Part One.  Top Five things to look for in picking a Boat

This year we have decided that we are going to join the world of drift fishing.  Sure we have belly boats, but we wanted something bigger.  So this chronicles why we picked the boat we ended up with, a Dave Scadden Outlaw signature series pontoon boat.

#1.  Size-  The bigger the boat, the more people who can fish.  We wanted to be able to accomodate three hounds at one time.  We also wanted the flexibility to fish with only one or two hound(s) in the boat.

#2  Price-  As with anything, you need to have a trade off between functionality and price.  To get a good boat be prepared to spend between $1 – $4000.  The higher the cost the bigger the boat and more features, the lower the cost the smaller the boat and less features.

#3 Features-  We wanted an inflatable boat, for ease of tranportation and storage. Time to inflate and deflate is a factor so we wanted large Halkey Roberts valves. We wanted to be able to forge rapids if needed so we decided to set class 4/5 rapids as nice to have feature.  Weight was also a factor both what we could carry and how much everything weighed when not in use.

#4 Motor-  Eventually we plan on adding a motor for lakes and other situations. We needed a boat which could accomodate a motor.  We plan on using an electric motor, but having the flexibility to accomodate a gas motor was also a nice feature we looked for.

#5. The ability to stand-  Ideally we want to be able to have at least two of us stand while fishing.  Since all of us like to fish we also wanted to make sure the Oars man could stand if needed.

So all of this combined, is why we ended up with the Scadden Pontoon- http://www.northforkoutdoors.com .  Dave has been great to deal with, and it makes a difference to buy a boat from someone who likes to fly fish as much as we do.  We have not ventured out on any rivers yet because they are running so high.  We have done a number of lakes and had good success.  The next post will deal with all of the stuff we learn fishing from the boat on the Colorado, Gray Reef, San Juan,etc.  If you have any suggestions or experiences, please let us know.