Come Along On A Drift Boat Trip
Fly fishing from a drift boat is a fun way to experience a river, and there is no more satisfying way to fish it. We'll talk about some of the advantages of drift boat fly fishing and show you a few pictures from some of my trips. Grab a cup of coffee, and enjoy a virtual day on the river.
Drift boats give you an unobstructed casting platform. You rarely have to worry about trees or other objects behind you. That's not to say there aren't opportunities to tangle. Anglers find all kind of things to tangle on in a boat, including each other; but with a modest amount of line control, casting is a breeze from a drift boat.
Photo by Flip Putthoff
Drift boats allow you to reach water you cannot easily reach wade fishing. A boat allows you to generally do this, but a good oarsman in a drift boat can put you within easy reach of troughs that hold decent fish that you would normally run out of an area by wading. And the oarsman can hold you quietly there enabling you several shots through decent water. Probably 80-100% of my guide day involves drift fishing from the boat because it is so productive. Here, Ray Smith prepares to release a beautiful rainbow he pulled from one such trough at Rim Shoals (Bull Shoals Tailwater). I anchored the boat in slower water along a bank so the fish could be released in the slower current and I could get a picture outside the boat. Notice Ray's good net technique in unhooking the fish without touching it. It's then just a matter of lowering the fish back into the water and backing the net off the fish once it appears ready to swim on its own. Fish generally should not be brought inside the boat. Dropping a fish on the floor of the boat can injure it causing delayed mortality.
Drift boats allow you to slip up on skittish fish holding in shallow spring creek like water. The White River has some interesting spring creek like features at low water. These places often hold wild fish, not necessarily big fish, but wild fish. Fooling a stream bred brown from one of these places can be a highlight of the day. Below is one of my favorite places on Bull Shoals tailwater. The presence of the Great Blue Heron indicates he thinks it's a good fishing place too.
Below is a stream bred brown trout from Bull Shoals tailwater. Notice the distinct markings and perfect fins. The adipose fin, the little fin behind the dorsal (top) fin is unclipped. The adipose fin is clipped on hatchery fish, and the pectoral fins (bottom front) and caudal fins (tail fin) are often malformed from tight quarters in a hatchery raceway.
A drift boat allows you to make a perfect dry fly or nymph presentation and get a long extended drift. This means you can often catch a quality fish that has adapted to its surroundings and become focused upon the naturally occurring items in the food chain. A drift boat will help even a beginner get that longer, extended drift the fly fisher needs to successfully fish a dry fly. Here's a friend playing a nice cutthroat he nabbed on a long drift over a shallow flats area.
Fish like this one are the ones you catch on a good dry fly drift.
A drift boat often allows time for a leisurely lunch and camaraderie along the way.
A drift boat allows you to wade fish more secluded areas without having to worry about the water coming up and cutting you off from your access crossing. Chic Dambach wade fishes a section of Norfork tailwater that would be difficult to exit from if water began rising. Having the boat nearby eliminates the worry.
Finally, a guided drift boat trip lets you relax while your guide re-rigs your line...
Photo by Jim Sibley
...so you can catch torpedos like this one!
