07-25-2012, 04:41 AM
Thanks for all the great tips! Thinking about those is making me view the river in a different way. Usually my main concern with reading the water is just to avoid damaging my boat.
I put my boat in the river tonight after work. I knew of a spot that should match the description in Ron's and Matt's posts, somewhat at least. There is an island with a large gravel bar on one side that creates a deep, swift channel against one shore. The water used to be a riffle over the bar, but there's so much aquatic vegetation now that it no longer does - I guess it softens and slows the current. There isn't a steep dropoff into a hole, more of a slope.
The water was low. Idaho Power reports the flow at Swan Falls to be 6,690 today. The water was clearer than I can ever remember seeing it before. I could see the bottom easily almost everywhere.
First, I positioned my boat about 15 yards off the island next to flooded tules. The boat was on the seam between the fast channel current and the calmer waters behind the bar. I cast one rod out into the boiling channel current. The other bait went into the calm. After a while, I tried drifting a chunk of smelt about 18" under a float, right along those flooded tules. I cast about 10 times.
Nothing.
While I was waiting I looked at the upstream currents more and thought I saw a more defined hole, so I moved up there and anchored again. I placed the boat right against where it was shallow enough the weeds were starting to lay out on the surface. One bait was placed behind the boat, right in the seam where the channel current rolled into the calm area. With the other rod, I first tried the float//smelt rig but it hung up in the weeds. I put the weight back on and tossed it far behind the boat closer to the island in the calm water.
Nothing.
It was well past sunset by then, so I had to head back home to be able to get enough sleep for work tomorrow.
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I put my boat in the river tonight after work. I knew of a spot that should match the description in Ron's and Matt's posts, somewhat at least. There is an island with a large gravel bar on one side that creates a deep, swift channel against one shore. The water used to be a riffle over the bar, but there's so much aquatic vegetation now that it no longer does - I guess it softens and slows the current. There isn't a steep dropoff into a hole, more of a slope.
The water was low. Idaho Power reports the flow at Swan Falls to be 6,690 today. The water was clearer than I can ever remember seeing it before. I could see the bottom easily almost everywhere.
First, I positioned my boat about 15 yards off the island next to flooded tules. The boat was on the seam between the fast channel current and the calmer waters behind the bar. I cast one rod out into the boiling channel current. The other bait went into the calm. After a while, I tried drifting a chunk of smelt about 18" under a float, right along those flooded tules. I cast about 10 times.
Nothing.
While I was waiting I looked at the upstream currents more and thought I saw a more defined hole, so I moved up there and anchored again. I placed the boat right against where it was shallow enough the weeds were starting to lay out on the surface. One bait was placed behind the boat, right in the seam where the channel current rolled into the calm area. With the other rod, I first tried the float//smelt rig but it hung up in the weeds. I put the weight back on and tossed it far behind the boat closer to the island in the calm water.
Nothing.
It was well past sunset by then, so I had to head back home to be able to get enough sleep for work tomorrow.
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