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One Man Raft Kickboat: An Inflatable Raft Better Than A Drift Boat
 


The best kickboat raft on any river or lake for Total Access!

 

 
Fly Fishing Inflatable Boat Extraordinaire
The best fishing raft available anywhere is a Water Strider

Fly Fishing from a Water Strider Inflatable Raft Kickboat - Here's How It's Done
By Dave Inks

The Water Strider Raft Kickboat is designed and engineered to be the best fly fishing inflatable boat in the world.  Based on my personal experience fly fishing and fishing from all kinds of boats for over 40 years in every corner of the world where trout and salmon can be found, I think the Water Strider inflatable boat is better for fly fishing and other methods of fishing that any pontoon boat or drift boat.  Many years of trial and error have gone into the design to finally get the ultimate fly fishing inflatable boat.  You found it.

Hi, Dave:

Been fishing a lot on the Delaware and I'm learning more and more about what can be done out of your boat.

The ability to sneak up close on big fish is amazing.  Getting better and better with handling and developing systems for line control, etc.

Still trying to figure out the best way to go down river with enough line out of rod to be able to load a long leader when your not casting.  Still tend to get line tangle sometimes. 

Anyway - best fishing purchase I've ever made.  Really increased my enjoyment of the sport (which I didn't think was possible). 

Tom H.
Falls Church, VA    
May 2004

I happen to prefer fly fishing over all other methods of catching fish, but a Water Strider raft kickboat works just as well for ANY kind of fishing.  I also prefer river fly fishing but the Water Strider is a great inflatable fishing boat for any water, whether a favorite stream, pond or lake.  Any kind of fishing is better than no fishing, and my Water Strider works great.  If you like to troll, get yourself a Water Strider motor mount, put your trolling motor on the stern and you can troll just like the big boats.  You don't need a trailer and you don't need a 400 horse power truck.  It will all fit in the trunk of even the smallest compact car.  More about that later.

Here is why I say the Water Strider is the best fly fishing inflatable boat available.

First, you can fly fish and reach spots no other angler can reach.  The more you float, fly fish from your kickboat and learn the water where you fish the better you will do.  I live on the Bitterroot River in Montana and some days there are a lot of professional guides with clients floating in big rafts or drift boats on the river.  They have to keep moving with the current and cannot easily stop without tying up, pulling out or making a big ruckus trying to hold their position in the current.  I just pull over and let them go on by and then I fish the water they can’t cover due to the size of their raft or drift boat, how much water they draw and how high they sit, like on a pontoon boat.

My low profile design with the open floor allows you to stand in shallow water or sit below the fish's window of vision.  You can actually get amazingly close to a feeding fish in a kickboat without spooking him.  I always try to cast the line a little sideways across the current so the fish never sees my line and I can usually always make a down stream cast and have a fly first presentation with no line drag.  Floating along with the current and using your kickboat fins while keeping your hands totally involved in controlling your rod and line, you can have very long downstream drifts that are drag free and will produce better and larger fish for you.

Dear Dave,

I have used my Water Strider at least 4 or 5 times, and it's absolutely the greatest! I can fish a 5 to 6 mile float in 6 or 7 hours, and hardly be tired! No more "tubes" for me!

I have shown it to some canoe friends, and assure them that the Water Strider way outperforms what you can do in a canoe.

You may remember, we fish mostly for smallmouth bass on the James River and the South Fork Shenandoah River in the Blue Ridge Mountain area here in Virginia. We have had quite a bit of rain in June, but now the fishing is really picking up.

I'll keep in touch, and you can rest assured that I am bragging on my Water Strider kickboat!

Mark B.
Staunton, VA    
July 2004

If you are in faster water than your line, you can use your fins to slow your inflatable fly fishing boat and keep pace with your line.  The fins have cleated soles which allows you to stop any place and to control the Water Strider while you fish.  It is like driving and steering a car except you use your feet with the fins to steer, back peddle and reverse drag you fins on the bottom to slow down you speed.


You can cast under low hanging willows and alders or around snags or sweepers because your butt is always right at water level.  You are not sitting or standing high above the water the way you do on a pontoon boat or in a big raft of drift boat.  Because you are low, you don't have to work so hard at making long casts that put wind knots in your tippet or are off the mark or spook the fish.  You can sneak in close and cast your fly to exactly the right spot.

