Perhaps I adapted to the brightness in the corner of my eyes while rowing or fishing, or maybe the premier features, functions, and handling of the raft overshadowed such miniscule details, but, nevertheless, I quickly fell in love with my newly acquired Streamtech Steelhead – it didn’t take long. At 14-and-a-half feet long, six feet wide, and countless potential river miles to be covered, I learned firsthand why a Streamtech was “the last boat you’ll ever own.”

Mine came just in time for the spring and summer float and fishing season ripe with new adventures on the river and hopefully a few trout hooked along the way. Living in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Rockies provided ample opportunities to test the merits of the raft on tame drift boat rivers and intense whitewater sections primarily travelled by rubber boats, and I couldn’t wait to test it. Four months later, I’ve tested it in nearly every application possible with the exception of one: an overnight or multi-day trip, which I hope to soon check off my list (stay tuned).

For everyday use as a fisherman, I needed to ensure my Steelhead could handle two water types: (1) traditional hardside drift boat waters with slow beats requiring the rower to hold the boat in fishing position, often fighting the wind, without spooking the fish or moving out of position, and (2) rough whitewater sections with rocks, boulderfields, rapids, and hazards a drift boat cannot pass through, but featured rowability and maneuverability to hold in fishing position through fast water. Previously, I believed a boat necessary for one wouldn’t be sufficient for the other. Commonly, it was believed a raft didn’t handle slow sections well while a drift boat in rocky rapids was suicide, so I, like many others, owned or used different boats for different water types. This was why I chose to buy a Streamtech: one boat that handles all water types well – not just serviceable.

In June, I joined a group of my friends on one of the top dry fly fisheries in the country in Idaho. Green drakes kicked off a few days prior, so sippers were from bank to bank by mid morning. After launch, my buddies Kirby and Joe sat in the front and back while I rowed into position to the first pot of risers to kick off the day. I held the boat to the river-left side of the middle while my two fishing partners casted to the right. In order to prevent the boat from drifting over our targets, I crab rowed side-to-side in alternating strokes to hold position and slow the boat down.

In moderate current with a slight breeze, such a task for an oarsman was optimal in a hardsided drift boat or skiff and do-able in a standard raft, yet not ideal and hardly as efficient; however, this wasn’t a typical raft; this was a Streamtech. On my life, I discovered my Steelhead handled in this situation closer to that of a drift boat than any other raft I previously operated. Perhaps not exactly to that of a fiberglass or wood boat, but somewhere between 90–95% and far better than any generic rubber boat. The results spoke for itself when Joe and Kirby started to nail fish after fish while I held the boat in fishing position, and the cheers of successful anglers echoed down the river.

Then, my turn to swap positions came. Kirby offered to row and called me from the dugout. On the previous lap, I saw a quality brown in the pod of risers poke his nose through the surface film to slurp a drake, so naturally I focused on his previous known location when Kirby back rowed us up for another go (an action easily accomplished in this raft). Once we dropped into position, I lined up my cast, threw an aerial upstream reach, and watched as my fly drifted over the fish’s position followed by his emergence from the depths. The second before he struck, I turned to my companions, looked them dead in the eyes, and declared “I got ‘em!” and set the hook without breaking eye contact. More luck than skill, but sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

I’ve fished that section countless times from hardside, and my Steelhead not only handled technical fishing scenarios unhindered, it thrived and proved itself time and time again in similar situations all summer.

Ultimately, those who own rafts do so with the intent of hitting whitewater. Fun water; rapids and boulder gardens. It’s cool if a raft can hold its own on a drift boat river, but what about raft water? How does it compare to its contemporaries?

July marked prime time for freestone river rafting and fishing, and some of those waters become impassable for any boat by the month’s end, so I made sure to put the neon green Steelhead to a true test. I picked my favorite Yellowstone area freestone, one off the beaten path with a short float window, for a week of data collection, which meant days of floating and fishing (for science).

Rapids that in my old raft that splashed off the bow were inhaled by the Steelhead and its steep rockers, and the responsive rowing allowed myself, or whoever rowed, to easily dodge obstacles and maneuver around hazards. It was a fast river, but it hardly took effort to back row and slow the boat to fishing speed. Fast current ripped by the tubes, but we often held steady for pocked water, pools, and cutbanks with numerous shots and successful outtakes of hooked fish. In fact, I can’t begin to count how many fish we landed – plenty.

Each day, the river dropped a few inches more, and areas easily passable two days before turned to gravel bars and ledges ready to hang-up a boat. For the size of the raft, slicing through heavy rapids and big waves makes sense, but that wasn’t the most impressive accomplishment of the Steelhead on this trip. Its ability to handle shallow, tight corridors was. In inches of water, at depths any other raft would’ve run aground in, the Steelhead either passed without touching the bottom, or easily slid over. It hardly drafted two inches of water, and the immense width barely became a factor and we easily bobbed in and out of tight spaces without the oarsman breaking a sweat. Each day I floated with different companions and each day my boatmates commented on this feature.

Beautiful rainbow trout artwork and wood varnished decks with a brown trout burned into one add personality to the already vibrant neon green boat. Its looks turn heads, but it’s hardly the most impressive feature. A large raft that rows similar to a drift boat and feels as comfortable as one seems too good to be true, but it is. Not to mention it outperforms every raft I’ve ever been in.

It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with this boat, and the more I float and fish in it, the more I love it. A summer in my Steelhead and I can’t imagine owning anything else. Spend a season in one, and you’ll understand. You won’t regret it.