I've got the 12 foot Steelheader II Guide Model, and it is the best boat I've owned...but I did not buy it to pack it into remote spots.

It is big, and it's heavy, though two guys can carry it 100 yards with no problems. It takes about 10 minutes to tear it down, and about 20 minutes to put it together, but mines on a trailer and never comes apart.

I fish it with a full driftboat anchor system that I custom built into it, and it can anchor anywhere a driftboat can...it has two big casting decks, so we spend at least 90% of our time, maybe more, fishing right out of the boat.

In my experience it handles rapids great...but I've rowed a long time, and it's a pretty good sized boat...I'd probably feel less comfortable with a boat less than ten feet...if I had a one man 'toon, it'd be a ten foot Skookum.

It isn't a driftboat, so don't expect it to act like one...it turns on a dime, much better than a DB, but if you want to stop in moderate to fast moving water, or God forbid row upstream, that's when you'll definitely find that it is not a driftboat...it's a tank in those situations.

Banging into the occasional rock is a lot softer experience in a big 'toon rather than in a hard boat, and though it draws less water than a loaded DB, when it does hit shallow water, the skids are pretty sticky on the rocks.

I do put mine in the water, and take it out, in places where no trailer or DB is going to get in or out, and that's one of the big reasons I got it, that and the shallow draw.

On the very rare occasion that I pull plugs, I can do it out of the 'toon...and, no, it is not as easy as a driftboat. So long as you are good enough on the sticks and can do minor adjustments with both oars at the same time, you can keep it nice and straight and fish plugs just fine.

I didn't buy mine directly from Skookum, but I've e-mailed Bill a few times (at the above e-mail, not the one on the site) and he's always got back to me in a reasonable time.

Good luck with the boat search.

Fish on...

Todd