down home flyfishing: down home boatworks

Dedicated to the design of traditional, framed-construction drift boats. The boats pictured here were designed and constructed for the purpose of fly fishing the lakes and rivers of the Eastern US. However, make no mistake, these boats are at home anywhere and several versions of them have been built around the world. We started building boats in 2002 out of a desire to float rivers and flyfish for trout and bass on our local waters. The prevailing do-it-yourselfer attitude around here kind of made it absolutely necessary to build our own. Before I knew it, we were building boats for friends.

Throughout the process, learning what a certain design offered- or sacrificed- led to the development of our own design, suited for the waters we primarily fish here in the Eastern US. The 11' and 13' drift "pram" style boats are suitable for Class II-III rivers and can be also motored on flat lakes. The low sides, minimal rocker and flexible interior layout makes both of these boats excellent for two people. The wide bottoms provide maximum water-contact, reducing draft, even under fully loaded conditions. I will be offering plans for the 13' Drift Pram and a new, 15'8" version of this boat in the near future. The 11' "Z's Drifter Pram" plan set is currently available from Roger Fletcher at Riverstouch.

Please visit Roger's site here for his amazing book, Drift Boats and River Dories. This book contains plans for 13 of the original drift boat designs, and is the single most important resource for the origins of drift boats as we know them today.