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September, 2001
Steiger Craft Super Fly
By John Van Hart
I
admit it. I'm a Steiger Craft fan. I had a 21'
Long Beach and I have a 23' Long Beach now. I
watched each boat get built and I decided about
a lot of details in each one. I love the boat
building process, especially at Steiger Craft.
After fly fishing
for a few years in my first Steiger, I came to
the fairly obvious conclusion that nobody was
building a boat for fly fishing in the great
white north. Southern style flats boats that you
stand on, not in, are not the solution. Where I
fish in Long Island Sound, flats boats are
down-right dangerous. You just can't stand on
top of one in rough water. When the wind blows,
the guys in the flats boats go home. They miss a
lot of good fishing. So, a while ago, I set about convincing Al
Steiger to build a boat designed specifically
for Northeast light tackle and salt water fly
fishing. Al was smart. He didn't just listen to
me. He consulted with a lot of good fly
fisherman and professionals guides who fish for
a living. Long Island Sound, Block Island and
Montauk were covered. The research didn't take
too long. The planning, mold-making and building
did.
Al Steiger took his
proven 21' hull and made some major interior
modifications. The, U-shaped, foam-filled,
fiberglass grid system was kept, and the
cock-pit floor was raised 3 inches. End grain,
balsa-core in a 3" club sandwich of fiberglass
was used to build a rock solid cock-pit floor.
The cock-pit floor was kept as one level, no
steps, no bunks, no step-up casting platform to
fall over. The floor was also crowned to shed
water. Fully guttered hatches were built in
everywhere for storage and access. The hatches
were fitted with massive yacht quality hardware.
A full perimeter gutter was added. An open
diamond-pattern non-slip surface was molded in.
A new liner was created and the space between
the hull and the liner was foam-filled to the
gunnels. Under the gunnels, 10 fly rod racks
were built in with full tip-tubes for complete
fly rod protection.
A new, lower
console was designed and built with a chopped
wind-shield, a husky grab rail and plenty of
room for electronics. Tackle storage, a seat
with storage, 8 vertical rod holders and 4 cup
holders were added. A leaning post with grab
rails, storage and room for a cooler was
positioned to support the pilot and a passenger.
Stainless Attwood pull-up cleats and a stainless
Accon pop-up bow light were included to keep
everything snag free. On the stern a storage box and and a live well
were set on into their respective corners. Lenco
Electric Trim Tabs were flush mounted into the
stern. These were the Lenco Trim Tabs with the
Electric Trolling Motors designed to make silent
maneuverability a finger-tip convenience
Al Steiger calls this very special Steiger
Craft, the Super Fly. I had seen the finished
product several times in the showroom. It really
looked good and all the features seemed to make
a lot of sense, but I had never been on one or
fished from one. The proof of such a design is
not how good it looks. It's how good it works.
Finally, I got my chance. Al invited me on a
"demo/ bring your fly rod trip".
It wasn't
that serious a fishing trip. We were going
mid-day, but it was a very serious demo. When we
cleared the harbor, Al pushed the Gaffrig
throttle forward quick enough to make me grab
the console grab-rail with all the "grab" I had
available. With the Optimax 200, the boat was up
and going 60 mph in as much time as a Corvette
Z06 gets there. The fly in Super Fly may stand
for speed not just fly fishing. This boat is
very fast and it is rock solid at any speed. The
boat feels a little smaller than my old 21' Long
Beach, because of the 3" raised deck, but no
matter where you are in the boat, there is
always something to grab with in easy reach. It
feels so remarkably fast and solid the
references to Corvettes,Vipers and Ferrarris
just seem to fit.
We fooled around
with some small bluefish behind Moriches Inlet
and tested the bow and the stern for fishing
functionality. I could have thrown my tackle bag
in any of 3 or 4 storage spaces. I picked the
box in front of the console. And I stored two
fly rods in the horizontal racks under the
starboard gunnel. The rods rode fine and were
quick and easy to get to. No matter where you
cast from in this boat, you are comfortable. The
gunnel seems to hit your legs perfectly, bow or
stern. And the diamond patterned deck grabbed my
deck shoes with assurance. My fly line never got
snagged on any part of the boat all day, so it's
foul free as far as I'm concerned.
Maneuvering this
boat with the Lenco trim-tab mounted electric
trolling motors is remarkable. The boat turns
instantly and can position the fisherman to the
fish perfectly and silently. I never saw a fish
spooked by the motors. To me the Lenco system is
beautiful and I am not sure I can live without
it. The Lenco electric trim tabs respond much
faster than my hydraulic trim tabs. They take
some getting used to. As a matter of fact,
piloting or flying this boat takes some
practice. It goes very fast. It trims instantly.
If you get behind the wheel, go slow and learn.
It's just like getting used to driving a very
fast car.
We went east out
Moriches Inlet and hunted the beach for birds.
The Super Fly handled the swells very well. No
bird action was visible, so we went to the sand
bar just west of the inlet. Waves were braking
on the bar that were 3 to 4 feet high. Al put
the boat right in the middle of the breakers.
Super Fly handled it beautifully.
We saw big bluefish
surfing through the waves and some big stripers
finning between the breakers. Al put me in the
right position time after time, but it was mid
day and these guys were enjoying the sun and the
surfing. They were not eating.
The Lenco system
worked flawlessly. The amazing thing was, with
the bow directly into the waves and me as far
forward as possible, it was easy to go through
each wave by simply grabbing the the 3 inch high
bow rail with my left hand and holding on to my
fly rod with my right. You can't do that in a
flats boat. We never pounded when we came
through a wave. Remember this hull only draws
nine inches of water. The ride was magnificent.
(I have done similar things with a Boston Whaler
on the south bar off Barnegat Light Inlet ,
years ago. It was down right dangerous. We
swamped that Whaler more than a few times and
one time we even threw a guest out of it. I 'll
never forget the look on his face as he waved
good-bye from the beach, right before he
hitch-hiked home.)
Then Al Steiger did
something I would not suggest anyone do. He
turned the stern into the breakers. We took
several waves over the stern. The transom door
stopped a lot of water and the rest drained off
the deck almost instantly. Still the boat didn't
budge. It just loved it. No fish, but a great
demonstration of an amazingly able boat with the
additional luxury of supplemental electric power
and control.
I think this just
might be the best boat there is to light tackle
fish the Northeast. Then I thought about fishing
it in Sebastian Florida for tarpon up the river,
or for trout on the Indian River flats, or in
the inlet for snook or offshore for tarpon or
bonito. It would be perfect. I thought about it
on the flats of Belize for bonefish, or off
their barrier reef for really big tarpon. It
would also work in Costa Rica on the west coast
for roosterfish and on the east coast for Rio
Colorado tarpon. This boat would work a lot of
places. For a guy who will never take a big long stick
and stand on top of one of those card tables on
the stern of one of those boats without sides,
it is the perfect solution. The trouble is, I
feel like I have to buy a few of them to put one
everywhere I want one.
Al Steiger asked me
a simple question when we were done. Al said,
"When you order a Super Fly, it will work just
fine with a 115 Johnson or a 130 Yamaha 4-cycle
or any engine smaller than the 200 Mercury
Optimax.. What would you want?" Quicker than
instantly, I decided on the 200 Mercury Optimax.
Where else can you get a Corvette Z06 or a Viper
or a Ferrari at these prices and have a place to
drive 'em at full blast.
I love going fishin'.
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