I'm kinda glad I came back here to recheck this topic. I'm all with what Steelheaderboy said about the cats. Yes B run is right about plugs, but that's about it. I can run three people comfortably on my cat with NO loss in performance. Once my new frame is built I'll have room for four. I ran 4 days on the Hoh last week and had two people in front of me and no problems at all. They stood up and cast like in a driftboat w/o fear of falling. It's all in design and weight placement. I do have a first line Aire cat (it's about 10 years old) but I've taken damned good care of it, kept it hanging in my garage and put away dried out. I've had only one puncture and it was only an outer punch, didn't touch the bladder at all (I still have no idea how it got there). But they aren't indestructable, but I've had no problems with mine in almost ten years. As with Steelieboy, I too like to float some small rivers and some "odd" floats that aren't accessible to driftboats due to no launch. I can just drop the boat off the side and let it hit the water.

Also, it's nice to have a trailer, which is my next adventure. But my cat is only about 200 lbs complete so it's no problem for me to load on top of my full size Blazer. It makes it nice when I go for long trips I can throw my boat on top ready to go, hook up my travel trailer, and hit the river (like I did on the Hoh). All I did was unhook my trailer and head up to the launch. I never take down my boat until I'm ready to put it away. I can also pull plugs with my cat, I just have to work the oars and sometimes use my anchor as a holder and slowly release line. That's my only plus with a driftboat is pulling plugs. But, I rarely pull them, I prefer to actually driftfish then pull plugs, but I'm not against using them at all. I've nailed some nice fish using them and it's a kick in the pants to feel the cat move with a fish on. Well, I'll stop yammering and get off here......

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