Dave Karczynski: There are plenty of opportunities for impulsive purchases in the world of fly fishing. Buying a boat shouldn’t be one of them. You need to think about the types of water you fish (and would like to fish), do the research and take it slow. In my previous segment on choosing a boat, I spoke with Mike Batcke of Stealthcraft Driftboats and rowed their 15-foot Aftermath, an incredible heavy-water boat with tons upon tons of storage and fishing space.
For this next segment, I decided to go in the opposite direction and check out a skiff that’s been the source of quite a bit of industry conversation—the Adipose Flow (you know a boat is something special when even competitors praise it in their off-the-record remarks). Last week I sat down with the mastermind behind the Flow, Adipose boat builder Tracy Allen, who along with owner Mike Ward is responsible for the birth of this unique watercraft.
MC: How did you come to design this boat for Adipose?
TA: Well, it’s a design that was a long time coming. I started guiding in Montana in the 80s, back when everyone was rowing a big Western style drift boat, and I came to the realization that there were a few serious disadvantages. First, it was really hard to maneuver. Second, it was tough to see over the high bow. The third problem was draft—you had to float it in the big channels where there was plenty of water; you couldn’t get over into the side channels to get at more fish when the angling pressure got heavy. Lastly, there was the issue of wind—those old boats weren’t easy to row in the wind day in and day out. So after many years of rowing those boats I knew I could come up with something better. I started putting ideas on a piece of paper and I came up with this totally new design and built some balsa wood prototypes. A friend of mine hooked me up with a small company and we built quite a few boats in the early 90s. Read more….