Can I stand up and throw a cast net from an open water rowing boat that can be car topped? My launch spots lack ramps and there is no parking for a trailer. I do have a dolly, but the boat needs to be no more than, say, 90 lbs.

I'm about to start building a light wooden row boat for the Georgia coast and I will be fishing from it. I'm thinking of a modified Herreshofe-Gardner row boat and I'm thinking of using the lightest materials I can to bring the weight down.

Here, we use cast nets for bait shrimp and shrimp themselves. Most of the time the marsh shore is too soft to stand in so the net has to be thrown from the boat.

Anyone have any experience with this?

My friend Russell says I will get wet and muddy, repeatedly, if I throw a cast net from an open water rowing boat. He also says, "Don't get a boat you can't throw a cast net from."

-- Dan Lockwood (lockwood@savstate.edu), February 20, 2003

Answers

Dear Dan,

It is possible to safely cast a net from a car-top rowing craft, but I can't think of a worse choice than the Herreshoff - Gardner rowing boat for that activity. Like all dories it has a quick motion in the roll plane. Being very narrow on the bottom the H-G model is very tender. The model you're considering is pleasant enough to row, but it is not a good platform for standing to cast a net or a fly. There are boats that are just as fast, as light and much more stable. A model similar to the Rangeley Lakes boat would be better in almost every way.

Yours,

Andre

-- Andre de Bardelaben (middlepath@aol.com), February 21, 2003.