Drift Boats - advantages and disadvantages

mdk77 · Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 25

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?

Archived from group: rec>outdoors>fishing>fly

Tom Nakashima · Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 166

"mdk77" wrote in message @p25g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>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

Larry L · Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 213

"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"

mdk77 · Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 25

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 Sad

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

daytripper · Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 109

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

>Flygal wrote:
> Saltwater fishing in rivers is ideal for yaks.
>
>where are these saltwater rivers?

Downstream from the saltwater lakes, of course....

/daytripper (it's actually quite simple stuff Wink

Halfordian Golfer · Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 41

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.

Peter A. Collin · Joined: 13 Dec 2007 Posts: 7

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 have fished in drift boats east and west. On the slow eastern rivers,
I thought it was extremely luxurious, like fishing from a limousine.
Out west, where the current is swift and the wind howls, I could never
get the hang of Machine-gunning my casts in the harsh blow. Out there I
much preferred parking the boat to fish.

Pete Collin

rw · Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 209

jeff miller wrote:
> 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

I've never had much luck fishing from a drift boat -- while it's
drifting, that is. I think the boat puts the fish down. They see it
coming. Sometimes I've had good dry fly action when I can cast to the
banks and other spots away from the boat, but the floating is mostly, in
my mind, to get access to otherwise inaccessible spots for wade fishing.

There are places, notably on the San Juan and the Bighorn in my
experience, where guides can drift their clients time and again over
great holes and catch lots of fish, but that's not for me.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

Opus--Mark H. Bowen · Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 88

"jeff miller" wrote in message $0$4042$bbae4d71@news.suddenlink.net...
> 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.

You'd better hope Uncle wally ain't tunin' in to ROFF of late!

Op

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

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