Ideas for a fly fishing solo boat?

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BowneCR
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:56 am
Location: Bloomington, IL

Ideas for a fly fishing solo boat?

Post by BowneCR »

Hey folks. been a while since I've posted, but with winter approaching, I've been thinking about building another boat. I've done a Freedom 17 and a Prospector 16. Both are lots of fun, but I've been thinking of building a boat for a specific purpose: I run several rivers, 1 near my home, and several on the western side of michigan, some in missouri, and like to fly fish. I'm thinking of adapting a design to fit my needs on solo trips - I want a very manueverable boat that I can sit in just aft of center and paddle with a double blade. I also want it to be wide enough to get in and out of compfortably wearing full chest waders. High initial stability is also a need - I like to cast while going down river and flailing around with fly rods in skinny round bottom boats can be a challenge :) I'm thinking of taking the center station out of the Ranger 15 and shrinking it to 13, refairing the lines and moving the thwart aft of a mid mounted seat. I would probably also take a bit of rise out of the sheer. Should end up with about 32" of beam. I know this sounds alot like a rob roy, but the rob roy doesn't have much rocker, and is pretty rounded compared to the ranger. The boat will really only be for downriver stuff on class I and II water, so tracking and speed are the least of my concerns. Any thoughts? Thanks.
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BradRob
Posts: 72
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2008 11:12 am
Location: Grayling, Mich.

Ausable river boat

Post by BradRob »

The Ausable river boat would be my pick. This is a straight forward hard chimed boat. Most of them are 24 foot long but i have seen some reduced down to 17 foot. I have one that iam building at 20 foot. but it would not be that difficult to to reduce it down smaller. These boats have 5 inches of rocker at the stern and 3-4 inches at the bow. They can be poled,paddled or motored.
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Kurt Loup
Posts: 91
Joined: Tue May 11, 2004 10:03 pm
Location: Baton Rouge, LA
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Post by Kurt Loup »

I fly fish out of my Merlin, but I have no idea how it will work in moving water. I use a kayak paddle. I have no problem standing while casting, but again that is on flat water.

Kurt

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Tim Eastman
Posts: 245
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:40 pm
Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A.

Post by Tim Eastman »

I saw a video of the Rangely Lakes Trout Boat (pattern available through Newfound Woodworks). Michael was standing right up in it fly casting and poling about. Stood right up on the gunnels just dinking around. It's a very fast rowing craft and phenomenally stable. They have the plans there for the strip built version.

For fairly easy water it would be fine. For big open water with choppy whitecaps I would look at a different mode of transport.

Our son Chris has a 38 Special (bigger cousin of the Merlin) and he does just fine fly fishing in it. Handles whitecaps okay but feels a little tender if you're not used to it.

(38 Special pictured at left)
Tim Eastman
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Be an example worth following
jimfranck
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:01 pm

Post by jimfranck »

A few years ago I built a Freedom 15. It is ideal to carry myself and fly fish from. I can use a single canoe paddle or prefer a double kayak paddle when soloing which is most of the time. I have a low removeable seat that I use when soloing. The seat goes right in front of the rear thwart and the rear thwart acts as a backrest. I also have a plastic milk crate that I use for my depth finder, two rod holders (plumbing pipe tye-wrapped in place), and drink holder. The canoe is very stable.

Jim
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