Drift Boat Etiquette (11 of 13)

Tom: When you fish from a drift boat with another angler, make sure you coordinate your casts and leave each other plenty of room. Generally, the oars are the dividing line. The angler in the bow never casts toward the stern or beyond the oars. And the angler in the stern never casts forward past the oars. That way you both cover the water more efficiently and hopefully don't get tangled. The guy in the stern, or the back of the boat, does not want to throw beyond the oars. Number one, he's going to get caught on the oars. Number two, he or she is poaching the water of the person in the front, or the bow.

Molly: When the person in the front, in the bow, casts downstream, and their boat catches up to the fly, and the fly gets to the oar, then they pick up and re-cast downstream. And then your two anglers hopefully won't criss cross their lines.

Tom: Another important thing is that the person in the back yields to the person in the front because the person in the back can see everything. The person in the front can't.