Got A New Watercraft...

[Al Agnew]

Okay, out here in Montana I'm part owner of a raft, have access to a driftboat, and have a solo canoe. None of them work if I want to float and fish solo. Floating a river like the Yellowstone is a lot different from floating Ozark streams. For one thing, it's about five to ten times more water flow, and for another it's a whole lot faster, with swirling currents everywhere. The raft and driftboat, of course, are too big and require constant attention to the oars. The canoe, while small enough and easy enough to handle to be able to attempt to fly fish while drifting--I do it all the time in Missouri--is still at the mercy of currents that continually swirl and move the canoe around. I needed a different watercraft.

At first I was considering a pontoon boat. Lots of people use them out here, and they seem to work okay. But I needed something that I could easily get up and down a steep bank at the house, and most pontoon craft are fairly heavy and awkward to handle.

Then a friend out here told me about a Watermaster. I looked it up on the internet, www.bigskyinflatables.com

This is a small raft, 7 or 8 ft. depending upon the model, with no floor. It's kinda like a really big inner tube, only oblong and with slightly pointed ends. It has a rigid seat that is attached to the inner walls of the raft so that you sit a few inches below the upper surface of the raft, and a flexible "shelf" attached to the back of the rigid seat and covering the rest of the opening behind the seat for a cargo area. It does not have a frame, instead the oarlocks are simply attached to the upper surface of the raft, and the oars, which are two piece and only about five feet long, are bolted onto the oar locks (very quickly attached and removed). It comes with a pretty comfortable removable seat cushion and back, a strap that goes across the open bottom in front of you to rest your feet on when rowing, a set of mesh pockets that attach to the inside edge of the raft, a cargo net, a rod holder, and a stripping apron. In addition, it comes with swim fins that fit over your wading boots, so that you can maneuver the raft with your feet while drifting and fishing.

I ordered one, and it came today. I got the bigger version, the Kodiak. The whole raft, oars, and all accessories came in a box about 3 x 2 x 1.5 feet, and weighed a little over 40 pounds--the raft itself weighs about 27 pounds. I took the raft out, unfolded it, and inflated it with the foot pump provided. The raft inflates in two chambers, forward and aft, and took about 15 minutes with the foot pump--a little better pump wouldn't hurt. It took only a few minutes to attach the seat, foot brace, rod holder, oars, and cargo net. It fit in the back of my full size short bed pickup with a couple feet sticking out the back. I threw in a couple fly rods, my fly pack, and a bottle of water, and took off for Mayor's Landing in town for the 1.5 mile float back to the house, a nice shakedown cruise.

I love this thing! I ran a couple of nice rapids with 2-3 foot standing waves and one somewhat scary looking fast chute crashing into a tangled root bank, a place I'd be a little afraid to run in a canoe. The raft is rated for up to class 4 whitewater, and it was absolutely no problem. I floated over a couple of shallow shoals, and it floats in 3-4 inches of water. It handles very well with the oars, but the swim fins are really sweet, because I drifted through several fast riffles using only the swim fins, and I drifted and fished all the good looking banks without ever touching the oars. Caught several nice trout and some whitefish while drifting. When I'd come to a good riffle corner, I'd fin into the eddy, put my feet down to stand up, and fish the whole thing by standing inside the raft. If the water was more than knee deep and fast, the raft served as a perfect aid to wading, since I could hold onto it if I was starting to slip. In one spot I needed to walk over a bar with just an inch or so of water, and I simply stood up inside the doughnut, lifted the whole thing up around me by two handy carrying handles alongside the seat, and walked across the bar into deeper water. The only problem was getting used to walking with the big swim fins on...it's still easier to walk backwards. But the fins come on and off very easily and quickly with just one quick release buckle to loosen or tighten, so I could easily take them off if I wished. I laid the extra rod with reel up beside me in the seat and the rod slipped through the mesh of the cargo net, with the tip sticking out behind the boat. If I needed to put the rod I was using down to row, it went into the rod holder, sticking straight up.

Would this work on Ozark streams? I think so. It wouldn't be optimum on the bigger, slower rivers because you'd have to turn around and row or fin backwards to get through long, dead pools. But otherwise, on streams like the Eleven Point or North Fork, and on smaller, fast streams with few long pools, it would be great for the fly fisherman, though with perhaps only one big potential problem. On smaller streams with tight quarters, the fact that your rod either sticks out the back end several feet or sticks straight up in the air would be a real pain, because it would be in constant danger of getting stuck in the brush. But the great ease of fishing, hands free almost all the time, and the terrific portability might be worth that hassle. It takes only a few minutes to deflate, fold up, and put into a big dry bag that comes with it. You could drive your subcompact car to the river with this thing in the back seat. Heck, you could easily check it as baggage on an airplane and be under the weight limit.

