I just bought a pontoon boat today! I'm pretty excited to get out and use it on the lakes around here, but I'm also looking forward to doing some floats on the rivers this summer. I'm planning on doing Ora to Chester, Chester to Fun Farm, WR to Ashton, and the Lower Teton, does anybody have any other suggestions on fun floats?
I'm also not sure what kind or size of anchor to get, any suggestions there would be appreciated as well.
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i float the sothfork of the snake on my 9 ft toon all the time i love it.
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Which toon did you get? Just wondering... I've been considering getting one as well for doing the same kinds of floats around Rexburg. [
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Later in the year the dam to Hoghollow float is fun and can be very productive on the Teton.
Windriver
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ive got the 9ft trout unlimited colorado from the fly shop in wallmart it isnt a highend one but i think its just as nice i use it for everything.
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I got one called an Arrow Backpacker Pontoon Boat. I got it because it packs up into a backpack, and it was pretty cheap. I can't wait til it gets here!
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I want to get one of those too. The only thing I worry about is that I don't know the rivers well enough here...so I don't know if there are some rapids that I don't know about or if a dam would come out of nowhere and I would be dead.
I also wanted to go float tubing in the summer just for fun, but like I said, I really don't know where to put in and where to get out.
Maybe somebody on here knows??
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lol let me tell you a story about the arrow head pontoon. i use to own 2 pontoons one was my colorado and the other was an arrow backpacker. my buddy( i say this because he was my buddy at the time we have drifted apart since this has happened.) decided he wanted to go pontooning the south fork of the snake river with me he said he had floated before so i bought another pontoon wich was the arrow and the next day we went to twin bridges to float to lorenzo. apon entering the water we noticed that the boat had a hard time holding my friends weight he was over 200 hundred pounds. he decided that it wasnt a big deal if his butt got a little wet. so we shoved off about a half a mile down from the launch there is a headgate for a feeder canal to archer. my friend saying he had floated before seen the headgate and i warned him it was coming he panicked started oaring in crazy wild swings spinning in circles and getting sucked closer and closer to the headgate. by this time i had started to float rapidly down stream from him. i started yelling out instruction to him. he just panicked and flung his oars around he eventually lost an oar about 10 feet from feeder canal. as the boat and him got to where the water sucked down he bailed off the pontoon and grabbed on to a 2x4 just above him the headgate crushed my little pontoon like it was nothing folded the entire frame in half and exploded one bladder my friend who weighes over 200 pounds couldnt do a pull up if his life depended on it let alone when half of his body was dangling in the water where a head gate was sucking down water with thousand and thousand of pounds of force was hanging on for dear life. i floated out of view and finally found a spot i could beach up and take off running for him. i beached the pontoon about 300 yards from him and jumped up on a huge log jam just in time to see the 2x4 that he was holding on to snap and he went down............
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my heart went crazy i just ran. ran as hard as i could. now any of you guys that have been on the river bottoms know that they rival any mountain as far as being thick. imagin trying to clear 300 yards of river bottom as fast as you can because you believe you just watched your friend die and if hes not dead he will be in a matter of moments if i dont get there like now.i made to a clearing with another log jam about 50 yards from the head gate and i dont know why i just ran to the log jam and jumped up on it i looked all over the head gate and couldnt see him i got sick and started to get down off of the log jam when movement about 30 feet bellow the headgate caught my eye it was him he was curled up in a ball on the bank well above the water so i knew he was alive. i ran the rest of the way too him. i got to him and he couldnt even speek he just sobbed and cryed for about 10 minutes while i tryed to ask him if he was ok while i looked his injurys over. lucky lucky man he escape with his life and no seriouse injuries he got some pretty good bruises and cut up pretty bad in a few spots but that was it. when the 2x4 broke he got sucked through the headgate the headgate dumped into a huge pipe the pontoon had lodged up on some debri that was caught right where the headgate met the pipe my buddy hit the pontoon hung up on it for a couple seconds then got washed under neath of it. where the force of the water spilling in kept him under it and spun him around in cartwheels in a big swirling pocket under the toon finally he said he felt a surge of water and he was rolling down stream in the pipe eventually where it spit him out into pool that turns into a feeder canal where he pulled him self up on the shore. i could look back up in the pipe and see my pontoon just destroyed. the lady who owned the property next to the head gate drove her truck down to see what we were doing and she was very nice and gave my friend a ride back to my jeep so i could float my pontoon down to lorenzo and he would meet me there. i told this story because a lot of people have become victims of feeder canals on the southfork so if your gonna float anybody of water make sure you know the river and know how to float. after the incident my friend came clean about not ever floating a river before. he had played in a canoe at scout camp once. be safe and dont float by yourself and dont float stretches of water where you dont know what to expect.
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The Bear river narrows is a good place to learn when the water level is right- can't get in much trouble- you can walk out of most spots- but until you get 1/2 way decent don't go over the small dams.
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Wow, thanks for the heads up. I definately have respect for the South Fork. One of my buddies is a fly fishing guide, and last year (or maybe the year before) he was guiding with another boat from their shop in front of him, and he ended up seing the lead boat get flipped by a log jam and my buddy had to go pull everybody out of the log jam. the water was so strong that when he found the other guide, who had been sucked under the log jam, it ripped his waders off[:/]!
Anyway, I want to try it, but I definately won't be going on the south fork by myself anytime soon.
And I'm about 230, so hopefully I can stay afloat! It says it hold up to 250 so I hope I'll be ok. I guess I'll have to go on a diet!
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Thanks for the word of warning and a great story...because he lived through it.
I float several sections of the rivers around Rexburg. Even the tamest ones can become dangerous quick if you are not paying attention.
About ten years ago I was floating from the Parker Salem bridge down to the Hibbard bridge. Usually this is a very calm float with no real problems as long as the water is down from the runoff. On this particular float I broke off a fly so I was lazily leaning back in my seat and tying on a new size two sculpin pattern. When I was done tying on the fly I looked up but it was too late. A giant tree had fallen across the river the current swept me against the tree and pinned me there with my neck barely out of the water. I tried to hold onto my rod because I had just built it and I had $250 worth of parts into it. Suddenly branches broke and I was going under. The rod was ripped out of my hand but not before a size two sculpin hook found its way through my thumb. The rod broke off and was never seen again. Anyone find a custom rod made for Lucas Ingram?
I broke free and picked up the pontoon and oars down stream. I had to oar out with a sculpin hook in my thumb.
Windriver
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I have been toying with buying a 9 foot one from sportsmans. I cross Henrys Fork going to work but have not fished it much the last 3 years. Chester dam to fun farm is flat and no diversions. The backwash at the base of the dam will suck you in so stay 50 yards down stream from it. They are supose to be building a hydro electric plant there that will eliminate the boil.
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Holy Moly! That is one scary story! You've definitely converted me to the buddy system when it comes to rivers!
That colorado is the very same toon I've been considering. Certainly not light weight from what I've read, but I don't know that I plan on packing it any real long distances.
Thanks again for the story and the warnings.
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I like the Byington to Heise bridge float. Watch out for the diversions, but otherwise a fairly straightforward one. Also from Pali
es dam to Huskey ramp is a fairly leisurely one, unless they're dumping a lot of water.
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the colorado is awesome. i dont regret buying it one bit i use it whenever i get a reason too. floating is my favorite.
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If you mainly want to float rivers Try to find someone who might take you along for a ride and if that won't work from what Iv'e heard alot of people hire guides to take them down the river so you can get an idea of the runs.
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