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Trout Bums at Large is a monthly column appearing in the Yakima Herald-Republic and the Seattle Times. The column is written by Randal Sumner and Mark Littleton. We will be keeping an archive of these articles on this page.

Das Boat
by Mark Littleton
12/01/2004

I didn’t need a boat. A good flyfisherman doesn’t really need one. Why would I want a boat, they are expensive and troublesome. I don’t want a boat. Well, maybe I wouldn’t mind having a boat, I sort of want a boat. No, yes, I need a boat. I need a really nice boat. The best drift boat money can buy and I need it now. That’s the thought process I went through this spring. I already have all of the flyfishing gear I could want – and then some. I own 6 rods, 5 reels, 3 pairs of waders, a float tube, a canoe and who knows what else is hiding in the nooks and crannies of my garage. Like any red blooded American I needed more, after all that is the American way. The yen for a boat can be a powerful thing. My brother-in-law Joe named his first boat Nojo. It was named after the words of his first wife (now his ex-wife) when he told her he was going to buy a boat. Once I decided, against my better judgment, that I really did want to get a boat, I had to break the news to my wife Katie. Katie and I have been married for 29 years, so you know she is a good sport, in the words of my college roommate Bob “the woman is a saint if she can live with you.” When I told her that I thought it was time for me to buy a boat, she looked at me in a way that suggested “I know you are sick, but I will humor you until you get better”. She said go ahead and get a boat if you want one, but she never did stop looking at me that way when the subject of the boat comes up. Approval in hand, I ordered my new boat. A 16 foot Clackacraft low profile drift boat with a tunnel hull, two casting braces and built in rod racks. This boat is the Mercedes of the drift boat world. It comes with everything I need; oars, anchor rope, and two anchors (in case I lose one). The only problem was that, in the spring there is a lot of demand for these boats and I had to wait 6 weeks before they would have one built for me. These 6 weeks seemed to drag on forever. I found myself dreaming about my new boat at all times of the day and night. Why don’t they hurry up and build my boat, don’t they know who I am? To make matters worse, the fishing during this time was the best I can remember. I finally got the call, the boat was ready. Randal and I took a road trip to Clackamas to pick it up. After a quick stop at Chin Yens for some of the finest Szechwan Chinese food west of Peking, we hitched up the new boat and headed for home. Shortly after I got my boat, my life suddenly took a turn for the busier. Work and family commitments multiplied like rats, there wasn’t much time left to fish. I sat in the boat in the driveway and screamed at the neighbor to “set the hook” but somehow it just wasn’t the same as being on the river. I have since got the boat out on the river a few times, and yes it is all that and a bag of chips. I may not have needed a boat, but I did want one. Life is short, and iffy while it lasts. I didn’t want to get to the end of my life and think “you know, I should have bought a drift boat”. Things never turn out the way you think they will and maybe I will find out that I’m really not a boat person, but I’ve got one now and I have no regrets about it.

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