These days my flyfishing is limited mainly to lakes in and around the Sierras. Most of the time I either cast from the shore or wade in. Lately, I have been wanting to venture out and have rented from time to time small boats (10’ with 5hp motor). I would like to buy some type of watercraft to have handy. What would you suggest for use in lakes that could be considered small to medium in size and winds not exceeding 20 - 30 miles an hour (rare)? I am not necessarily looking for a boat. I need something I can carry or launch on my own.
If the lakes are small (5-10 acres or less) I would go with a kickboat. Easiest craft to cast from, and most stable. If these are larger lakes, a sit-on-top kayak is the ticket. Most are in the 50-60 lb. range, and can cover much more ground that the kickboat. An added bonus with the kayak is that you can take in on rivers that the kickboat won’t work on. Myself, I went with the kayak and love it.
When you say kickboat, do you mean a float tube? I looked at the Outcast series at The Fly Fishing Show last month and liked what I saw. The only disadvantage I felt was covering any distance in one of those would be a workout, but may be I am wrong in my thinking.
Something like an outcast Fish cat or Fat cat is pretty efficient to kick. I use mine when the wind in less than 10 knots or so on ponds . It’s super light and launches anywhere. With one of these, you can cover the shore line of a 75 acer pond/lake section pretty well in an afternoon. If I was going into windier 10-15k conditions, I’d consider a car top aluminum boat and motor or a sit in kayak. If the wind is above 20, I’m staying home or finding a SMALL sheltered pocket od water somewhere. Nothings perfect so just try to match what you buy to what you will use it for most times. PM me if you want a link to some detailed info in fishing and rigging the Fat Cats.
Yes, I was referring to something like an Outcast or similar craft. Trout Unlimited endorses a particular model. Cabelas has it, here is the link:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ … hasJS=true
You may have to cut and paste. All of these have oars that will allow you to cover considerable ground, you should only manuever with your legs, not try to cover a lot of territory.