Classic westcoast driftboats evolved to be optimized for seating two fishermen on the front seat. That configuration is also the best way to run heavy water. When both passengers are placed on the front seat, with no one behind the rower, the bulk of the boat's payload is concentrated around the center of the boat--around the boat's center of gravity. That means the boat can turn faster and it gives it more side-to-side stability too. To accomodate that payload, most westcoast boats are little wider up front (to hold up the two front seated fishermen) and narrower in the tail. Most boats built that way don't handle a rear seated fisherman well. They're too narrow in the tail to hold up that much rear-positioned weight. The MRBoats Beavertail is a fly fisherman's boat. The Beavertail has a wide tail, wide enough to hold up a rear-seated fisherman. The Beavertail doesn't trim well when used westcoast steelhead style, however. The Beavertail is strictly a Montana-style fly fishing boat. The Honky Dory is my best attempt to have my cake and eat it too. The Honky Dory is a classic westcoast steelhead boat. It's wide bottom makes it amazingly stable in fast water. The Honky Dory is a little wider up front, so you can pull plugs, with both fishermen on the front seat. But if you want to fly fish, it works that way too. The front standing position is closer to the front of the boat, and the front seat and rower's seats are mounted on sliding tracks, so you can adjust the seats to fish this boat anyway you want. The Honky Dory is amazingly stable, amazingly nimble and amazingly versitle boat. It is, I think, the only driftboat that works as well for fly fishing as it does for steelhead driftfishing. And it is a very good heavy water boat. |
Frans Honky Dory
Honky Dory/
Leif Yeckley Honky Dory
Leif Yeckley and fish
Rich Anemas Honky Dory
Ryan Frederick
Steve Hisey