Can anyone tell me how you go about getting certified so that you can take a boat out and drift fish. I was told you had to have a certification when I was up at the Grande Ronde to be out drift fishing and wanted to know if this was true and how I would get certified? Is there a special certification that you can get for all rivers or were they just pulling my leg.

I figured if I wanted to guide I would have to have a certification, but I wasn't sure if I had to be certified to just go out and driftfish.

RAE

There's no certification I'm aware of; you may need to license the boat, but I'm not even sure that's necessary--I think it depends on the size and/or whether or not it's motorized. That said, I've seen plenty of folks get on the water (myself included) before they really have enough experience to safely drift modestly challenging water.

Rae,

I've never heard of any special certification to use a drift boat. I've had buddies drift the Grande Ronde with their drift boat with no issues. I'm pretty sure the boat does have to be licensed. My guess is someone is pulling your leg or was misinformed. The float from Bogan's to Shumaker is a nice float, not many rapids and lots of fish in the winter months. It's probably to late to have great success this time of year. I've drifted it a couple of times with my pontoon. I would try stateline to bogan's this late in the year. Good Luck!!

Driftfish

Your certification involves taking your mods from your favorite board out and putting them on some fish
Actually there is no such thing as a cert for floating a river unless you are a boy scout, There could be certain guide restrictions on certain rivers though

Ha ha ha! Alright I feel like a fool at this point. Thanks everybody for the info. once again. I think I will drift from Stateline to Bogans, there is alot of nice looking water along that stretch.

RAE