I like to fish the foamy pools on the river that have a nice reverse current.  In your Water Strider inflatable fly fishing boat, you can just float around and around as long as the hatch is on.  You can also sit in the eye of the pool and hold there with a little practice and just spin in a slow circle casting to the fish as they circle you while feeding.  My special kickboat fins allow you to do this with ease.

I have designed the Water Strider to allow me to fish any place I want to and to catch more fish.

You can fin the Water Strider very easily so you can direct yourself into position to feeding fish or prime holding water with just a few quick flicks of the fins.  When you float past a feeding fish and want to go back it is easy to just put your feet up on the foot strap, row over to the slow water on the inside curve of the river and row back up stream.  If the water is too fast, four simple flicks of the fin straps get you out of the fins, takes about 5 seconds, and you can walk back up stream on the gravel bar.  Just pick up the boat, put it on your shoulder and walk with it.  The Water Strider weighs only 17 pounds.
 


Water Strider offers a great selection of other fishing gear, outdoor clothing
and
camping equipment!
 


The more water you cover the better chance you have to catch fish.  Wading fly fishing anglers have to stand in one spot and make several casts over the same water and often just put the fish down.  When you float and fish, each cast can be over fresh new holding spots and you will quickly learn this is the best practice.  You don’t have to fight the brush and trees with you back cast, either.

Fly fishing in a Water Strider on the Lochsa River in Idaho.
Dave Inks fly fishing from his Water Strider
on the Lochsa River in Idaho.

The foot strap in the bow of your inflatable fly fishing boat can also be used as a seat so you can even have a lower profile to the fish.  You sit on the foot strap facing the rear and quartering the bank.  I like to do this in water where it is shallow enough to stand up.  At any time you can also stand up and wade.  The Water Strider will float free around you with no pressure.  You can still reach the oars and row if need be.

The stripping apron is designed to hold your line up and clear of the water.  When you are wade fishing just let the boat turn to its natural floating position and then put the apron in place and you can have the line clear at all times.  The striping apron is designed to break free on one side and allow you to get back on the seat to sit down again.

When you are wading and fishing and need to sit down turn the boat around and sit.  This is much easier than trying to turn yourself around.

The bolt action rod holder is my design and really helps when you hook large fish like salmon, steelhead and striped bass.  You set your drag, get you line back on the reel so you are playing the fish from your drag and insert your rod butt into the holder.  Always keep your tip pointed at the fish and row backwards toward shore or to where you can stand up, fight and land the fish.

If you want to see how the Water Strider handles and get some pointers on setting up, packing up and using the best fly fishing inflatable boat on the market, get one of our Rafting Adventure DVD's.

Now you can take your fly fishing boat anywhere!

Dear Dave,

The maiden voyage was great. No steelies, but the boat performed just perfectly. I caught on pretty quickly, to my pleasant surprise. You can get around to just about anywhere you want. The boat moves pretty quickly. The ability to stand up eliminates the problem of very shallow riffles, which are common in the low flow section of the Feather.

A few drift boats went by, they looked like motor homes with about the same agility.

I did a mini-trip whereby I floated 2 miles of river, packed it all up, and hiked back to my car along the levee. Made the kitchen sink mistake, but after humping it all the way back you can bet that won't happen again.

The Water Strider isn't the best thing since toilet paper, it's better! There are alternatives to the toilet paper but not to this boat. It's the one!

I'm coming to realize this boat opens up a whole new world, even on long-familiar waters. It basically doubles or even triples your fishing area. The other day when I went out, I'd beach at the top of a riffle, bank fish that side, then row up and across and repeat for the other side. Then row up into the center and fish the middle seams and buckets on the drift down. Fished places I'd only looked at for 30 years!

As you can tell I'm very enthusiastic.

Joel B.
Dutch Flat, CA 
May 2005

I don’t go any place with out my Water Strider Raft, the most compact fly fishing boat anywhere.  It is ALWAYS in the trunk of my little compact car along with my vest, waders and a couple of fly rods.  This compact inflatable fly fishing boat takes up so little space there is no good reason not to keep it in the trunk.  I keep the two piece oars and a pump in the bag with the boat.  I can be on the water in less than 10 minutes anywhere, any time.

The Water Strider and all the rafting gear you need will check as regular baggage on any airline I have ever flown on.  It's lighter than a bag of golf clubs and more compact, too.  Try this with a pontoon boat or drift boat.  And, here is another interesting idea.

Fly fishing from a bicycle?  Well, yeah, sorta, sure, why not?  Works for me.
Try this with a pontoon boat or drift boat.

