Further North

That's a really interesting perspective. There are actually relatively few drift boats in the Midwest; they originated in the Northwest for the big rivers out there, and spread to the western trout rivers from there. Some made it into the Midwest for the larger trout rivers, but that's a limited opportunity. Fishing for smallmouth bass and muskies from them is a more recent application, though Im sure it had it's start further back than I am aware of.

I don't have any pictures of it as it is now. All I have is the "before" part. The "after" will be a while.

Going deeper than the surface on this one, here's what may be going on: The guy who offered the cash deposit understands the current market: Good boats at reasonable prices go fast. ...so he want's to lock down what he thinks is a good boat at a reasonable price. Smart move. If' he's willing to wait until September, I'd take him up on it, pending his inspection and approval of the boat. I'd write up an agreement that specified that the deposit is non-refundable unless: Something happens to the boat (accident, theft, etc.) If he balks at the last moment, he is responsible for either finding a new buyer at, or above the agreed upon price. That you will refund the balance of the deposit once a (new) buyer is found, and will keep whatever increased advertising, delivery, and carrying costs there are...I'd also include your time to re-sell for at least $100/hour. You want to set it up so that it's basically cheaper for him to take delivery regardless of whether he intends to keep the boat. As a sidebar: No way I'd sell before you are done with the boat, unless you've got a way to continue to fish when and where you want to. You need the time to go relax and have fun, and selling the boat before you're done deprives you of that.

I thought this would have generated more interest. Drift boats can go in almost any water a canoe or a kayak can, but offer the ability to get up and move around as as well as more storage.

I looked at that anchor, and the new "Tornado" anchors...went with the pyramid to start as they've been effective on every drift boat I've been in, and are sort of reasonable. I got the boat for less than $3K...that made the whole thing doable.

I thought I'd toss this out, to see if anyone else has been bitten by the bug. I have been looking for an effective, comfortable way to fish the skinny water rivers around here for smallies and muskies for years. I've tried canoes (I still have my Sports Pal, and always will), kayaks (sold 'em), one man pontoons (sold it fast), small tiller v-hull boats (didn't last long), and flat bottom jon boats (close, but not quite there), but have always thought that a drift boat was the way to get it done. I've been unwilling to commit the $$$ to one though as I am...um...frugal, and good ones are not cheap. Add in a scarcity in my area, and that I wanted an aluminum one...I never found what I as looking for. So I tripped over one on Facebook about a month ago, for the right price. Aluminum. Set up right... Problem I: It was in Western Michigan, and I'm in Western Wisconsin. You can't get there from here. It's a shorter dive to North Dakota. Problem II: I was just about finished re-working a 15' Alumacraft jon for my purposes. As will happen when destiny wants you to have something, things worked out. A friend in eastern WI was interested in the jon, and offered to be my co-pilot for the drive over to Michigan and back to his place near Crivitz. Off I went, Alumacraft in tow. She's a RiverMaster, about 15 1/2 feet long, and...get this...a quarter inch shy of 7 feet wide in the middle. She'll float in 4" of water all day and is built like an aluminum tank. Which is good. I'm gonna hit rocks. Since I fish by myself a lot, I needed a way to motor up river and drift back, so I embarked on an experiment to figure out what would work best. Electric power? Not a chance in our rivers, and the weight penalty was close to absurd. Tried a Yamaha 2.5 HP...got it up to about 5.5 MPH in still water...but there's times and places that ain't gonna cut it. Tried a Merc 8 HP...too much. Too much weight, too much thrust...nearly buried the transom...that's especially bad JuJu on a river. Found a Suzuki 4 HP, 4 stroke, portable short shaft...and like Baby Bear's porridge, it's juuuuuust right. The boat came with a set of 9' Carlisle oars...but they never felt right. Too short for a boat with a 7 ft. beam. Added an extension to get 'em to 10 ft. Much more betterer! Ordered a set of 10' Pro-Loks now that I know what I want. I dumped the 10# mushroom anchor (next to useless in a river) for a 30# pyramid, pulled out the electric anchor winch, and the front anchor system...installed a pivoting pulley system back there to make it easier to pull up, and release the anchor. The floor is carpet wrapped wood...typical boat floor...but I don't like carpet in boats...an I like wood even less...so I was looking around...and stumbled across a pallet of aluminum decking for boat docks. Light weight, impervious to water, and about as non-skid as you're gonna get. That's the next project. Would love to hear about anyone else who has been down this path.

Not the 25 or so I caught yesterday in 1 to 8 ft. of water... ...and the lake I was fishing has plenty of depth - several spots over 50 ft., one over 100.

I ran into the mayfly hatch on a Canadian lake a few years ago. It's usually the kiss of death to anyone fishing up there...there are rafts of dead mayflies anywhere the wind blows them. Since I'm a fly angler about 50% of the time, I always have at least a couple fly rods and a buncha flies on board. I had not anticipated the mayfly hatch, but ran into it...and everything shut down. Even pike were eating mayflies off the top of the water. I was going to bag the trip and head home, but while sorting through my gear and getting it ready, I stumbled across a fly box...I opened it, and found a half-dozen mayflies...and said, what the heck, I'll try 'em. I spent the next couple-few days with a bend in my 6 wt., with other anglers going by asking, "What are you using?" and me replaying, "You don't have any." I've since discovered they'll hit small poppers, and some other flies that look like submerged mayflies heading for the surface. So...it's not a complete write off it you're prepared...

Keep your line tight and watch it like a hungry hawk.

Yep, but I'd rather be in a drift boat.

