A Fly fishing video short story for large trout at my favorite sub-alpine lake in the Cascade Mountains in a boat with a TON of great fishing karma - the Eider.
The 'Eider'
A wooden boat with a long history and storied pedigree. The ‘Eider’ was constructed by Nate Slater, a shipwright out of Tacoma Washington who mentored under a boat builder by the name of Mike Vlahovich of Tacoma Washington. Mike Vlahovich is a master shipwright and third-generation commercial fisherman who has dedicated his adult life to the preservation of the cultural, material, and environmental heritage of fisheries of the Northwest and the Chesapeake Bay. In 1982, Vlahovich opened a boat shop in Tacoma, and by 1992 launched his heritage education efforts with the restoration and conversion of the Commencement, a 65-foot wooden purse seine salmon boat that now functions as a floating classroom. By 1999, his reputation as a master shipwright and as an advocate for the heritage of Northwestern fisheries earned him Washington’s prestigious Governor’s Heritage Award. Mike used his name and reputation to obtain and order the materials that went into the Eider; oak, cedar, mahogany, iron bark, copper rivets just to name a few. Nate Slater grew up around a shipyard; his family owned Marine Industries Northwest in Tacoma. The shipyard was established in 1976 by his father, Don, and was recently sold to Vigor Marine. In addition to his shipwright skills, Slater is an artist and sculptor. He earned his BA in Fine Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1991. He looks forward to bringing his artistic eye to the project, as well as interacting with museum visitors Nate and my father modified the design of the Eider of a sailing skiff they found in a planning book. The original was stepped for a mast, had a removable dagger board, no covered bow and had a long handle tiller. For many months they labored to create what is now named the Eider – Nate providing the workmanship at Vlahovich’s Tacoma shop and my father as his helping hand. This amazing boat was passed down to me just over 10 years ago and we have seen so many fishing adventures like this. Cheers and thanks for watching!
