Madison Lakes

[wiscorafter]

Seeking some input before we pull the trigger on a new boat. I'd be coming from a standard I/O 19 foot. About 75% of our time is spent on the Madison area lakes. Mendota / Monona / Waubesa / Kegonsa, going down the yahara river through mud lake etc. Is life going to suck (pun intended) with a jet boat given the weed situation on these lakes? Would love to hear from people who operate on these lakes. Thanks!

 

[GTBRMC]

Seeking some input before we pull the trigger on a new boat. I'd be coming from a standard I/O 19 foot. About 75% of our time is spent on the Madison area lakes. Mendota / Monona / Waubesa / Kegonsa, going down the yahara river through mud lake etc. Is life going to suck (pun intended) with a jet boat given the weed situation on these lakes? Would love to hear from people who operate on these lakes. Thanks!

Never made it to Kegonsa, but boated Mendota / Monona / Waubesa many times over an 8 year period (before I sold my SX-230 in 2017). Had one minor weed issue once or twice in all those trips. Unless the lakes have changed a lot, I would not hesitate to take a jet boat onto those lakes.

 

[SCP1]

Seeking some input before we pull the trigger on a new boat. I'd be coming from a standard I/O 19 foot. About 75% of our time is spent on the Madison area lakes. Mendota / Monona / Waubesa / Kegonsa, going down the yahara river through mud lake etc. Is life going to suck (pun intended) with a jet boat given the weed situation on these lakes? Would love to hear from people who operate on these lakes. Thanks!

You should be fine we hit the three, with no problems. You just need to avoid the solid weed areas thinking mostly on Monona where the water is shallow.

 

[Dietzen34]

All of the lakes are great. Just stay in the middle of the channels when going in the rivers and avoid the shallow weedy bays. Monona has a great sand bar on the north east end called Holy Bay. Monona to Mendota through the locks is good. The trip from Monona to Waubesa through Upper Mud lake is good but might have to drop the tower if the lakes are high at the railroad trestle. The trip from Waubesa to Kegonsa is tricky, the water levels need to be really high as the river is very shallow. I have made the trip on my old AR192 but would not be able to on a 252.

 

[wiscorafter]

thanks for the info. Sounds like it won’t be as big of a concern as I imagined. I envisioned constant problems.

 

[drewkaree]

thanks for the info. Sounds like it won’t be as big of a concern as I imagined. I envisioned constant problems.

I'm not in that area, but my home lake was a wild rice field, and it's shallower than most are used to. Even if you run into problems, the Yamaha cleanout ports are a breeze to handle anything that you'll encounter. My boating day, 100% of the time, starts with putting out of our creek to the lake itself, doing the reverse maneuver about 50-100 yards offshore to clear what's been ingested, sometimes twice, and I'm on my way. The rare occasions that I have to pull the cleanout plugs are easy to deal with, and even outboards often have to clear their props in those areas.

I would have sold any jet boat other than a Yamaha, or never even considered buying a boat, in the area I boat in. Eyes up, you'll do fine.

 

[RiverRat]

Heck yeah jetboats on Madison lakes!

 

[wiscorafter]

Awesome. Thanks @RiverRat