Driftboat Championship – Angler’s Journal 9/28/2008

Copyright 2008, Used by permission

By John W. Corrigan

Seven minutes and twenty five seconds is the new world’s record for drift-boat racing.

That’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.

Michael Jones, who has guided full-time out of a drift boat on the Androscoggin and Kennebec rivers for the past dozen years, set the standard by reaching the take-out point 10 seconds ahead of local hero Scott Stone.

To twist a term from horse racing, plaques were awarded on the basis of win, place and show-up. Chris Russell, a guide for Northern Outdoors in The Forks, Maine, completed the course in eight minutes, 21 seconds.

Should this sport catch on, remember that you first read about it here.

The event was the Drift Boat Championship on the Androscoggin River in Bethel, Maine, last Sunday morning. It was part of a weekend that included a two-fly contest. Both events raised funds for the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance, a group of anglers and business people who have been trying to promote the river and fishing as an ingredient in a diverse local economy.

“This is the first ever, I would say world’s drift-boat championship, let alone New England drift-boat championship,” said Wende Gray, who handles public relations and marketing for the alliance. “I don’t think it’s ever been done anywhere in the world below.”

A quick Google search supports her theory. There have been lots of fishing contests and tournaments, but this championship may be an original.

A drift boat can be a river-fishing guide’s best tool. From a client’s perspective, it offers an excellent casting platform in all but the heaviest whitewater.

Fishermen used to call it a McKenzie River drift boat, named after an Oregon river where the original models were developed. They are more commonly called simply drift boats these days. The craft is a wide dory. It has a lot of what whitewater boaters call “rocker,” the curve of the hull from stern to bow. The shape makes them easy to maneuver in challenging current. Obviously, drift boats must be durable and they are fabricated from wood or synthetic materials.

The town of Bethel has an upscale feel about it, but the competition incorporated the rural Maine make-do-with-what’s-available attitude.

Rocky Freda, who runs Sun Valley Sports and Guide Service, must have put a good five or ten minutes thought into setting the course.

A former body builder who has the shoulders of guy who does a lot of rowing, Freda scrounged a milk bottle and two ancient life jackets to serve as buoys.

The idea was to make the drift-boat rowers circle the milk bottle, head downstream, circle one of the life jackets, and then set a course between the life jackets before surging to the take-out point.

While wanting to test the skills of his fellow guides, Freda tried to show some mercy for rowers who had spent most of Saturday battling current during the two-fly contest. Some of them couldn’t make it to the starting point.

As the competitors gathered on the river bank at the Outdoor Adventures campground, Freda drew lines in the dirt to explain the course. It took a few times before the concept was clearly understood.

Jones, who set the standard for the new world’s record in a boat sponsored by Fly Rod and Reel magazine, approaches rowing the same way he approaches fly fishing.

“I’m the smallest guy in the competition,” he said. “What that tells you, it’s more about trying to use your head, and the little bit of body that you have, to be in the right place. Same thing when you are rowing down the river. The boat is a thousand pounds with the angler and the gear in it. The most important thing is not to try to fight it, but just try to get it to go in the direction the river wants to go.”

“The guy in the front of the boat was basically pointing me to the fastest water going down the river . . . That’s a lot smarter than finding yourself in slow water and trying to row harder and harder.”

He noted that the section of the Androscoggin in Maine can easily be floated in a canoe or kayak. “Pull up on the shore and fish the water that is a little quicker instead of blasting through it. A lot of the best fish hold in the quickest water.”

Stone, who described himself as one of the original members of the anglers alliance, was the only amateur in the race. A home builder, he made his own wooden drift boat.

“We did a really good job at the buoys,” he said in describe how he managed to stay close to Jones and ahead of Russell. “We were able to spin the boat real quick and make the buoy turns real good.”

He believes he lost time when rowing backwards to circle the floating obstacles. “I’m thrilled to be in second place, honestly.”

They plan to try it again next fall. For rowers all across New England, it could be a chance to break the new world’s record.

(John Corrigan can be reached at corrigannh@verizon.net)