Fished the Sol Duc for the first time Saturday. Me and two others in my boat, DK and two in his. Neither of us had ever been down the River before, and against the advice of many we went for it.

We drifted from Mary Clark to Maxfield at 5 boards. We went 1 for 2, a hatchery buck about 15. Got him on a 35 red/green hot shot just below the Cabin.

The top 2/3 was a fairly easy drift. The further we went the more challenging it got. We made one serious error, going left when we should have went any other direction. The river breaks into three parts, The left was basically impassable. Without Curtis sticking his neck out to push we would have been in more serious trouble than we ended up. We got through, although I'm still not quite sure how.

We way underestimated the length of time it would take to do this drift. In hindsight, One of us should have been through here before. By the time we got to Maxfield, it was 5:30 .

Now, having been through here once, I can hardly wait to get back. I think I will wait for a little higher flow, however. Maybe 8+ boards. What a beautiful River!

Is Maxfield to Whitcomb Dimmel similiar? How tough is Shuwah? What would you think is a reasonably safe minimum flow? How much time would you expect the drift to take?

Gutz