Company Profile

Skookum means "smart, intelligent, well done, bright, agile" in Indian.  Bill Day designed and built the first STEELHEADER in 1993.  Since then, Skookum Products has been manufacturing high quality fishing craft for fisherman around the world.

Skookum Products is newly headquarted in Redmond, Oregon, heart of the beautiful Pacific Northwest, with manufacturing in Woodinville, North Bend, and Redmond Washington.

My name is Bill Day. I designed the Steelheader Cataraft. I grew up in the Klamath, Scott and Rogue River areas of Northern California and Southern Oregon. I spent 25 years rafting and fishing these rivers. Another few years were spent in the Eugene-Springfield Oregon area on the McKenzie, Umpqua, Santiam, Alsea, and Willamette rivers. For the last 25 years I have lived by the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers in Washington and I have rafted and fished rivers from Alaska to Mexico.

In all these years on the rivers and after owning well over a dozen boats. I got a pretty good idea of what I wanted in a one man fishing boat.

I needed it to be safe in whitewater, I didn’t want to wear waders on hot days, or sit in the water since it may be cold and long trips could cause leg cramps. I wanted to be able to stand up and fish and I needed a swivel seat so I could turn in it and fish and not have to change the direction of the boat due to current changes. After I owned several boats where you had to wear fins I found that it was dangerous in some rivers due to submerged logs, trees, large boulders, and stringy river moss. Besides I didn’t like having to take the fins off and on when I wanted to park the boat and wade. Also control of the boat with fins was poor in some rivers and very tiring on long trips. I wanted enough cargo space for a week of camping, and needed to be able to launch anywhere low or high water without a ramp, or put in.

I Built one boat for myself in 1993 and after getting many requests from other fishermen I decided to manufacture them for the public. If you have used float tubes, and the typical kickboats then I believe you will love the safe feel and advantages of Steelheader, and Osprey boats. It feels safer and more stable. Load capacity is two to three times that of an average kickboat. The Steelheader is not a kickboat. It’s a Whitewater Cataraft! It uses a whitewater steel galvanized frame that is almost indestructible and won’t bend when running it into the typical rocks, boulders and trees on a river. The whitewater frame has 7 Galvanized cross members from the front to back. That is twice the amount of the typical kickboat, and a whole lot stronger.

The Steelheader is a whitewater grade cataraft built for the fisherman that wants a strong one-man boat that doesn’t need a trailer and can be stored in a closet, in a condo or apartment, & transported in a car or on a plane.

The two 9 ft x 15" diameter pontoons place a 9 1/2 ft footprint on the water (4 1/2 ft. each pontoon). The 10 ft x 19” pontoons has a 10 ft footprint. This makes the Steelheader very stable. It lifts the boat higher out of the water and increases the floating capacity well over typical kickboat which use a rocker style tube and sits deeper in the water than the Steelheader. With the long footprint the Steelheader tracks better, goes in a straight line when rowed, when a motor is used, or when going through whitewater.

Because of the pontoon design, the boat responds faster on turns and gets out of trouble situations more easily. With the Steelheader-style pontoon a floor works well and is stable compared to Rocker style pontoons that lack the ability to use a floor unless they get beyond 12 feet in length and have a long waterline. As a comparison, you can’t stand up on a rocker style pontoon craft without it wanting to tip over, and it is dangerous to anchor since the rocker style craft Will tip way back and swing from side to side in the current. Steelheaders & Ospreys Anchor well and stay in place.

The Steelheader will also go through shallower water. You can stand up and fish from the stable floor, and with the swivel seat you are fishing more and spending less time correcting the direction the boat is going.

The Steelheader frame material can be found in any hardware store from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to the tip of South America and any welder can weld it. Couple that with the fact that over 40 kinds of oar locks will fit the oar towers and you have a practical boat that carries a lot of gear, is comfortable, stores easily, launches almost anywhere, and is safer in heavy whitewater conditions.

The Steelheader boats are made for river fishermen by river fisherman. Rivers tested on: Skykomish, Skagit, Kalama, SolDuc, Idaho. Salmon, Calif. Salmon, Klamath, Rogue, N. Santiam, Truckee, Deschutes, Sandy, Yakima, Vedder, Green, Payette, Lochsa, Cascade, Hoh, Queets, Sixs,Stilly,Truckee, Green, Babine, Trinity, McKenzie, Kern, Stamp, Crooked, Lewis, Clackamas, and Sacramento.