Yarcraft Adrift

Kansas is a tough place to live. The wind always blows. The summers are hot. Very hot. I would say it gets up to about 2 million degrees on a regular basis, and the mosquitoes (from flying in all the wind) are built like flying body builders. The winters are treacherous too. The temperature drops to sub-arctic temps and then the wind chill factor brings it down to "life unsustainable" levels. And fishing? Forget it. If you COULD put on a boat in all the wind, it wouldn't do much good because there aren't any fish. If you're really good, you might catch a brown bull head. So don't go to Kansas. Ever. There isn't anything there but dust, wind, and mean cowboys who shoot out of towners on sight.


My friend Barry drives a Yarcraft. I'm sorry. Being the Lundrunner, I have to say my loyalty rides with Lund, but Barry is a smart man and he chose Yarcraft. He used to own a Lund, but he doesn't any more. Because of the wind in Kansas, holding a boat stationary with an electric trolling motor gets tricky. The Fiberglas tends to stay put better, and Lund only makes aluminum boats. He fishes quite a bit, and has spent many hours on boats, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say Yarcraft makes a pretty fine vessel. He was kind enough to take my father and I out last week while I was visiting family back in Kansas during the single weekend of tolerable weather, and we managed to pull a few fine finned friends along for a ride in the Yarcraft. It's a Fiberglas boat with a great hull design that provides what they claim as the driest ride available. The 140 horse Suzuki idles down and trolls 2.5 miles an hour with no trouble, and thanks to the 4 cycle engine we could speak to each other at normal levels while doing it. The floor plan was great, as three of us fished quite comfortably.














I could go on and on about how great the fishing was, and give away all the secrets to our success, but I won't. They aren't mine to give away. I will say this: Nothing is better than fishing with family and friends after a long absence. Even in Kansas.






"As the angler looks back, he thinks less of individual captures and days than of scenes in which he fished." - Lord Grey of Fallondon