Here's another HB screenshot from LOTW (but I messed with the GPS info). Inside the Zoom box you can clearly see two big fish (musky or pike) and one smaller one hanging out around a pocket in the weed line. The other side clearly shows breaks in the weed line too. It's exactly like that, or Mac/PC, or Chevy/Ford/Toyota (I drive a Jeep ?), IMO. Go play with them, or fish with folks who have them.

Interesting - this is a 10 year old SI image from an X98 unit I had. To me there's no doubt that those are fish cribs and that boat in the upper right is clear as a bell....and SI has improved by orders of magnitude since then. Based on fishing with folks who have all three brands...they all work great. While I'm a Humminbird/Minn Kota guy, I don't really think there's much difference, other than a feature here or there. IMO, you're better off going to the store and playing with the unites and seeing which menu system makes the most sense to you.

I don't know about other brands, but Humminbird SI includes DI.

I towed a Crestliner CMV 1850, first with a 2014 Ford Escape, then with a 2016 Ford Edge. That boat maxed out (full tank, headed to Canada for a week, so full of gear, etc.) right around 2,900 lbs. Both were fine, for thousands of miles of towing. We still own both vehicles, and I'd use either again, no questions. That said, both had factory tow packages with all the "stuff" that helps make that work better. Built in anti-sway, oil and transmission coolers...it's not just hanging a hitch on the back.

Yes, stick to the river. I'm a bit north of there, but bass have been "off" so far this year. Dunno what it is...late spawn, inconsistent weather... But weather seems to be stabilizing, and warming, maybe you'll hit 'em coming out of it...or maybe they're further ahead down that way.

I tie braid right to wire, but I go about a foot rather than 6" - 8". FG knot if coated strands, Alberto with single strand. As a side note, it appears TyGer Leader has bitten the dust. Weird, because it was a great product, reasonably priced.

My kind of set up! I've never heard anyone say their trolling motor had too much power.

Looked it up, that's pretty cool.

I love topics like this. Always learn things.

Maybe they just don't want to get their feet wet when the water is 40°.

Thanks. I've had a small pontoon...didn't care for it at all. I've had a couple of plastic canoes, one plastic kayak,and currently have a Meyer's Sportspal aluminum canoe. The Sportspal is the best of the bunch for me, by a wide margin. Still not as stable as the drift boat. Very, very close to how I look at things. I've already got the boat, am looking for the best way (for me) to fish skinny water. All of the things you said about kayaks and canoes resonate very well with me. I've got 5 years on top of your 52, and while I don't have any health issues (yet), I'm not getting any younger. I want easy, stable, and something I can just drop in the water and go.

That looks like a four man power drifter. The three-man rigs are the most common (Guide and two fishermen) but that little fella is perfect for what I want around here. I can get way, way op skinny musky/smallie water, and back out again. I'd love aluminum, but they are rare (oddly enough, there's one for sale here, but it's from 1973 and would have to have the interior re-done for fly chucking. Main brands I can think of are Hyde and Stealthcraft, super popular our west for trout. Most of the musky fly guys around here have the three man rigs. https://stealthcraftboats.com/stealthcraft/stalker/

If there's two people, one rows, one fishes. Take turns, as you said. Getting into and holding position is, IMO, easier with oars than paddles, but that's me. I'm a newbie at it, and I can spin a drift boat on a dime, faster than a canoe or a kayak. If you're by yourself, row, fish, row, fish...they get blown around a lot less than a light canoe, particularly with one person on board. Run a trolling motor if you can. The beauty of that is you set the TM up to pull, not push. Drift boats are certainly not a "some silver bullet no one thought of before", but that's not what I said. Nor are they for everyone, but they fish extremely well, and that's what I'm out there to do. Here's a quick video on the two man Stealthcraft Stalker.

Good question, thanks. I'm in the middle of deciding if I want to buy one, and that helped me sit down and really think about it. Not in order of importance: Orders of magnitude more stable. I throw flies at muskies and that is much, much easier standing. I'm getting older and I don't like the rocking motion that creates even on my SportsPal. Landing a 4 ft. fish is easier for me in a stable platform. I can stand up to get the net under the fish. Higher sides, more likely to stay dry inside. More built in storage (including horizontal rod storage, and plenty of room for a musky-sized net). Handle motors easily if desired. They come with a trailer, I don't have to deal with getting them on and off the vehicle. I just hook up and drive away. (This will not be a benefit to everyone) I prefer oars to paddles. I find them much easier to maneuver with, and they provide more "power". Not sure I'm using the right word there? Very easy for one person to row while the other (or two others with a bigger craft) fish. Anchor system is built into the boat and is easily deployable. You can transport your gear in the boat, which means less pre-launch activity when you get to the water. I can get up and move around. This is important to me, may not be to others. Downsides, again, not in order of importance: Cost. Even a smaller, used drift boat is going to cost several thousand dollars. That's a no-go for a lot of folks. It would not be hard to outfit a used flat bottom boat for less. Most are fiberglass...I'm not wild about that on rocky rivers. They require a trailer (the opposite of of the point above). This is a no-go for a lot of people. Weight. Much heavier than a canoe, or a kayak. When you have to drag it through water too shallow to row through, it's going to be tougher than either. What it comes down to for me is that drift boats are designed from the start as a fishing platform. Fishing is my primary reason to be on the water, so that drives my decisions. I'd rather compromise other things in favor of fishing than compromise fishing. That said, they are better on rivers, but so are canoes and kayaks. I'd not take any of them out on bigger water, but I have a boat for that, others may not. There's other similar options, one of the river musky guides up here runs a Towee, and there's the big inflatables like Bill Sherer offers, but they have their own shortcomings. I hope that helps.

The real answer, for two people, is a drift boat...