I must've smoked a whole pack of cigs the rest of the float..

Lining the boat was never a consideration really FJ because as said, I had scouted it the day before and saw that the line was there. I just could not get my boat to respond...The irritating thing about it is, that if you look at the spot from shore after the fact it looks very benign. But, the lesson there is extremely valuable…even the most benign looking stretches of water can be dangerous, better not take anything for granted.

Steel-addicted,

I have thought alot about the day I rowed your boat...do you remember me complaining about how tired my arms got?? It had been awhile since I rowed (several months) and I forgot what that 'slick' feeling felt like, I just chalked my tiredness up to being out of shape. I reexperienced the 'slick' feeling Sunday after I retrimmed the boat and rowing became effortless, even after having rowed that tugboat all day. That was definitely missing the day we floated the Nooch.

We fished a river that day that had very little structure, we only had to move the boat to get out of the way of the jetsleds as they screamed by!! But, when we put your boat in my home river we will need to spend some time trimming it out before we float. Its perfectly fine to have the bats and kicker as long as river levels allow you to increase the draft of the boat, we can always add weight to the front of the boat. Remember the cinder blocks in my boat?? ...and how far forward the seat was adjusted??

You can bet that the next time we get your boat in the water we will be doing the Diana trick, both with the kicker and without. We should also purposely set it up weighted in the rear so you know what that feels like, and then trim it properly to see the difference. I have a feeling that with the kicker and bats in the boat you have been running heavy in the stern. All you need to fix that is my jugbutt in the front!!

I do hope people will chime in with their opinions of where the center of gravity in a properly trimmed driftboat should be.

Oh, and FJ, the puny guy as you called him, and let's get this straight, it was YOU who called him puny, is my father-in-law, he often reads my posts so when he sees this I want him to know that there is no shame in being diminutive...Angus Young, Ronnie James Dio, Glenn Danzig...all puny, I mean diminutive.