Several weeks ago Kevin Turner, proprietor of Turner Marine [now RiverPro, Inc.] in Hillsboro,
Mo., rolled into Lawrence with a boat in tow. He came here to test his
20-foot River Pro jet-propelled boat on the drought-stricken Kansas River,
which is a trying waterway to navigate in the best of conditions.
This year the Kaw has been so low that many of the river's most ardent
anglers have been sequestered to fishing within close proximity of the
boat ramps. Until Turner arrived, only canoe and airboat enthusiasts dared
to traverse the many miles of logjams, sandbars and extremely shallow
water.
On this outing, Pete Peterson of Leavenworth accompanied Turner. It
was Peterson's first ride in a jet boat, and straightaway he was amazed
by the agility and safety of Turner's craft.
 Traveling up river from Eudora at a 30-mph clip, they traversed sandbars
with only a half of inch of water coursing across them and jumped over
logs that stuck six inches out of the water. They could have reached the
Bowersock Dam in Lawrence without a hitch. But instead they turned around
and headed downstream and traveled across miles of incredibly shallow
water and past a multitude of snags. And they didn't turn around until
they were several miles below the Weaver Bottoms and the Union Pacific's
jetties.
By the time they returned to the Eudora boat ramp, Peterson was in the
mood for buying Turner's marvelous craft to use on the shallow saltwater
flats along the Gulf coast of Florida, where Peterson spends many days
pursuing redfish with a fly rod. So Peterson questioned Turner about the
boat's history and uses. Turner told Peterson that it's a bass boat designed
for fishing the shallow and virtually unnavigable smallmouth bass rivers
in Missouri and central Minnesota.
Before Turner built his heavy-duty aluminum vessel in 1998, he tried
a variety of jet boats for more than a decade, and ultimately all of them
failed. Some were even quickly torn asunder on the boulder-strewn shoals
that clutter a fisherman's way on those Missouri and Minnesota streams.
He became so frustrated that he decided to build a boat that wouldn't
fail.
Turner called navigating the shallow and treacherous environs of the
Kaw "a cake walk" for his boat, and it is so easy and dependable
that it should open many new vistas for the Kaw's many cat fishermen.
Likewise, Peterson says it will be a great and durable boat for plying
the Florida saltwater flats.
by Ned Kehde
Courtesy of the Lawrence, Kansas Journal World
|
