[url "http://www.waterstrider.com/"]Water Strider[/url]
Anyone have any experience with one of these? They seem awfully pricey but I have read good things about them. I believe Dave Whitlock fishes a lot from one of these. Then again, he also praised those "funny fins" didn't he, Tube?
For the money involved these craft hopefully would not row like a rubber dinghy. But I cannot for the life of me see why they wouldn't. Maybe we should experiment with cutting out part of the floor in an old Army Surplus rubber dinghy (small one) to turn it into a "kickboat".
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[cool][#0000ff]If you look in the [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=203004;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread"]PICTURE BOARD[/url] under the float tube buying guide, you will note that I did include info on this craft. Tough to decide which category it best fits into...tubes, 'toons or boats. Don't think it is worth the $1400 price tag at any rate.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A novel idea, but looks like it is best suited for river running and not boogeying across a still lake to reach some rising fish. I am sure that it "drives" like a tank.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]To me, it seems like another thing to catch fishermen...rather than fish.[/#0000ff]
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That looks like it would be a "bear" of a boat to try to manuever - I've had a 17.5 foot white water raft and a 14 foot dingy of one - they are not build for manuevering but, for stability. Perhaps, if your primary water was a class 1 or maybe a class 2(if you're gutsy and only take the cheapest of fishing gear that you wouldn't care if it went overboard in a class two rapid) it would work out ok - but I would be concerned with that gapping hole in the bottom on anything larger than a class one ripple. On still water though, you would be hard pressed to cover any water at all with that beast - you would actually do better in your float tube. Being a smaller watercraft of that particluar raft-like design would not make it more manueverable, just less stable than it's bigger siblings. At least that's how it looks through the eyes of my experience.
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I don’t think I would take the Waterstrider or the Water Master(kickboat.com) out on a lake, but for the rivers I fish(lots of class I, II, and the occasional class III), they would be almost ideal for 1 person(then again, I am a little "adventurous" on my rivers). Before I picked up a float tube, I gave a lot of thought to just waiting till I could afford one of those two. I will probably end up with one somewhere down the pike. Much more packable than any pontoon, and (to me at least) more stable than a ‘yak, although a lot of yaks are fished on my home waters.
Thinking about it, there is a third boat of this type. The Wilderness Access EXP.
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Since you mentioned that you are thinking in this direction, here is one that I have seen and tried - in my opinion, a much better choice for that kind of application and, it can be used effectively on stillwaters as well. The watercraft itself is manufactured by the "Aire" company - they are very reputable and make high quality watercraft - though they are a bit more spendy, the one I am refering to, is cheaper than the one this thread is about - and it is far more versitile.
Go to the Outcastboats.com website and check out the "Power Drifter" - it's under their specialty section.
Just a thought, since you are considering that kind of watercraft for fishing.
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The Power Drifter weighs 51lbs, as much as most pontoon boats, so I never saw the point. Outcast used to make a boat called the Odyssey, only 21lbs, shaped kind of like a kayak, and a partially open floor for finning or standing. If you were "crafty" enough(I'm not, or I would have done this), you could probably make one of the Watermaster/Waterstrider type boats out of a Sevylor Trail Boat.
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