Fished the lower Satsop a week ago and almost got run over by a sled. Was fishing a tailout when a sled came flying around the corner about ten feet off the bank(I was about eight ft), swerved around me at mach 10 and gave me a look that suggested they were pissed that I was in there way. To make matters worse I had a first time river fisherman with me that was snagged up about 100 yds below me. He tried to lower his line below the water but the jet snagged him up and sripped all but 20 yds of line before it broke off. Game Over! Is this typical of the lower Satsop? It seems like an awfully small river to be running sleds. Most of the sleds I saw seemed to be racing the river rather than fishing it. Is there much access on the upper Satsop that gets you away from the sleds(drift boats don't bother me except for the fact that I don't have one)? I have plenty of other rivers I like to fish but the Satsop is fairly close. Any help is appreciated.

It is becoming more and more typical. I have been fishing the Satsop for 17 yrs and have seen this become a growing issue. The Satsop is a small river, even under normal flows and is not really condusive to jet boating. Jets must run through holding water in order to navigate certain stretches. In low water conditions such as now, the only place to run is up the middle of the holes. This is an ongoing issue on this river. I feel that there should be no sleds on the East Fork period. Im am a sled owner and you will never see consider my boat Satsop.

grays harbor county commissioners are having a meeting nov 24 at 6 pm to talk about limiting horse power and boats over 16ft on both the satsop and wynooche. meeting to be in the commissioners meeting room in monte

Maybe the "commissioners" should read the new WDFW proposals!

It would appear that WDFW is also proposing a motor ban on that section of the river.

Cowlitzfisherman

I'm in. I won't even consider running my sled on the Satsop. It is too small of a river.