foam block kick boats

[rrhyne56]

there has been a spate of renewed interest in foam block kick boats such as this one


Known variously as "The Kicker" "Water Wagon" and "Fish N Pal" - they seem to have had a period of (relatively) strong popularity and then faded.

Do any of you folks have info or images or stories or data of any sort on these water craft?

thank you

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RRhyne56
[url=http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com:979f4]Sweetness On The Water[/url:979f4]
[url=http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/bgl/:979f4]Good Ol? Lepomis Macrochirus[/url:979f4]

[rrhyne56]

If anybody has any history, interest or data I'd sure appreciate hearing from you.

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RRhyne56
[url=http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com:8a920]Sweetness On The Water[/url:8a920]
[url=http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/bgl/:8a920]Good Ol? Lepomis Macrochirus[/url:8a920]

[Dave E]

The story:

Come 'n listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed And then one day, he was fishin' at some pool. And up through the surface come a bubblin' tube - Flat, that is, sprung a leak...

Well, the first thing you know, old Jed's a swimin' fur shore. Kin folk said, Jed, gotta' swim a little more. Said, Californy is the place you oughta be. So they loaded up the kick boat and they moved to Beverly - Hills, that is, fishin' pools, movie stars.



[This message has been edited by Dave E (edited 16 May 2006).]

[rrhyne56]

Never Mind......

[FlyFishinRick]

LOL that's a hoot Dave!

What sort of information are you looking for, Robin? I have one of the boats, not the one pictured, but similar. I use it with fins in tanks around here. It's slow, but allows you to sit higher than a typical kick tube. It's easier to handle myself than a jon boat or canoe.

[P.Dieter]

Wow it's been a while.

I made two of them in the early 90's and the lasted about 8 years of use on the Yakima R. there were two others on the river at that time as well. Other than that there were two water otters and a King Fisher, the rest of the boats on the river were driftboats and rafts.

I don't seem to have any shots of the first one I made stored on my computer but here's the second one. (also still one of my favorite fishing pictures)


As I understand it Pat Oglesby in Gunnison (or a friend of his) bought the what was left of the"company" that started them originally. The original name was Water Skater I think, with a guy in Hamilton MT. They are mentioned in one of the early articles on kickboats in Fly Fisherman (I think springtime of 92 or 93) You could buy a completed boat or $15 for plans...the plans were mostly to get the information on the glue coating that wouldn't eat the styrenes.

I watched kickboating skyrocket on the Yakima sitting on these things. Early on Bank anglers and boaters would stop and ask, "did you make that?", my reply was always "you think I'd pay for something this ugly?" The problem with them was although fairly abrasion resistant the coating could puncture easily on sharp rocks and limbs and then the foam would soak up water before being patched and over time gain a fair amount of weight. Nonetheless there are some definite performance characteristics of the slab design that are outstanding. They turn effortlessly and draw almost nothing due to the much greater displacement of the slab. Super stable on a smaller platform than boats with comparable stability.

My 3rd generation was built on fiberglassed polyurethane pontoons (I wanted a rowing frame) but by this time there was no savings in home made (except I got the foam for free) and I wasn't good enough at fiberglassing to keep the weight down where I wanted it.

[rrhyne56]

thanks P. Dieter!

That was some great info! Did you use hot wire to cut the foam form one huge block or some other construction method?

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RRhyne56
[url=http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com:11d2c]Sweetness On The Water[/url:11d2c]
[url=http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/bgl/:11d2c]Good Ol? Lepomis Macrochirus[/url:11d2c]

[P.Dieter]

electric carving knife as I recall

the first one was two (6inch?)sheets laminated and the second one was carved and glued up from float logs.

neither looked as good as the one you've got pictured. Did you make that one?

I might add that I've never stopped at least modifing my kickboats


[url=http://homepage.mac.com/riverwader/.Pictures/fishcat/fishcatfolio/index.htm:c2aaa]http://homepage.mac.com/riverwader/.Pictures/fishcat/fishcatfolio/index.htm[/url:c2aaa]

[This message has been edited by P.Dieter (edited 16 May 2006).]

[rrhyne56]

howdy,

No, I am not that good a crafsman I bartered for it, traded a fellow a mess of furled leaders for it. Seems to have been made up in Canadian TX by a company that appears to no longer exist according to my Google searches which come up zip nada.

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RRhyne56
[url=http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com:2f17e]Sweetness On The Water[/url:2f17e]
[url=http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/bgl/:2f17e]Good Ol? Lepomis Macrochirus[/url:2f17e]