A DISCUSSION ON BOATING ETIQUETTE BY JOHN BERRY

It seems to me that boating etiquette has become a problem here locally on the White and Norfork Rivers. When I first started guiding, lo these many years ago, a fifteen horsepower outboard was the standard motor for a White River Jon boat. There may have been the occasional twenty five horse engine for high water but there were smaller engines such as nine point nine or even eight horsepower motors.

Now the standard new motor is more like forty horsepower with several in the sixty horse range or even larger yet the boats are still the same size. They are all not jet drives. The jets are less efficient and you need about forty percent more horsepower to equal the power of a prop drive motor. The advantage of the jet motors is that they can easily go through water that is too shallow for the propeller drive motors. Jet motors are much less efficient and more difficult to steer at lower speeds. That is basically why they all have installed oars on their boats so they can control their drifts, without using their motors.

The jet motors are much louder than the prop drive motors and they tend to throw a much higher wake. This is exacerbated by the need to move at a higher speed. The wake is the real problem especially, if you are fishing nearby. Your boat will be tossed about like a rag doll. The wake is also a big problem for waders, canoeists and kayakers. A month ago, when just about all of the guides were fishing on the Norfork River, the problem was pretty bad because of the congestion and the narrowness of the Norfork, which does not allow for much maneuver room.

The obvious solution would be for the guys with the big jet outboards to slow down when they are passing anglers that are actively fishing. Now, if they are passing another motor boat that is under way, then I see no need for them to slow down. The problem is that these guys do not see much need to slow down for any reason and it is not well received by their fellow anglers. I have heard more than one angler talk about the need for horsepower limits for motors on the White and Norfork River similar to the limits set on the Buffalo River (under ten horsepower).

The problem for me is that most of these guys are fly fishing guides and I work with almost all of them at one time or another. I thought that the best thing that I could do is to set a good example. Whenever I pass one of them, or anyone else for that matter, I slow down and make sure that I don’t put a wake over them. I also make sure that I pass them on the side of their boat, from which they are not fishing. I don’t think that this has made much of an impression. I have sat down and talked to a few of them and they have responded positively.

I think the answer is for all anglers particularly those with the larger jet motors to slow down when passing other anglers. Just pretend that your Mom is in the boat that you are passing.

John Berry is a fly fishing guide for Blue Ribbon Guides in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.