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.

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.

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.
 

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.

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!

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