I have a 2002 185 jet and I like it a lot. We don't have a lot of leaves on the water in the fall here is Idaho, but I have sucked weeds into the input twice. Once I was idling slowly watching the depth finder for the dropoff into a deep hole and the current pushed me over a very shallow flat cover with weeds. If I had been on plane there wouldn't have been a problem, but the jet sucked up some of the weeds and clogged. When it clogs, you will know it; no power & won't get up on plane. I cleaned it out right away and had no over-heatin issues, but if you left it clogged and tried to run it any distance it would probably overheat. To clear it out you have to reach over the transom and put your arm in up to your shoulder and pull the weeds out. Mercury also has a take-down rake that will reach under to the input to clear it. The only other time that I clooged it I was blasting off for a tournament and hit a patch of the same type of weeds that were drifting fown the reservoir. Again, if I had been on plane it wouldn't have been a problem; plus normally I see these patches of weeds and steer clear, but it was early and I was watching the other boats instead of the water.
The boat works well for fishing rivers & reservoirs. I would recommend upgrading the trolling motor to a 12/24V or 24V with at least 60 lbs of thrust. I upgraded mine to a Motorguide 12/24 67 lb motor when I bought the boat.