I put my mountain bike (yes, older guys still know how to ride a bicycle) on the back of my compact car and put my Water Strider in the trunk or the back seat.  When I get to the river and get my boat set up, I break the bicycle down by taking off the wheels and stow it behind the backrest on my Water Strider air ride seat.  A couple of bungee cords will hold it in using the handy D-rings that are there on the back of the boat for tying down your gear.

Down the river I go, fly rod, bicycle and all. When I am ready to take out, I pack up my Water Strider in the backpack dry bag, put it on my back using the comfortable shoulder straps just like a nap sack, put the wheels back on the bicycle, climb on and ride the bicycle back to the car. I don't need a fishing buddy to set up a ferry back to the put in point.  And, I don’t have to float to the official take out like the big boats.  If there is too much fishing pressure on my part of the river, I can easily pull out, pack up, ride my bicycle down the road a few miles and get back in again and stay ahead of or get behind all of the river traffic.

Whitewater is a kick in a Kickboat!

Water Strider is no toy.  You can read about the construction details here.  I have managed Class III water all over the world in my inflatable fishing boat.  Water Strider is built to the highest standards of any raft in the world.  It is an expedition capable inflatable boat and I have made week long wilderness float trips all over the world without a hitch.

Personally, I am old enough and smart enough and have had enough thrills in my life that I don't need to do Class IV water myself, but I have watched experienced paddlers take their Water Striders down some pretty exciting water.  If you are capable and whitewater skilled, Water Strider is, too.

When I get to a Class IV rapid, I get out, pick up my boat, walk down below the fast water and put back in.  The boat only weighs 17 pounds.  Try that with your drift boat or pontoon boat!  Won't happen.

New Zealand White Water Rafting Photos Rangitikei River January 2006

Let's go fishing.

I can talk about fishing forever, there is nothing I love to do more, but I still haven't figured out how to talk those slippery sly salmonids out on the bank.  As Emeril says (well, it's not exactly what he says but it is what he means) you need to kickboat it up a notch with a Water Strider.  There is no better way to go fishing.

If you still need proof, sign up for one of my float fishing instruction courses.  You can try out a Water Strider before you buy one.  If there are fish to be caught, we will catch some and you can see for yourself why I say Water Strider is the best.

I wish you tight lines, dry waders and big fish.  Cheers!

Dinks

Hi Dave!

Thanks for taking the time over the weekend to show and sell me a WS.

My boat had her maiden voyage on the Beaverhead yesterday, from High Bridge to Henneberry. It was awesome. I have a lot to learn in terms of keeping my arms, legs, the rod, the fly and the boat all going in the same direction, But from the start I was able to fish more water, and for more drifts, than I have been able to do before. It's better than a pontoon boat (even without using the fins, although I did use them), because when I got to a spot I wanted to fish and then wade, I could just stand up. I am a pretty aggressive wader generally and the WS both extends my range and increases the safety. I don't have to worry about how am going to back upstream on a downstream wade or back to the bank from a tough wade to reach a middle river or opposite bank pocket. All I had to do was sit down and float, and then stand up again at the bottom of the run, or just continue on through. As a wading assist machine alone, the WS is worth the price.

The water was not deep (the Beav' was running at about 120 cfs), so it would have been wadeable without the WS. But I was able to cover much more water and get to many more spots in a shorter period of time. It was a seamless combination of floating, wading and fishing that kept me in fishy water more or less constantly. I was nymphing most of the time, and I think I more than doubled the amount of time I was drifting my bug in good water compared to what I would have done in a pontoon boat or pram. Also, because of the ease of stopping and starting, I could stop and throw a few extra casts in spots where I would have had one or maybe two shots only as a passenger with someone else on the oars, even with a good guide willing to work the oars.

I am looking forward to developing my technique to fully utilize the WS, particularly fishing on the run. What I had in mind in particular in buying a WS was being able to fish while floating, with the kick boat aspect of the system giving me the ability to control the craft to hit the banks with streamers and to cast nymphs and dries to otherwise unreachable pools and pockets. But now I can see that in addition to allowing me to fish spots solo that otherwise would require a trip with someone else on the oars, the WS will allow me to expand the range and intensity of my wade fishing -- all with the safety of having a "life vest" I can sit back into when the water gets a little to deep or the current a little to fast and I otherwise would be going for a swim.

Regards,

Paul N.
June 2008

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