1. Troutnut Forum
›
2. Fly Fishing
›
3. Drift boat vs Raft preferences

Who favors one or the other and why?

Raft, because I have one.

Drift boat because I have one and the sheer comfort of being able to negotiate virtually any river or stream I fish in the East or West. I can comfortably take myself and a close friend floating for miles at a time casting to rising trout or just chatting and relaxing as we steer the craft.

Kayak - because I have one! You can get a kayak into waters you cannot get almost any other boat (except a nice light raft perhaps). But, then again, I primarily use my kayak for lake and pond fishing, as the rivers I fish are wadeable (i.e., not very big, compared to the waters Matt is plying). With a good anchor, though, no reason you can't fish a river from a kayak. It's usually a one-man proposition, but of course there are two-person kayaks if you want to give someone the "guided trip" experience.

Jonathon

My barber recently bought a raft and really likes it, he also has a drift boat, but the raft is taking the fore front. He floats the Shiawassee river for smallmouth, but im thinking some streams up north would be pretty cool.

Rafts are very useful on fast rivers with many exposed rocks and boulders. Fiberglass drift boats don't do well when trying to negotiate boulder strewn very fast rivers. Good rafts with thick chamber walls tend to bounce of big rocks. Fiberglass or aluminum drift boats just impact the rock with less than pleasant results. You could actually crack the fiberglass if the water was fast enough and the rock sharp enough. At a minimum you gouge the Gel coat all along the chines and sides of the boat.

mine is a purely selfish opinion: drift boats have more comfortable standing space than rafts.
whoever designed the brace for the fly caster on a raft forgot that feet need to be in front of the knees for balance when casting and playing a fish. the brace is usually secured right at the edge of a wooden deck piece. it should be a little way towards the middle.
unless my feet are positioned on the canvas floor in front of the wood decking, my body is forced to lean hard on the brace with my feet behind me. this is very tiring and hard on the back.
to be perfectly honest, my favorite place when fishing from a boat or raft is in the back seat where i can do most of my casting sitting down, but Best Fishing Buddy discovered my secret and now makes me take my turn up front.