traveling up stream as well. Maybe a coincidence, not sure.

I'm sure there are other hazards out there present at different times of the year
with the fluctuating water levels.

Be careful and enjoy your time on the river.

BW

[Marsha]

I have done the river in a 12" harbourcraft tinny and 9.9 merc for many years, done trips from fort sask to rocky mountain house... the longest was Devon to rocky in 5 days of bliss and peace (Except when the motor was running

The secret is to raise your motor as high as it can go and have a "Constant flow from the pee hole.. if it stops and starts when on plane take the motor down a 1/4 inch...
REMOVE the lock mech so the motor can never be locked down...

get a prop save as mentioned above not perfect protection but will save you many props, always carry a spare and tools, next rig a depth sounder, they are not perfect ether but can be a good early warning..

When running always load your boat to run as flat as possible on cruise, this will run your prop as shallow as possible

There will be times you will find sandbars you can not motor over,, simple answer is to get out up motor grasp bow rope and start walking ,, I have had to do this up to 3 kliks to get past a gravel bar in Sept.

when the downtown edmonton water level report over 4.5 meters water a lot of fun can be had...

Below is my old rig...

[skidderman]

Bad idea. It's your life though.

[Marsha]

Good Idea and yes it is your life, enjoy it !!!!
When you have been on the river a bit you learn to read it.. talk to people you see on the river, most will pass on the bits and peaces of info that will let you explore.. The one who don't and belittle your boat and adventures I have found to be jerks with expensive jet boats who know everything but nothing and usually on the gravel bars with their expensive toys, and AMA does not make calles there

With your rig even if you run aground, at 20 - 25 kilometers damage is small if any, go running around at high speed and damage , well I have seen a fiberglass speed boat floating down river and a few minutes later found the people on a gravel bar with the remains of a 200 hp outboard.. thought if they went fast enough they would get over before any damage
one guy said they were going 75 k

so the biggest rules is
Common Sense slow is great just get on plane and enjoy the sights
any ways work UP river, if you break it then float down to your trailer..
Always have someone know when, what and where you are going. and if river camping leave a note on your dash..

get out and enjoy and when you see a 16' with a Rat on the side wave me down and say hi

PS the fishing great !

[NEWB]

With a prop I would not risk it. The river is very shallow for the most part. There are spots on the river where you get to less than a foot deep.

If you know the river well then it should not be an issue.

If you are looking for a fun time and do not care, then I say have at her and see how far you can plow.

[JohninAB]

Some sound advice given in this thread.

A good skeg/prop protector be mandatory. Skeg probably get dinged before the prop especially when a rock or tree is involved.

Had much the same setup as you have there and ran the rivers in NW Ontario. Once you run them a couple of times it gets much easier.

With the skeg/prop protector I had I was more concerned with punching a hole thru the boat than the motor being damaged.

[SKSniper]

Thanks a lot guys! Some good advice indeed. I will see how the shore fishing pans out for me first, if it sucks then maybe someday I will risk it. But I think I will wait until it clears up at any rate and decide then.
Plenty of lakes around to play around on in the meantime

[Talking moose]

You could always sell that motor and get jet leg motor. Keep in mind that you will lose about 20% of your horsepower, so go on the high end of motor size.. Maybe a short leg 20 horse jet.

[Talking moose]

[SKSniper]

Originally Posted by Talking moose

You could always sell that motor and get jet leg motor. Keep in mind that you will lose about 20% of your horsepower, so go on the high end of motor size.. Maybe a short leg 20 horse jet.

Ya that crossed my mind, I will look into pricing on buying one. I don't think I will ever sell that Honda though, it is such a solid, reliable motor I would have a very hard time getting rid of it lol. I bought it second hand 2 years ago with under 20 hours on it so it will last me forever if I take care of it, hence my concern with the river

I've always wanted to get a bigger boat someday, and I'm pretty much positive it will be a jet boat now. Then between the two I can fish almost anywhere

[bobalong]

Originally Posted by SKSniper

Ya that crossed my mind, I will look into pricing on buying one. I don't think I will ever sell that Honda though, it is such a solid, reliable motor I would have a very hard time getting rid of it lol. I bought it second hand 2 years ago with under 20 hours on it so it will last me forever if I take care of it, hence my concern with the river

I've always wanted to get a bigger boat someday, and I'm pretty much positive it will be a jet boat now. Then between the two I can fish almost anywhere

Jet leg is about 2k when I checked a few years back and they all pretty well come from the same company

I fished the NSR for about 4 years with a 14ft and a 30HP Yamaha prop motor. I really wanted to fish the first couple of times out, but had decided that I would learn one stretch of river, (from cloverbar to downtown) and just fish that once I learned the river. I did fish a bit each day that first time out, but spent almost one full Saturday and Sunday just slowing cruising up and down the river, side to side, going very slow.

The river does change a bit, but once I learned the shallow spots and where the river channel was I never really had to much problem navigating. The only exception was just west of the Capilano bridge, one stretch in there was very shallow and the area that was shallow was quite wide, but once I found the channel it was ok.

[Talking moose]

Another thing you can do to learn the river channels is by Google earth. The deeper water shows up darker.(channels)

[Marsha]

The only problem with Google Earth is they are old photos and the channels and path of the river shift every day.. I have the latest loaded into my GPS and at times according to the image I am jetting across wooded land
Maps are even worst some areas of the NSR are 1974 datum. 40 year old info

If using google for ideas watch the date when published some of the Edmonton area is 8/8/2014 data so it is good but do not trust completely the channels move..

[cgs01]

I know the nsr from shore and have seen many boats cruising up stream - there are channels that you can get your boat thru. Slow and steady will get you there and you will learn where you can take your boat. A spotter at front for the first time you travel a section is a good idea. Once you learn where the channels are, you can speed up a bit.

Enjoy your river trips!

cgs

[YeeHaw]

In my opinion, you can run an outboard on the NSR, most of the time. But sonar is an absolute must. I have a tough time when the river drops around mid to late July eith my long leg 25hp. Go slow till you learn where the channel is, and even then be ready to lift your motor at a seconds notice. I have only ran it between gold bar, and the high level bridge, and can tell you there are two areas where you dont want to have your motor down, especially in the locked position. Once the launch is open, I could show you the channel. Lots of good fishing in the area as well.