On Feb 26, 12:43 pm, mdk77 wrote:
I had never heard of a drift boat until recently. I've never seen one
in my area of Central Illinois. I Googled drift boats and they look
like "specialty boats" for Western rivers, but I wasn't sure. Would
these be any good for the Midwest rivers and lakes (for fly fishing
out of)?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of drift boats?

I owned an Alumaweld 48" Guide model and floated the Roaring Fork and
Colorado rivers in Western Colorado. After some time I sold it and
never looked back. Here's why:

1) It's a lot of fun but can be extremely dangerous in even class II
or III waters when fishing. Every year you hear of an accident of some
sort, even experienced guides. Prople get very casual in these things,
and they are safe for the most part. However, it only takes a moment
of distraction to court disaster. I'd have a hard time getting my beer
buddies to even wear a life jacket. "We trust you Walker", they'd say.

2) Having the boat complicated my fishing. I always felt guilty just
walking down to the river and fishing. But, to use the Boat, I'd need
to find someone to go with and, being a real angler, I am most content
to fish alone. The logistics of 2 cars, a shuttle, lanuching, prepping
and cleaning up just wasn't worth it. Hell of a lot of fun but, that
was just the boasting aspect, not necessarily the fishing aspect. If I
want to run rapids, that's easy enough to do in a raft for a day with
any of the hundreds of people that will take you. I missed the
simplicity.

3) When you're floating along you can get incredibly long drag-free
drifts but, you also usually only have one shot at a given spot. This
is somewhat antithetical to the sport to me which is about solving
difficult currents, finding a fly that works, in a given spot. I'd see
a GREAT spot that I knew held good fish but, there it was and there it
went as we moved by at 10 miles per.

4) You can access private water, which is nice, but you can't stop.
So, given (3) above, it was always more frustrating than satisfying.

5) Drift boats are expensive. You'll outlay 4-5 grand to get in to a
decent one with a trailer.

6) Drift boats kill fish. In the summer months the bed of the fork is
littered with corpses of C&R fish caught by the guide conglomerates
from Aspen, Basalt and Glenwood Springs. It is not "the gentle art" a
fish is hooked at the head of the rapids and, there's nothing to do
but drag it's ass over rock and log. Then, youj flip it up or net it
and you set it on the aluminum that's at about 200 degrees in the sun.
The fish dies. Of course, these things can be prevented o some extent
but the corpses of hundreds of trout every day were silent reminders
that it's not possible or practical to do this in all cases.

In summary drift boats can be a hell of a lot of fun, but they're fun
even without the fishing aspect. Still, as my dad always said (we
realize how right Dad's are later in life), "The happiest 2 days in a
man's life are the day he buys a boat and the say he sells it".

My .02.

Halfordian Golfer
Guilt replaced the creel.