Who has the right of way?

I recently just purchased a jet for my boat to run the shallows of the river. Last weekend while running in about 4 inches of water at full speed i noticed a cluster of about 20 plus canoes in front of me. There was no way I could let off the throttle with out damaging my motor/boat/myself! So I proceded to cut a path around them and even zig zagged a little closer than I would have liked to. Needless to say middle fingers and f-bombs where coming from every direction! So my questions is when the river is bottle necked with canoes and you are traveling in the shallows who really has the right of way?????

I think the best approach is to kill them with kindness. I blasted through a group of 6 or 8 canoes before and yelled "look out", only to get the finger. The next time I blasted through a group of canoers, I smiled, waived and they waived back. I was only 10' away from them and they didn't get my wake till after I was gone

Non-powered watercraft always have the right of way and I think there is suppose to be 100 feet (or something like that) between boats under power and non-powered watercraft. (Please do not quote me on the exact numbers here.) I do the exact same thing as the rest of you..........if I can shut the engine down and wait for them to clear out, I do. If I have no other option, I do my best to stay away from them but I sure as hell am not going to sacrifice my boat or my passenger's health. If they get ticked off over a 5-inch wake "rocking" their canoes, then so be it. It is what it is.

Anyway, I think you can only do your best in that situation. If the canoers understood your situation, I think there would be less finger waving and f-bomb slinging. When I see the fingers waving, I automatically assume that the booze they have been drinking since 7am is doing most of the talking anyway. :)

Furthermore....

-On a river, a boat operating upriver (against the current) gives way to a boat operating downriver (with the current). A boat operating across the current gives way to boats operating both upriver and downriver

I asked a WCO and was told that the larger vessel always has the right of way, especially in the shallows when you are running full bore. There is not much to give when you are 3-4 inches of water and you have a cloud of canoes lingering across the entire span of the river. Its ok when you can see in front of you and can wait it out, but when you cant and you are already commited then i guess proceed with caution in my book.

I've had my own encounters with the "pods" of canoes and kayaks and I fish from a canoe or wade. Personally I feel most of the issue lies with the inability of the canoe pods to navigate correctly as most are people with limited experience on the water. I've been "run into" numerous times while wading.

I do feel that a jet boat operator has a responsibility to make sure a riffle is clear before heading up through. I could see a situation with a jet boat heading up through a narrow riffle and even a single canoe coming down would be unable to "get out of the way". The burner riffle at the Warren refinery would be this type of situation.

I also feel there are a few jet boat operators on the river that need a lesson or two in curtesy. I've seen a few just randomly running around acting like jet skis which I'm sure sticks in the memory of a few and gives jet boats a bad rap.

The canoe rentals on the river could help the situation by giving their groups a bit of a lesson in the way of the river. I'm sure most canoe operators in those pods have no idea that a jet has restrictions in terms of just shutting it down in the middle of shallow water. It would also help if they would stick to one side of the river instead of forming a massive floating wall. Sort of like what would happen if pods of motorcycles on the road would decide to ride in mass as a pod instead of single file.


To pose a situation....

Imagine 6 fly fisherman are spread out in the first riffle below Kinzua dam leaving no obvious upstream path. It's the hatch of a lifetime.......Your in a jet heading up to fish the pool above the riffle. You can easily stop since this riffle is so short and you can see the fisherman well in advance of reaching the point of no return. What do you do? Same situation but a pod of canoes has just launched and is heading downstream. What should they do?

I agree, I don't think anyone has the "right of way", but if I coming up river in my jet and I find myself in a position with no other choice, I'll just wave hello and stay as far away as possible. When your completely on plane there really isn't much of a wake anyway. If you can realize the situation and accept the wake, then you shouldn't be canoeing. When someone is wading, I always stay way clear. I think its best to use caution in this situation.

its accepted behavior to run fullbore thru canoes in a foot of water?... not what i would have expected...lol i would think there would be linch mobs out for guys flying around while pple are fishing from shore or canoes

its kind of the same when i troll on conneaut and my friend wants to have lures 200 feet behind the boat and jetskis and pontoons want to cross...im like dude u cant expect them not to cross you on this lake...same as on erie when if you can read the sticker on your boat your on collision course

After last night I change my mind on this. Unless it's a fleet of kayaks hogging the whole river, I prefer they stay put and let me go around them. That happened to me yesterday on a narrow/skinny section of river and it worked out really well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOV-A-WHSZs