In Small Boats this month, we review two boats designed for amateur builders: Gil Gilpatrick’s 14′ Puddle Duck canoe, and Old Salt, a newly designed catboat for older sailors. Greg Hatten joins an extraordinary group of men on the Umpqua River in Oregon to fish for smallmouth bass and bond over some of life’s hardest questions. Christopher Cunningham makes a simple but effective jig for cutting laminating strips on a table saw. James Kealey finds a set of navigation lights to extend the cruising options in his sail-and-oar 18-footer. Jane Crosen reviews some merino-silk thermal garments that provide both warmth and comfort. And a partially built Glen-L Squirt spotted on Craigslist is finished to an exacting standard for a long-dreamed-of launching in Virginia.

Featured above is the Old Salt 15, photograph by Brandon Davis; while featured on our front cover is a drift boat ready for some fly-fishing with Reel Recovery on the Umpqua River, Oregon; photograph by Greg Hatten.