It's fairly slow, and you wouldn't be able to row it upstream. It's strictly a drift/float fishing craft, or one you could use on small to medium size lakes and ponds. And for some people the low seat might take some getting used to, it's about the same as fly casting in water that comes to mid-thigh. It's rated to 750 pounds, so you could take camping gear for an overnighter, but the cargo area isn't very big and you'd have to travel light and tie everything down carefully. But for a day trip, there's plenty of room for a small cooler and a dry bag or a milk crate with whatever you would need in it. The ride is pretty dry except in fairly good-sized standing waves, where the water sloshes up onto your rear end a little.

Only other drawback is the price...I got a decent deal on mine, and it still cost about $1500 with all the accessories. But for fly fishing the rivers out here, it's just about perfect, and I think it will be well worth it.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Cool boats for sure. I've seen them a couple times down on the Eleven Point. From a distance, I thought, what the heck? big man in a little rubber raft, but as they got closer, I saw their legs dangling from underneath and was intrigued. Looked like a slick way to go, sorta wade and float your way around. Would be ideal for Eleven Point or North Fork like you said, Al.

[Guest]

Saw those on one of the trout bum videos. I think they would be very versatile for creeks, rivers and lakes. If I only had $1500 to drop on one.

[ness]

That's a very cool development, and sounds very well thought out. One of the nicer things about a float tube is the ability to use your feet and keep your hands free, but they've got a whole lot of limitations and this addresses many of them.

I predict copycats soon and prices well below $1,500.

[Gavin]

That looks like a great boat for out West...Enjoy your new toy!

[Flysmallie]

I'm jealous.

[eric1978]

Very cool. Definitely a specialty craft, though.

Just one question...when you stand up to wade with the boat around you, does it tend to push you around due to the current grabbing the boat, or is there not much added resistance?

[Al Agnew]

No, Eric, the boat sets so high in the water when you're not sitting on it that you barely feel it nudging you.

I'm not sure it could be called purely a specialty craft. I think it would be quite usable on just about any floatable river...it just has some drawbacks for use on some streams.

Funny thing is, this reminds me of a boat my dad built for me when I was a kid for floating upper Big River. It was two truck inner tubes, with a sheet of painted marine plywood on top of them with a hole cut out over the hole in the front inner tube. You sat on the plywood and stuck your feet down through the hole and kicked yourself around with swim fins, just like this boat. It's like I'm reliving my childhood!

[eric1978]

I'm not sure it could be called purely a specialty craft. I think it would be quite usable on just about any floatable river...it just has some drawbacks for use on some streams.

I'm sure it's a very useful boat out there in the west, but I still have to see it as a specialty craft around here in MO, since a canoe is going to be a more practical option in most situations in the Ozarks, save for the ones you mentioned. I'd love to try it on a river like NFoW, where there's more flow and faster water, and that's where you need to be fishing. I can't see it being a better choice for most Ozarks streams with the typical riffle-pool complexes and long stretches of frog water...I couldn't imagine having to paddle that thing through a mile of slack.

Definitely a sweet ride, though. Looks like a fun boat, too.

[Al Agnew]

I gave it a good workout this afternoon...a nine mile float down to the house from about 1 PM until 8 PM. Trout were on the hoppers pretty good. I caught a 17 inch brown on my first cast, along a gravel bar right below where you put boats in. Hooked and lost a huge rainbow, looked to be 22-24 inches. Caught several nice fish on the hoppers. The boat worked like a charm; I was able to keep myself in position to fish along the banks where the fish were waiting for the hoppers, even in pretty fast water. Ran a couple of rapids that would probably be pretty close to class 3; 3-4 ft. standing waves and some necessary maneuvering through big boulders. It's a bit of a wet ride in those waves, but at no point did I feel like I was in any kind of trouble. It really scoots across the water to maneuver around the boulders. The trout fishing cooled off late in the evening, and I fished streamers for a while with no luck before dark, but was able to fish them well anywhere I wanted to. Wind came up a bit for a while, but didn't seem to affect the boat much at all, which was surprising.

Mary and I went out for a short float yesterday so she could play with the boat. She has arthritis in her shoulder really bad (shoulder replacement is in her future) and can't paddle a solo canoe anymore, and we hoped the rowing motion wouldn't bother her shoulder as much. She'd never rowed anything before and it took her a mile or two to get the hang of it, but she's decided she likes the boat too...we may have to order another one!