Looking at the gage and it's been at 2840 for some time now. Looking at the trend for the day is was dropping about every half hour. Could the gage be down or something else. I was hoping to fish it from the West Fork down, but at those flows I'm questioning my decision.


Todd

That's pretty high for drifting the Sop.

It'd be a fast float or you better have a large anchor or want to be "on the sticks" lot's...watchout for the 100 jet boats....including mine.......

Why on earth would a DB ever "watch out" for some lame azz sled?

If you cant control your sled ya shouldnt be on the river.

Have you ever seen Drifter drive/pilot/skipper/Captain a boat ?? He is by far the most skilled sled operator over 80 years old that I know. The man is a master of the river and a gentleman as well.

treefarmer:

well.......well......well.......sounds like a comment that "full time bankie" would make.......but deep down you have the burning desire to want be be able to control some horsepower in a well trimmed jet boat, to get to that place to fish......that you just can't get to!!!!! Keep putting those pennies in that piggie bank......your day will come!!!!!!

So how many sleds were there today ?

about 20 boats at the twin bridges ramps. Wasn't crowded where I was trying though. We had pretty steady coho action. They just all had rudders.

Well, yes I fish from the bank at times drifter. And I also know how to oar a DB and have a DB. And have the stamina to do it.
I also own a bit of land on the Satsop and watch pieces fall into the river when these "sleds" go roaring by. Ever wonder why Stormy's turn gets bigger and bigger every year? See how the Baker hole has changed?
The Satsop just aint made for sleds.
Whats funny (or not) is you live down here, should know some of these folks and have no respect for their land. Kind of like peeing in your own pool. You maybe a great guy and nice as he!! but have someone teach you how to oar a DB. Just take small sections till you work up to a whole drift.
Or save you pennies and buy some land on the river.

treefarmer:

Had drifterboat for 20 years, have rowed Hoh, Queets, Satsop, and Wynoochee........enjoyable way to fish but the bottom line it's just much more convenience to fish out of my "small 15' 6" sled.....can go when I want, leave when I want, can fish alone or with others.

Don't really see any change in the Baker Hole......now Stormy's place that's a different story....when "Mother Nature" decides to move a river she can do so. I don't think 100 sled's running up and down can even come close the destruction that 2 or 3 days of rain can do. Satsop Rivera is a prime example....that area has changed greatly, just in the time I driftboated from Decker Creek to West Fork or ran my sled, from West Fork Launch(old days) to Torrow Branch.....now I choose to stay on the lower river, below the West Fork.

The Satsop can handle sleds very well....not many problems with jet boats getting into trouble.......BUT driftboats, mmmmmmmm well that's another story.....Park to Torrow Branch has eaten quite a few, "blocks" above the Hiway has gotten a few.

Have a good day.......fishing has been awesome!

Drifter, if in real life your not the "nose in the air azz wipe sled runner blasting though the holes people are fishing who thinks he owns the river" you sure play one well on the internet.
I guess you dont see the 3' silt line after you go roaring by do you? You dont see all the small fry washed up on the rocks do you? You dont see the bank falling in the river do you?

Hate to be the one who has to say it but everyone doesnt want to be you. Trust me I can buy a sled if I wanted. I no more want to listen to a motor all day long on the river then get the flu. That aint why I fish. My friend who fishes the most down there with me has a sled. Hasnt had it on the Satsop in years. Goes to the Cowlitz with it where the banks have been rip-rap'd.

There should at least be a restriction to the size of these freaking boats and motors.

Kick the big guide boats off the river and the problems is solved. What kind of damage does a 40 hp jet do to the river ? It can't be too bad other wise the Quinaults would not restrict their rivers to 40hp nor would the Kenai in AK.

By the way do their clients have to pay for permits to park at State boat launches ? Not being a smart ass I just don't know the answer.

My understanding, after ranting about the lower Wynoochee boat ramp" is that if a "toilet" is provided, then a WDFW sticker is required....

Been following this thread a bit. I think we have all seen the "scum line" 2' up the bank from sleds, and as a sled operator I have also ran through a run, and then when drifting back through it seen the sediment flowing along the bank.

So, I realize it is true about bank raveling due to sled operation, but isn't there a lot of blame to be placed on the riverside landowners as well? The lower river (good case around Glick's and the long stretch below the Baker hole) used to have much more "character" than it currently does. By that I mean there used to be large woody debris, creating the river hydraulics that hold fish. The Satsop used to be famous for "fishing in the wood", but now there is almost no wood left to fish around.

