Top 15 CANADIAN moments 2012 #14 - Jets

Ok, so as of looking through our 2012 season, it became clear, this is going to have to be a bit longer review! We've narrowed it to a TOP 15 moments of Canada and then we'll get into our New Zealand hi-lights. So, check that last post in at #15...

On to #14

If you've followed anything on forums, blogs, and the like, I've been quite adamantly opposed to jet boats in the wrong situations. I suppose this forces me to look at the bigger picture and check what constitutes the 'wrong' situations. Really, any time that a jet boat can't go about its business without potential of killing someone or ruining another river user's enjoyment of a peaceful day, or having a directly negative environmental impact would be the key points to where jets shouldn't be.  Used properly, on larger or wider reaches of rivers, there should be no issue if they honor other river users. For the larger rivers in the province that don't have a high fly fishing following, jet boats simply aren't an issue. Add us fly fishers into the mix and you'd think that the world was ending with each passing of a boat. Most of us can own that we're a little too sensitive. That said, most jet boaters can admit that they simply be doing what they're doing when taking someone else's life in their hands when traveling 90mph in tight reaches of the Red Deer, or doing laps of non-motorized craft when it's patently obvious they're irritating the river's other users.

I recall when I hosted the old Fly Fish Alberta Forum the jet boat thread that had literally 250 replies in 36 hours as jet boat users and fly fishers came to an amazing, heated argument. I simply gave notice that folks needed to clean up their act within the day or the RCMP would be given all information - the threats were that bad - from both sides.

So it was that Amelia & I were invited to jet a big river by a guest this fall. We'd fished it previously, but we wanted to enjoy another experience. So there we were, at the end of the day, having had such a fun time of fishing together, that I looked at Amelia sitting in a passenger seat, hair blowing in the wind of the jet boat. Having fun. Me? Loved the day. That moment of clarity, that you don't have to go looking for conflicts between users, to simply enjoy a moment - while keeping an eye out for the possibility of coming upon another user and honoring them - was an enjoyable moment.

We had the river to ourselves. Had we not, there was so much room to avoid anyone else that it wouldn't have made any negative impact, save for the minute of noise. I asked myself if I was on the shore and the boat went past if I would have been upset? A quick answer - not at all. You don't go to a big river known to have jet boats on it and expect there to be none, then get upset when there are. It was something I'd come to grips with about 7 years ago, and having the chance to see it from the other side simply cemented it.

Thanks Marv, for a great day. We loved it!