Fly Fishing BS thread

Made some progress on the drift boat. I don't know if I mentioned, but I have never rowed or fished out of one of these boats. I just wanted to build one after seeing them in use.

I would like to know if any of you have suggestions for options on setting up the boat before it goes out for paint.

Things that need to be done:

Floor
floor activated anchor system
oar locks
front and back seat pedistals

After that, I'm at a complete loss.

Thanks in advance

Kirk

 

You want compartments to hold all your tackle plus coats, drinks etc. Also places to store rods so they are not tangled by fly line when a fish is on.

 

Going to Cherokee and the Davidson River in NC to fish over the weekend. It is supposed to warm up here tomorrow and Sunday so it should be a good weekend for the fish.

 

I have also never used a drift boat so I'm probably not much help.
By floor activated anchor system do you mean like a switch for an electric winch? If so that would be cool and I'd make sure to have a battery box to keep the battery out of the way and from sliding around.
Maybe a bracket to mount a small motor if you think you would ever need or use one. I know that defeats the purpose of a drift boat but I'm just providing you with ideas.
I agree with jimbo in that you need a good amount of dry storage for your gear.
Rubber or other type of nonslip mat for the floor.
A cover might be worth investing in for trips or if you plan to keep it outside.
You could apply a slick coating to the bottom of the boat like Wetlander.
If you have any intentions of going down much white water seat harnesses or at least handles might be useful. I guess that harnesses could have an adverse effect though.
That's all I got except for someone to take with you who doesn't mind a lot of rowing haha

 

Here is an example of floor anchor system. The rope runs along the bottom of boat and there is a pulley between rowers leg with a foot brake. The rower steps on the foot brake and the anchor drops.

 

Wonderful ideas! Exactly what I want.

 

Oh okay. Now you see how clueless I am about drift boats haha.

 

Thigh bars for leaning on while standing and casting help a lot

Cup/can holders are a must. Insulated would be best lol

Maybe dry storage?

Lots of good stuff here: http://www.willieboats.com/product-...ies/accessories-drift-boat-parts-accessories/

 

That is cool.

 

Got a couple drink holders made this morniing. I don't think I'm gonna worry about making them insulated. I got an ass load of the Yeti knock off tumblers and they work great!

I still have several hours of clean up grinding, but the basic boat is there.

 

So clean. Nice work!

 

I don't know if anyone is interested in this boat build, but I have put all my pictures of the build in an album. Be aware, there is near a 100 pics, so maybe be on wifi or a PC to save data.

You can post comments to the pictures as well.

Here is the link if you want to kill time
https://goo.gl/photos/7uVwcF2eTbocQicR7

 

Boats take lots of abuse. I'm not questioning you craftsmanship, but have you figured that into your construction? they can hit rocks and depending on water level and ability to steer bot, this can occur frequently. I guess you need to take something to bail out water if you get a leak and something to temporarily stop leak. Once you are on the river, if a problem occurs, you got to keep going until you reach the next take out point.

 

Good point. Ill have to look into what's ought there.

 

Chased some skittles yesterday







Caught my first topwater fish of 2017 what with the warm weather and stoneflies

 

nice fish, good start to the new year.

 

Beautiful fish. I went to Wilson Creek instead of farther up to the Davidson River but there were no fish to be caught.

 

Well, just got asked if I could put a flat floor on the front seat section of the drift boat. Wasn't planning on that, but didn't really give it any thought either.

As I've said, ive never fished out of one of these things, so i never gave it a thought.

Adding a flat, half floor will increase the weight in the front by about 40 pounds.

Anyone have experience in one of these boats want to offer an opinion?

The only real cost will be time, so don't worry about costs.

As always, I value your input.

Thanks

Kirk

 

You want to consider the balance, side to side and front to back. So, the question is how much will this make the boat front heavy. It depends on the total weight of boat, people plus equipment. It also will affect free board.
On a different issue, you may want to consider putting on floatation in the hull, so if the boat is swamped it does not sink to the bottom, rather is floats, filled with water. Putting foam boards under the flat floor is a move in that direction. To determine how much you need you need to figure the total weight of the boat and then put in sufficient foam to float that weight. Then, I guess add some more to cover the weight of the foam plus other heavier than water contents.

 

Me and a buddy did some creekin today. I lost the best one I hung. Probably 16-18". He caught a good one (20 or 21...didn't measure) and broke off another good one. I've just got a snapshot from my GoPro video. I'll post the pic I took on his phone when he sends it to me.



It was rainy today. Started with a black rubber legs and they didn't want anything to do with it. Switched over to some squirmy words with a chubby as a strike indicator. I actually hung my good one on the chubby. Only one to hit top water all day.