The simple fact is that too much of the river margin has been utilized for farming, and the riparian zones that were left, have been gobbled up by the river, and in a lot of places you just see a dirt bank, where you used to see a treed/brushy area. So far, I have not seen any man made bank revetments that have worked on this river.

If I had private property on the river I wouldn't use my sled that much either. I would also be looking like crazy at how I would be stablizing my bank, about 100 yards from the river, not right on it.

I've been fishing the Sop, Nooch etc. for 20 years now. I have seen the changes in the rivers, for sure. Mostly by nature, however sleds "Big Sleds" also have done their fare share. It's been purposed and there have already been some meetings over the past couple of years ie; sled bans and or Size of Sled Ban. I feel it has to find common ground. Set boundaries in which everyone wins. IE: Limit the motor and size of boat allowed on the rivers and also put in boundaries as far as how high up in the system the sleds can travel. On the Nooch, no sleds above the Dam, on the Sop, no Sleds above West Fork. I fish out of both and am always in a drift boat above those areas and never take a sled past the same point.
Just my thoughts...

FireFish...

FireFish:

"On the Nooch, no sleds above the Dam".......mmmmm, wow tough to get thur the canyon with a sled.....now I know you meant "Wynoochee water intake" but that doesn't really seem fair......Wynoochee is about 27 miles long...but you feel that the lower 6-7 miles should be where all the sleds should operate??????

Can't buy that, nothing wrong with sleds in the "white bridge to about CarterCreek", especially when the want level is 1800+.

Drift boats can have 7400 line to Carter Creek and Crossover Bridge to Wyn. water intake, that is prime driftboat water and lot's of miles of river.

Satsop....really depends on the water level. I've sure been above the Torrow Branch, brood stocking for WDFW and never felt that my sled was in any danger but would not do that if the water level was low.

I don't really know what a "big sled is", but I had mine built at 15' 6" to stay away from being "to big"...

See the problem is: people want to fish, OP has many rivers that are driftboat only...just that they are futher North.....ie Upper Quinault, East/West Fork to hiway bridge of Humptulips, Queets, Upper Hoh, etc.

What would be best is if decisions were made with what is best for the fish or best for the river in mind, instead of what is best for "me".

DW, you got me there, I ment water intake, diversion dam. OK, point made, doesn't change my opinion as you are entitled to yours. And this isn't about what's best for me, this is an overall approach for both systems and whats best for the environment, fish etc. As I said, I fish from both, just looking to find common ground.

FireFish...

What a great question.
What is best for the river?
Seems to me that the small fry I see in the shallow water have to be something other than suckers. If those are in fact salmon, steelhead or trout, when they get washed up on the rocks, well, that aint good.
The constant pounding the banks take can only make it easier for the high water to wash more of it away.
Yes there used to be a bunch more woods along the river. I believe the clear-cutting in the watershed has lead to the "100 year floods" we have every 2 years lately. So what the river was capable of withstanding 10 years ago is now being eroded away. Alot of those farms are closer because the river moves so much these days. Stormy had a 300' setback of trees all the way down. Now only a small section remain. And he didnt cut em down either.
I could at least go with the smaller sleds (40hp) but make them take a courtesy course on river etiquette.

By the way is the reason there are no sleds on the OP because of restrictions or because they cut up your trailer at the launch with a cutting torch?

I used to launch and take out at that boat launch on the West Fork, well that was in 1985-86. At that time the East Fork actually came into the West Fork about 30 yards below the boat launch.....it was very easy to "row up the West Fork and then row right across to the boat launch.

The reason I point that out is....it shows how much both of those "Forks" have shifted to the East. In 1991 all the Satsop water went right into the "right hand side" of the protected bank, about 3/4 mile down river then went along the protected bank and at the "end of the rocks" the river cut due north, thur what is the southern end of Stormy's property.

At some time in the mid 90's a log jam developed where the river turned North.....bottom line, the river went straight towards the road, where the sharp corner and big eddy is.

All the shifting was "mother nature" at her worse....since the mid 90's from the West Fork down has gotten worse every year.

Stormy lost huge amounts of land, sportsmen lost some of the best fishing water from the West Fork down to riff/rafted area.

Not to sure that with some "summer time" bull dozer work, the river couldn't be forced back to the west.......but with all the permits required today.....doubt that will ever happen.

Sorry to make this so long but people need to understand that the major changes are the result of "Mother Nature", doing what she sometimes does. What is always amazing to me...is the amount of wood waste and full trees that go sailing down the Satsop and end up in the Chehalis.