I am a new poster here. I was there bank fishing the day the guy drowned. I was fishing in the backwater at the S curves for coho. I was on the Shafer Park side of the river. Three guys walked in from the Decker creek side about the time I was quitting and taking my rod apart. The water was running high and swift but they tried to cross upriver from me between Decker and the S curves. I was walking out through the brush when I heard two of the guys yelling. I went back to the backwater and saw the guy floating in the heavy current past the backwater where it goes past the big rock and there was no chance to get him. I think he had already drowned because I saw no movement and not face. Just a life less corpse floating. He was a 50 some yr old man. His two partners were young guys and they were able to get across the river to my side. The two boys had never been on the river before so I led them back up to the park and we contacted the ranger and he called 911 on the his land line because we couldn't get cell service. In a short time, Search and Rescue, county sheriffs, park rangers, State Patrol and and ambulance showed up. The Sheriffs gather information from the boys and me. The boys were cold and wet so the ranger gave them blankets and put them in his truck to warm up. The the two boys and the drowned man live in Tacoma. I was going that way and offered to take the boys home because they all had come in the deceased man's vehicle but it was locked and the keys were on him. The boys were going to be there a while so the ranger told me that I could go and that the authorities would make sure the boys got home.
Search and Rescue was sending a boat to look for the body. .
Just a very sad and tragic situation. The river was running way too swift and high that day to be trying to cross the river (more than 4000 cfs). It was the last day of the salmon season on the Satsop. A terrible ending to the season.