Thanks for the ideas guys. I think we'll use aluminum; maybe we could secure 1/2" plywood on top of that. I bet we could make tabs in both ends to hold the deck to the edge of the benches & lock it in place. In reality it only needs to come up to the end of the front bench; the boat is a wide but has a V-hull, so the front space before the first bench is pretty much worthless when it come to modification. It gets used as storage for the front anchor, pull line,& more. I thnk if we could secure the panels, they would be pretty strong. On top of the panels we're thinking of using the no slick surface stuff, which is better for flyfishing because it has better traction. If you guys would like pics of the boat to get a better idea of it, I'll take them gladly. :-)