Need Help: St Joseph Michigan boating?
 

Hi everyone ~

Recently my husband and I drove a few hours from our town and found the cutest place - St Joseph Michigan.

We saw the channel where the St Joe River feeds out into Lake Michigan and decided we'd like to bring our boat up this weekend and check it out.

But we have some questions and I'd really appreciate if anyone can help us:

1. Our boat is small - 23' Mod-Vee Tunnel w/outboard. Will we be okay boating in that area of Lake Michigan?

2. Where is the best place to launch in St Joseph - best security, less cost etc?

3. I saw another thread about a place called "Hardy". Is this anywhere nearby and would we have more fun going to "Hardy" instead? We'll be bringing our 2 young boys with us, so the atmosphere needs to be somewhat G-rated. ;) Nothing too wild.

Although..... last month while docked beside a pontoon boat, a young female passenger wearing a G-string mooned my 8 year old boy :eek:
.........and all he did was giggle ..... I don't think it permanently scarred him or anything :D

you will be ok at st. joe as far as depth, problem is little public docking. if you get on shore go to clementines restaurant, excellent. hardy is about two hours north, its a dam on the river, fun not always g-rated. lots of fast boats up there:)

Thanks!

Regarding St Joe - Is there a public launch ramp on the river locally that we could use? What are the crowds like?

Regarding Hardy - what are the water conditions and how big is the lake (?) behind the dam?

Thanks for your help!

BK

There are several people here on the board that call St, Joe home. I'm sure they can be of some help.

We made a detour off I196 on our way home from the races in Grand Haven lassst weekend. St Joe does look like a nice place. The Clarion hotel right downtown on the river looks pretty nice.
We want to come back up and check it out. It would be about a 50 mile cruise for us, by boat.

Where do you live in IN? We live in a small town South of Valpo, DeMotte.

There is 17 miles of river that You can run at Hardy pond. It is usually pretty mild during the day.But as everyone knows with boats, women and alcohol anything can happen. Usually this timeof year it is too cold for bathing suits let alone nudity. Lots of hot boats and nice people. If you haven't run rivers before follow someone that knows the river. Above the low bridge at what used to be Parkers Landing you have to watch the river and stay to the high bank side. I run a 34 Scarab all the way up to the sand bar ( 17 mile point ) Also down by the dam on the west side about 1/2 mi upriver there is a sand bar that juts out into the river about 1/8 mile. It goes from 95 ft to 2 ft in about 50 ft so a depth finder won't help. Rule of thumb is that if you stay in the center of the river you will be safe. The river is deep and in most places you can pull right up to the beach without hitting the prop.

Thanks for all the help!

Looks like we'll come up to see what's happening at Hardy this weekend. We just discovered another friend of ours with a hi-perf boat lives up that way and he'll probably meet us and show us around.

Hope to see some of you OSO'ers up there!

We'll be in a 23' solid red Mod-VP low profile boat "Mirage". Wave if you see us!

BK

Hey BK,

We're Hardy rookies as well. Should be there around 6:00 tonight. We'll look for ya.

Our group consists of my Purple/white Baja Outlaw, a red/white 25 Eliminator Daytona, a 27 Powerquest, and a Four Winns U-19 Unlimited. Come say hi!

I'll be going up in the morning!!

I'm going to try to catch up with KAAMA and whoever else might be going.


:D :D

We're driving up from the South Bend area and should be launching around Noon.

By the way -- Where is the launch ramp? ;)


Thanks again.


BK

There is a sand bar way up river that the STV's and other fast boats hang out at and it is on a straight spot of the river for racing. Lots of fun.