Drift Boats - advantages and disadvantages

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?

Drift boats are ideal for drifting rivers all over the US and ponds,
they are used by guides all over the East. You can sit or stand (slow
water obviously) while casting. Ideal for one or two people.


If your looking for something a bit smaller to haul around try a
pontoon boat. I've drifted a few rivers in my area and fish many a
pond with them. You can sit or stand cast as well, depending on how
much $$$.

Third option is a kayak, I enjoy the toons, but prefer the yak. Closer
to the water for releasing the fish, single paddle to deal with, and I
can get somewhere without to much effort in slow water, yak is more
responsive. Sal****er fishing in rivers is ideal for yaks.

2cents


--
Flygal

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"mdk77" wrote in message
...
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?


We used one out west here on the Trinity River CA. for steelhead,
when we hired a pro guide.

Disadvantages:
1. Scares the fish as we made our way down the river.
2. The wading anglers gave us a lot of dirty-looks as we passed over
their fishing holes.
3. Limits your casting.
4. More difficult to read water.

Advantages:
1. Can drift the line for long lengths down the river.
2. Speed of boat matches the drift of the current.
3. Get into deep areas that you couldn't wade.
4. Relaxing, when you're tired fishing...put your feet up and enjoy the
view and the drift, have your lunch.

That was the last time I hired a guide and a drift boat.
I prefer to wade-in or cast from the bank, just feel I can get a better
read on the water and use of my casting techniques.

We also at times used the same method of drift in Alaska as my friend
and I took turns rowing, the first year I visited. I consider it blind
casting
but it was effective using dry flies. I didn't dead-drift my second visit.
-tom

"mdk77" wrote



Two great days in a sportsman's life.

1) The day he finally gets that boat he's dreamed of for years.


then, later


2) The day he finally gets rid of that effing boat that has ruined his
budget and used up his free time in maintenance, for years.




more, onThread .... drift boats are an effective way to fish 'some' rivers
at 'some' times ... but not 'most' at 'most' times, imho.... they are best
for big rivers with limited wading access .... even on such waters, the only
use I enjoy is using one to 'get there' and then wading, I dislike the
constantly moving target thing I've seen described, and I think accurately,
as "like a video game"

On Feb 26, 2:20 pm, "Larry L" wrote:
"mdk77" wrote

Two great days in a sportsman's life.

1) The day he finally gets that boat he's dreamed of for years.

then, later

2) The day he finally gets rid of that effing boat that has ruined his
budget and used up his free time in maintenance, for years.


I can relate to that. I've only had two boats over the years (neither
for fly fishing). One was an absolute albatross that I grew to hate
(money pit and it sure took up too much time in maintenance). My
second boat was a more simple boat that was a joy, it had to go when
marriage and kids came into the picture because I was strapped for
money :-(

I'm probably going to end up with a canoe, but when I saw the
information on "drift boats" I was intrigued.

Flygal wrote:
Sal****er fishing in rivers is ideal for yaks.

where are these sal****er rivers?

jeff

On Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:58:23 -0500, jeff miller
wrote:

Flygal wrote:
Sal****er fishing in rivers is ideal for yaks.

where are these sal****er rivers?

Downstream from the sal****er lakes, of course....

/daytripper (it's actually quite simple stuff ;-)

I'm a short distance from the coast of Maine - just over an hour. One
river I enjoy salt fishing is the Saco, it's headwaters original in the
White Mtns and flows through my valley....It's neat to fish a river's
beginning (some in between) and end with a wide variety of fish to
catch...


--
Flygal

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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.

Halfordian Golfer wrote:

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".
Guilt replaced the creel.

i hate drift boat flyfishing for trout. it just aint natural. it's a
hurried tourism, not fishing, on a trout stream.

however, that said...i'm still a "wind in the willows" kinda guy. i
love messing about in boats.

jeff