I have a 20 foot Wooldridge. spending most of my time on the snohomish system and the cowlitz.
I stay as far away from the bankers as I can keeping it on step while going upstream, and at a low idle while working downstream. The big exception is blue creek during this past summer. Figure my suprise as I made the sharp left entering the BC drift with the usual 1000 people on the bank, but (3) sleds anchored up stem to stern accross from them. The only place to go was along the left bank between the sleds and the shore....No problem heading down river.....Got looks from the bankers and the guys in the sleds...NICE...Worked my way down towards Mission ((2) fish), and on the return trip the (3) sleds turned into (4)... after idleing past the sleds, I didn't have much water to get her up on step before the hard right turn and climb. I felt like just blasting straight between the bankers and the sleds to get my boat positioned for the climb, but these guys tend to remember boats....

Now I just trailer down to mission if I want to fish BC, and launch from my prperty for the water between BC and the dam....What a pain!