Boat Advice Please

[AzTrouter]

I have the opportunity to buy this 1975 Wooldridge on the cheap. I’ve own drift boats in the past but they were western trout boats. I own a 16’ whitewater cataraft now but don’t like leaving it blown up and rigged all the time.

This boat (according to the owner) was a lake cabin boat all its life. My interest in it is also to fish our high country lakes (it comes with a new electric motor and battery along with the 6 hp outboard)

My question really is will the 6hp outboard push her against a flat water 5mph current? I’d also like to use the boat to motor upstream from Lees Ferry and drift the tail water back to Lees.

I know nothing of drift boats with outboards especially those designed for them haha How do these boats row? Can they be set up with an anchor rig?

Thx

 

[mt_flyfisher]

I had several low profile 16’ Hyde and Clackacraft drift boats that I used from time to time with a 6hp Mercury long shaft motor. For comparison, I suspect my boats were somewhat lighter and more nimble than the one you are considering buying. I’m not sure how much difference there would be between my boats and the one you’re looking at, however, but without a keel just about all drift boats will just plow through the water regardless of what size outboard you’re using.

I used my motor more in a lake than in a river, and it worked fine there, but I still didn’t go anywhere very fast that’s for sure. I used it a couple times to go up a large, relatively slow moving river, and while it got me where I was going I could probably have walked up river at a faster pace.

Another thing I’d want to consider, separate from the motor, is wind. Any kind of wind at all is going to blow that high sided boat all over the place. You can get a bow mounted anchor arm, which is what I’d want if I was going to use a motor regularly, and if I was going to be using it much in a lake, I’d probably want to consider using 2 anchors, one on the bow and one on the stern. I mounted a rope cleat near the bow on one of my Clackacrafts and used that with an anchor that I pulled in by hand, and that also worked okay but not as good as the bow mounted anchor arm.

John

 

[AzTrouter]

Thanks John

 

[kjohn]

I have a Stealthcraft, and have taken it up Glen Canyon. I got it as it was advertised as running well with a motor. I have an 8.8 Mercury.
Problem with a flat-bottom DB, as John says, is they don't plane. This limits your speed to 'hull speed', which is generally 6-8 mph. So I was doing my calculations prior to ever seeing Lees Ferry, found data showing the average current to be 3-5 mph. so at the low end you will be doing btwn 1 and 5 mpg. Figure an average of 3.
So my first time upstream I made it up to the 'cable trail' campground, which is the furthest upstream. About 14 miles? took three hours.
But that was on a weekday, and the flows were high in the late afternoon. Deeper water is slower and you can work the sides out of the main flow. Next time I went up on a weekend, in the morning. Flows were much lower, and the water was moving faster in constricted areas. That morning, I could make no headway past mile 12, and so we camped at Ferry Swale. Might have been able to get further by working it more, but we wanted to start fishing.
That being said, the drift downstream is good. Great for hitting the shoreline for the cicada bite. The motor adds weight but no drag if you tilt it up. I would wonder how the 6hp would do in the current. I'm sure you could get up a ways. I started fighting the current at around mile 10 past Duck Island.
Also, get the info on how they are controlling the flows. Lately during the week they have been increasing flows during the day to 14-18k, and down to 10k at night. On the weekends, they were maintaining around 10-11k. Nice to know. My first trip I was lucky my DB doesn't weigh all that much (~400#) so pushing it over ten feet of sandbar to launch it in the morning after tying off to the shore wasn't too bad. One of those big aluminum jetboats would have been different.
Looking forward to my next trip up there.
HTH

 

[AzTrouter]

Thx kjohn I appreciate your taking the time to relate your experiences :- )

Half the reason we moved to AZ is the whitewater and epic rafting trips, for all the rivers in the MT West, nothing compares to the desert river trips. On several of our Grand Canyon and Desolation Canyon trips we’ve tied up the rafts and used a kicker in the windy straits.

This boat kinda came out of the blue, I had a Hyde Hi-side Guide boat for many years and ran the Bear Trap on the Madison and Yankee Jim Canyon on the Yellowstone multiple times a every year along with the Gallatin and others. I drove it like I stole it haha Most guys run low sides these days and I would get teased a lot and ‘cautioned’ about the wind :- )

I was pondering getting an outboard for my whitewater cataraft and using it for upstream of Lee’s, but it’s barley road legal rigged and hardly worth rigging for spur of the moment trips to Lee’s or our small mountain lakes. A drift boat with some HP seems like it might work well enough for both.

Still not sure this old warhorse is the right answer, but Wooldridge boat certainly have the right lineage and this one has hardly got a ding, trailer has new tires, bearings and lights. Most of the trout lakes here are small, don’t have launches and electric motors only anyway, lots of guys just row around.

Motoring up the Colorado requires a little more consideration, at least for me, I’m used to driving my boats downstream under people power haha I’ve never even been in a drift boat with an outboard.

 

[cooutlaw]

I grew up (long ago) fishing the Mogollon Rim-AZ high Country horsepower restricted lakes you are considering a boat for, and although it's been 5 or so years since I last fished them, I think I would recommend something for that application other than a drift boat (for many of the reasons already sited here). My thoughts would lean toward a 14-16' aluminum v-hull Lund/Alumacraft- ish with a 9.9 on it. Lee's Ferry would be a totally different situation all together, but what about mounting a motor plate off the frame of your inflatable and using that same 9.9 for Lee's?

 

[AzTrouter]

Thanks for your comments cooutlaw, appreciate it.

I worked on a commercial fishing boat in the AK and have friends up there that ply the big rivers with my very same model of cat boat. It turns out they have their own set of drama and once that’s sorted out aren’t any faster than a drift boat haha

The other part of the cat boat equation for men is I don’t want to leave it rigged in the yard on its trailer for most of the year. I’m willing to trade drift boat lake drama to avoid that :- ) That said on any given day in MT there are driftboats putting all over MT still waters, heck, an Orvis endorsed guide here uses her pretty wood drift boat on our still waters. Folks like the comfort and experience in general.

I called Wooldridge today, and flat out asked if a 2 stroke 6 hp would push it against a 5mph current, he said “maybe” haha and recommend a 9.9 hp. Great folks at Wooldridge.

 

[AzTrouter]

I bought her and started getting her river ready, she was is such good shape because she had been a ‘lake boat’ disgraceful ? glued in plastic grass and all manner of insult haha

You can definitely tell she was designing with an outboard in mind, she carries some beam to aft, has sharp chines and a little less rocker than oar oriented drift boat.

Boat came with a good running Envinrude 6hp ‘Fisherman’. A friend has a 9.5 hp he’s interested in trading and will let me try. Wooldridge folks said a 10hp was recommended, but it could stand a little more HP. With intentions of running upstream from Lee’s Ferry to the dam, I want all the ass I can manage.

Negotiations were tough, we ran though the previous owners 6 pack of Kilt Lifter Ale and right into my cooler of iced Pacifica’s ? I ended up with the whole caboodle for less than I paid for a used Sage X I bought on eBay.

Thank for all the thoughts folks shared.