I had a rough first float and was looking for a good river thats easy to fish. I've heard the float from blue creek to mission bar on the Cowlitz was a good one but I don't know much about it. We have a two person aluminum drift boat. Any suggestions?

Can't get much easier than that float. You don't say what was rough about the first float? If your new to DB's you should spend some time in a lake getting used to how it handles.

Also look @ Barrier dam to Blue creek, you'll have fewer jetboats to deal with.

Barrier to blue is a better idea for a drift boat, the sleds are not a problem they won't run ya over, but if I was in a DB I would float the dam down. Any float on the cowlitz should be really easy, if they seem rough ya might want to hit the lake.

I've rowed on a lake quite a bit but my first trip on a river was the wynoochee from white bridge to black cree. REALLY low water right now and obstacles around every single corner. My 72 yr old grandpa bought the boat for us and it was depinetly not a good choice for a first float. It got pretty hairy but only because of so many root wads, log jams, and shallow spots. The float also took eight hours. Is it a pretty smooth trip?

never fished the wynoochee from a drift boat, but right now i can't imagine going down it in anything but a pontoon(or an inner tube). especially since there's a lot of stretches that are about 6" deep and hundreds of yards long in these flows.

kind of nice being able to walk a half mile or more from just about every access. don't get to do that too much on that river, some fish would be a plus, though.

barrier dam to blue creek, or blue creek to mission bar should be a cakewalk right now. the only iffy spot might be the chute at blue creek, but on a 1-10 scale i'd say it's a 2. you'd probably want to take a right at the split and pull over to fish the side channel for a bit anyway, so it'd be a non issue.

I didn't go into detail but it was life threatening. At a spot about a mile and a half below crossover bridge the river splits. On the right side it gets extremely shallow , and the left side carries most of the water and is plenty deep. We took the left side. Wrong choice. We got hung up in the tree across the river and damn near lost it. If it wasn't for our oar lock getting stuck up under the log I think we'd have rolled it over, lost our gear, and possibly drowned. We some how got out of the situation but not without getting completely submerged in my waders. My grandpa'a allstar rod got broken somewhere in the tustle. We had to pull the boat upriver and pull it down that shallow shoot. With about 6 hours left to float we were thankful we had our lives and tried to make the best of it. Horrible for my first float. I should've checked the drift out more and stopped to evaluate any situation I was unsure about.We had to get out and drag the boat 5 or 6 times and the drift took us eight hours.

The Cowlitz is our next drift, and I would hope it will be MUCH easier. How long do both these drifts take? barrier dam to blue creek and down to mission bar.

i drifted from barrier to mission bar last week in 5 hours. (7am to noon) The water was at 8000cfs. we were in a hurry though. i have made a 13 hour trip out of it though. bluecreek is about the half way point if you float from barrier to mission bar. good luck

my first drift was on the Hoh...Morgans to Minnies...was good for me...had someone to follow the first time...thats always good...

first time on the Hoh alone for a new drift was from Oxbow to Cottonwood...there were two spots that were tricky....one after Allen that we walked through, but i think if there was more water we could have gone through...but was pretty messed up, but easy to get out and walk....and one other spot after the Hoh River resort launch...there was a pretty dangerous log jam that i guess sucked up 4 boats this year, but we went thru just fine...but the water does like to suck you in to the jam...not a prob if you strong arm it....was a nice drift for my first time...water was grey, from all the snow melt, but really was to learn a new section of the river for my new boat...sometimes its not about just fishing....c

When the nooch is running @ 1,500cfs it takes me all of 8 hours to fish it effectively from white to black.If you had to push/pull your drifter in all that shallow water and still made it with in 8 hours you did good but didn't fish much.When it get's below 500 cfs it get's real tough to float.Glad you made it out OK.I know right where you are talking about as it's 1/4 mile below the car body hole.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE


Any drift on the mother cow in a drift boat should be pretty easy if ya know your boat a little.

Thats good news. thinkin about goin down friday and not takin the boat. just to check it out and bank fish if possible. Ya after our ordeal we were wet and tired and kinda bipassed alot of good LITTLE holes. the water seemed so low...... lookin forward to the cowlitz.

Please don't mistake skill for luck...


Be careful, ...or someone's gonna die.