Vedder River - anyone going?

I am thinking of late Sept. early Oct trip.

Big white kings ... silvers should be plentiful. Anyone else planning on going up?

I'd love too but not sure I can pull it off with football. I'll look at the schedule.. I'd pretty much have to leave on Friday night after the game, drive straight through to morning. I'll see...

I am in at least for one day of it! Count me in!

Lets pick a day Gup ... Im pretty open and slam it. I will probably go up for the weekend.

Count me in too. Judging by the numbers of large fish being taken in the salt up north, there are some BIG whities coming back. Lots of them too. We'll just have to see how the rain pans out. That river seems completely dependent on water levels. But doing some research, I think there could be a killer year up there.

2001 was a primo salmon year. 2009 looks just like it so far.

We CnR'd (Chuck doesnt keep white kings) mulitple fish over 40 up there that year and many in the high 20's.

October 10 and 11. Bring a rod with some backbone for the mighty Whitey....

Maybe we can make another video like this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz1d0a0rGC4


Todd - your creativity in that you tube is outstanding.

Ice - catching the bird ... and a chinook carcass in the ass

Just for kicks, check out this other video I posted of a log jam on the Sauk River this spring...it doesn't look like much, but to anyone who understands the hydrology of a log jam can tell in one glance that it could be serious trouble...

That log jam dumped two driftboats and three pontoon boats last April, and another of my friends got stuck in it in his pontoon boat and was considering bailing and trying to climb up the log jam before he was able to finally get out.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ToddRipley#play/uploads/4/_gPpjmUwQY0

Fish on...

Todd

Easy to see why if you werent rowing away from the current the log sticking out is a killer with the flow going right through it. Thats a nasty....

Two dimwits in crappy little pontoon boats went into that log jam, and they're lucky they came out alive...one guy lost his boat completely, it never came back above the water, and he actually got washed under the logs and somehow floated out the backside...as lucky as one has ever been.

The other guy got dumped but managed to stay holding onto his upside down boat and floated through...but they lost everything they had with them, and were lucky that's all they lost.

One of the driftboats was an acquaintance's, a guy I had just met the night before at camp...they lost three cameras, the keys to both of their vehicles, boxes of gear, and some rods...but they did manage to get their boat out of the deep water, bail it out, and float the rest of the way down the river...somehow their oars stayed in the boat, or just like the two pontooners they would have had a long and wet walk out of there.

The other drifter that I know of that went down in there...not anyone I know, and the only part of the story I know is that they did dump, and no one drowned.

There were at least half a dozen spots on the upper river like that this year, but this one was the worse, mainly because it doesn't look that bad until it's too late to realize you ought not be there if you don't know what you're doing.

The others were bad, but they looked bad and could either be avoided or portaged around.

I think that at least 3/4 of the time a boat gets dumped, if the rower had just pulled the oars in and let the boat float through the obstruction on its own they'd have had a better chance of making it through unscathed...inexperienced rowers usually make the situation worse by trying to fix it

These jams, though, required hard and good rowing...miss a stroke, and things can get hairy, quickly.

Fish on...

Todd

Note my fishing buddy who was shooting the video saying "This is easy" as we were going through it...and he knows how to row...just couldn't see the problem until it was right under his nose.

Fish on...

Todd

It only takes a split second on a river for things to go bad and when they do ... they generally are real bad.

I often wonder what people like them tooners had to be thinking? "Maybe I will just bounce off of it?

I dont get it.

Same as when I see posts on the forums from wanna be jetters saying "I want the ability to go through 4" of water". All I can think of everytime is "Why?" Since most jetters dont want to be in that water as it breaks stuff.

In that particular jam, I doubt they were thinking they'd just bounce off of it, they just didn't see what was coming, and by the time they did...it was too late, they were committed, without the skills and/or equipment to finish the job.

Fish on...

Todd

planning to take friday the 9th off so we can fish it all 3 days. not sure where staying yet. Might even hike up my skirt and tent it ...

Good times had. River is insanely LOW. If it rains ... Im headed north again :32: