I've always been a banky and have decided it's time to explore more water. I would appreciate anyone's expertise on drift boats. What is the best maker? Would you go fiberglass or alum and why? What sort of extras or features are important? What do you need to look for in a used boat? I mainly drift fish for salmon and steelhead. Any opinion or insight I would surely welcome.
Thanks

Tough to beat a 16x54 "Guide Model" alum.Very low maintenance and great durabilty.Brand to pick,in my opinion,would be either a Wild Hair or a Willie.Very tough to go wrong with either one.If you are in the market for a used one,just look for the basics.If the chine isn't all beat to heck and the inside looks kept up chances are it's good in the hood.As far as accesories,keeping it simple can actually a long ways.Less to mess with,less to wrong,and less weight.GO MARINERS.

[This message has been edited by ReiterRat (edited 10-11-2000).]

Hey Monty, You may not be getting the response that you may have expected because this topic has come up many times. Reiter gives a very good answer, brand of boat is like Chevy, Ford or Dodge. There are some good brands Reiter mentioned two and there are three or four more. But for my book I completely agree with Reiter on the basics...Keep it simple...drift boats can get real crowded in a hurry!

Jim

Howdy Monty ,you might want to check out previous post by using the search on this site ,this topic has come up many times before,makes for good reading and will hopefully answer all you're questions...good luck

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Row Quietly and fish a Cataraft }<<(('>----<'))>>{
Release all Wild Fish

Hey Monty, e-mail me and I will meet you someplace so you can row my thor-built, I work for the guys as a rep and they make an outstanding product at a fair price. Just rows great!
Peace superfly

There was a post "drift boat questions" awhile back that had a lot of good input on the pro's and cons of the various boats. As for my I've owned a Diamondback 16' and now have a Willie 17 foot. For my money the UHMW bottom is a great investment in something extra, but you're not likely to find it on many used boats as not everyone likes the stuff or wants to spend the bucks on it.

personally i think fiberglass is better i have a lavro guide model it is a very nice boat it slides over the shallows a lot better than aluminum.it's quieter and warmer.the only problem is the flat bottom.it tends to slide more when plugging(dos'nt hold like the aluminum boats)so the moral of the story theres no perfect boat.they all do the job best thing to do is ask around and row a few boats and see what you like best good luck.

I don't think you can go to wrong with any name brand Drift Boat.I prefer aluminum and I row a Thor-Built(my second Drift Boat) and I also agree with superfly in that it is an excellant boat and built not to far from you.lester
p.s. Hey superfly e-mail me at lester@bossig.com

WILLIE

Like the logo says "Simply the Best"


I've rowed Lavro, Alumawelds,fishrights,clackacraft and hydes.

Thank you all very much for your great feedback. I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't look in the archives in the first place. There was tons of good info there. However, after reading through all that my head was spinning for two days! A friend of mine loves his clackacraft, but it seems like most of you prefer alum. Would it be safe to say as a novice rower I could do less damage to an aluminum boat. And would a UMHW bottom kind of be the best of both worlds? Do the tracking benefits of alum diminish with the bottom coating? Also if I fish alone a lot I might want better tracking in order to not have to anchor up as often?

OK just my 2 bits worth. Koffler. Talk to them also once you have a good idea as to that you want. I am very happy with mine. I got a 16' wide bottom guide model. Real basic so it is quite light 290#. I would be glad to let you row it if you come down to SW Wa.

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dank
Keep The Rivers Clean!

Monty, Ive got a willie 16ft and its for sale e-mail me for a demo or alook.Simply the best. shmrock5@aol.com

I haven't noticed any decrease in the tracking ability with the UHMW. It does add some weight though. Yes it does provide the "best of both worlds" in terms of giving you the toughness of alum and the ease of slipping over rocks. It has saved my tail several times when I was learning how to row. I have noticed that many of the folks out here on the oly pen row alum, probably because we tend to bounce off a few more rock then other folks. As the saying goes "it's not if you're going to hit rocks, it's how many and how hard" They say that the new glass boats are pretty tough, but I go with what the guides row and that's alum. If you row alone alot you will want to get something to balance your boat out front to back so that it will row more easily for you.

I have to agree as to the balance of the boat. I have a 80# sand bag that I will put in the front of my boat when I row alone. So if you take a test row in a boat take some one with you to sit in front.

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dank
Keep The Rivers Clean!

Some of the responses seem to imply that a fiberglass boat will somehow be damaged if it hits a rock too hard. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ron Laviguere of Lavro Boats has a video where he drops a 50 pound rock onto the bottom of his boat from a height of about 20 feet and it just bounces off. I've been in the shallowest and swiftest water in a Lavro and hit rocks hard enough to drop teeth..just an occasional scratch like you'd see on a metal boat. There are differences, but to say that fiberglass is somehow less sturdy is inaccurate.
I've been in about every model of fiberglass and metal boats and about the only plusses and minuses I can say are this:
1) Metal boats sometimes track better than fiberglass when pulling plugs.
2) Fiberglass boats slide over rocks easier and are much better in "skinny" water.
Since I'm admittedly fiberglass biased, I'll add one more: Pulling a boat upriver for a mile (like we had to do on the Hump once) will definitely make you prefer fiberglass to hulking iron!

I am in the apparent minority who prefer fiberglass to aluminum. My first boat was a Fish-Rite aluminum. I put Coat-It on the bottom and thought I was set. Unfortunately, after the first couple of trips down the upper Sky in summer, much of the Coat-It had chipped off.

That fall, I had a very scary incident whereby we hit a submerged rock (that couldn't be seen) in some relatively easy water while I was rowing forward downstream. One of my buddies had just stood up to reach for something. The rock stopped the boat instantly, and he came real close to going over the bow. He didn't get wet, but he did get hurt pretty bad, and we were all shaken up to say the least. The lesson we learned was that even with Coat-It, a sharp rock can grab a bare spot in the aluminum and stop an alum boat VERY fast.

I kept fishing the boat for awhile and had addtional incidents of getting "stuck" on rocks. I eventually got tired of hauling it in low water, and the noise, so I traded it for a Clackacraft, and haven't regretted it once since. The figerglass boats may not track perfectly, but you get used to handling it real quick, and it becomes a non-issue. To me, it's now a safety thing primarily, but I also love the quietness that a fiberglass boat gives you.

Regarding durability, I've hit a lot of rocks pretty hard in my Clack, and they do indeed tend to bounce off without any damage. It's now scratched and has some minor chunks missing on the chines, but it doesn't have the dents that an aluminum can incur, so the bottom is still as flat as the day it was bought.

Just my .02 worth.

PS. It's a lot easier to sneek up on people in a silent fiberglass. You can hear someone drop a chunk of lead in an aluminum from a mile away. )

truer words could never be spoken tv hosts and sea deep. aluminum is like cow **** hitting a rock,where it hits it sticks good luck and smooth sailing.

As far as glass boats go, you can't beat a Lavro. Ron builds each boat himself, by hand. Each layer is laid with sheet fabric then hand painted with fiberglass, layer after layer after layer etc. Most of the other bigger glass boats builders just blow the glass mixed with fabric pieces into a mold in one shot. As for the balance difference between running with friends aboard or by yourself, just get a boat with adjustable rowing seat and oarlocks.

Beezer