We fish the ocean, strait, sound, lakes, rivers, etc. and we, after careful deliberation, chose an Alumaweld 20' Intruder w/sportjet. It has 14 degree V, but my dad was valuing it's saltwater driving capabilities over it's extreme shallow water river capibilities. We wanted to keep our v-6 SUVs to pull it with.

Serious shallow-river folks, who haul 4 or more passengers, might choose an inboard V-8 jet engine, however.

They say, up on plane, folks can do 6" water (talking about a 10 degree V, I think.) Our test drive w/the 10 degree Alumaweld was a bit bumpy for my dad on Lake Washington...14 degrees much smoother...we got the $700 (each!) truck seats in ours and it's so smooth of a ride you can't believe it. If you get the sportjet, get the sportjet "cleanout"....helps us get weeds etc. out of the thing w/out having to swim or pull the boat out of the water. Well worth it.

A 12-degree-V Wooldridge 19-20' boat is maybe the best bet if you do 50/50 mix of rivers/salt-water. 14 degree Alumaweld is great too!

One surprise we ran into AFTER buying our boat was that the ONLY LEGAL way to take a jet boat on a "electric-motor-only" lake is to REMOVE the (outboard) jet, and use an electric motor.....legally you can't even keep the gas motor on board and out of the water (I'm serious!) Gas/oil can and does still drip into the water unless you remove the motor. Can't remove an inboard jet motor....at least I'm not going to bother! A 150 hp outboard motor is also not fun to remove unless you take it to a shop or get some kind of hoist and motor holder for once you remove it from the boat. You MIGHT legally be able to do it if you remove the outboards bottom-end and drain the fluids out?

Absolute FLAT-bottom boats can be lethal in big waves....don't use one in the sound.

The biggest mistake most people make in jet boats is not getting a powerful-enough of engine...don't skimp here.

If you take it in the sound don't get less than 26" sides on the boat (based upon a 19' boat). This is one problem the Wooldridge Alaskan has (my first choice, initially) It's 9 degree V would be very poor in the sound vs. a 12 degree w/a sharper bow.

I'd call Wooldridge and take Dave Mullin's jet-boat class ($150 I think....in his boat?) before buying one.

Fishing and Hunting News has a 3-part article on jets in their recent issue.