Hunting Washington Forum

Equipment & Gear => Power Equipment & RV => Topic started by: Night goat on April 23, 2025, 05:37:03 AM

Title: Drift boats, catarafts, river craft etc help
Post by: Night goat on April 23, 2025, 05:37:03 AM: Hi all.

I was introduced to drift boat fishing about 6 years ago by a coworker and I'm totally all about it. Wed fish the skagit and stilly in a nice clackacraft and we had some great trips.

I'm interested in getting my own river craft for wild fall fishing on those rivers, maybe an attempt on the Skykomish, who knows, I'm still new to rivers. Frankly I had always been wary of rivers even though I commercial fish in Alaska, there's just something about it that's different.

Anyway, I've been looking around and have seen some options.

What I'll probably end up doing is getting a cheaper older boat to learn on, however I have also seen some inflatable drift boats/rafts/things with internal frames and they look pretty solid. If I could get away with not having to deal with a trailer and having to store the boat in a storage lot, that would be great. I've had a couple zodiac style boats over the years that have served me well

I have a buddy that's been bugging me to take him fishing and the girlfriend wants to float the rivers too, so I'm trying to find a budget friendly option that isn't a total piece of junk that can handle some learning curves

Any advice?
Title: Re: Drift boats, catarafts, river craft etc help
Post by: ASHQUACK on April 23, 2025, 07:30:18 AM: Not sure about "toons" I've never fished out of them. One of my friends told me once "I want glass under my a@#". I do see bunches of those inflatable rafts up on Facebook marketplace or some of the steelhead sites.
Title: Re: Drift boats, catarafts, river craft etc help
Post by: Henrydog on April 23, 2025, 08:02:08 AM: Own an older Willie, and have fished several times out of a buddys NRS Framed raft for fishing. Raft can take skinny water but it is too fast in my opinion. Inflatables are almost double the cost of a used drift boat. There are a lot of $3000 drift boats on the coast you can buy.
Title: Re: Drift boats, catarafts, river craft etc help
Post by: Sakko300wsm on April 23, 2025, 08:11:51 AM: Find yourself a used Clackacraft. Can’t go wrong with em - I bought one a couple yrs ago just to leave at our property on the Kettle River - we are always in that thing in the summer
Title: Re: Drift boats, catarafts, river craft etc help
Post by: Parasite on April 23, 2025, 01:32:44 PM: Make more friends with driftboats, jet sleds, rafts, etc and you wont need to buy one :)