The Smith giveth...

...and the Smith taketh away.
I arrived monday to steady rain that lasted all day and thru the night. The water was low and clear, it didn't motivate me much. But tuesday morning the rain quit and the sun came out. It simply amazes me how quickly this river can change its' attitude, it was flowing much higher now, with lots of leaves and maybe 18" of viz. I decide to go lower on the river and try to get ahead of all the drift boats. I put in at Walker Hole, which is just upstream of the Early Hole (aka scuba hole). Some drift boats also had the same idea and put in lower too. I wasn't alone, but it didn't matter as I spotted fish rolling in slow water on a seam where an eddy caused the edge of the river to flow upstream. It was right on the edge of the river. I kept hoping the boats didn't spot the rollers. All the boats skipped that portion of the river!
It was difficult running my plug where I saw fish as the flow was funky. I had to keep casting out to the faster water and letting the plug swing thru, then casting it out again when it would stop its' classic strumming. The hit came as a stoppage of the strumming and slack line. The fish had swum up towards me! I dropped anchor and tightened up on it. Fish on! Massive head thrashing in the current. It then gets pissed and that was pretty much when I started to worry. It kept trying to face downstream and kept popping my anchor loose. I followed it a ways but I knew the bottom downstream was an anchor graveyard. Beyond that was a patch of water that sped up and whirlpooled in a scary way, I almost lost the driftboat there last year. My only choice was to anchor in amongst branches against the shore and hold on. I got spooled and lost my bona-fide plug. I was shaking after that.
The following day the river had dropped about five feet and viz went to 8'. I manged one slap on my plug and that was it. A drift boat came by then and promptly hooks a fish on roe. The guide was a nice guy, he saw my show the previous day, and said that he'd been doing really well with roe when the water clears.
Still not as many fish as I hoped to see in the river.

Good seat-of-the-pants story, Juan.  I was up there Tuesday too.  Fished Jed Smith in the yak for a couple of hours from 2-4.  No hookups, but there were some slobs rolling in there...

Awesome country up there - the Smith is actually better than Humboldt's rivers.

Eric

VERY EXCITING!
thanks Juan

All I can say is "WOW!" I know when I hooked my salmon a couple of weeks ago, Sean immediately jumped out of his yak and grabbed onto the back of mine. Lucky for me it was only a small one.

I can't wait to go back! I'm thinking of bringing a second anchor next time, the one I use for sturgeon. It will be my "just in case" anchor.

CHEERS!

I just looked up the flows for the morning I was spooled. 8000 cfs. I call that big water. One does not want their anchor to hold in the meat of such a flow. I was worried about that. I was anchoring in sand, in slow current about 9' deep. Last year a guide lost his life when his anchor deployed by itself in deep, fast current. He had a knot at the end of his anchor rope, supposedly to not lose his anchor in case he accidently let go of the rope. His anchor stuck and his boat was dragged under. I no longer have a knot at the end of my anchor ropes. I also lay the loose coils in an orderly fashion so that they hopefully don't tangle up in case of an emergency deploy.

Thanks for the rush Juan I felt like I was there, I know you wanted to land that fish but getting spooled is almost as memorable. 8000cfs you are nuts in a kayak that's some pretty good flows, I know the Smith is a lot deeper than the RR but that's still a lot of current. Are you going up next weekend?

I used to go up there every year and flyfish for em from my pram. After hooking up, we always pulled anchor and let em tow us around. Staying on top of the fish was the best way to control and tire them out. The stability of a pram and being able to stand up is almost a necessity. Hooking one of those big dogs, dealing with currents, from a narrow platform and sitting adds a lot in favor for the salmon. Deffinetly adds to the challenge. I once saw this crazy local kid paddling across the river on a float made from an inner tube folded in half and held with a belt. He strattled it and paddled it across the river to fish off the rocks on the other side. About 2 hours later, I saw the kid returning across the river with a 30#er in tow... The Smith is truely an amazing river. She kicks out some monsters. Thanks for the story Juan.

I wish I could be there now. It's running 11k cfs and dropping. Very high but it drops so quick that it's not an issue, just wait a couple hours and it will be fishable. I don't know when I can go again. You thinkin' of goin Mike?
Jonesz, I've done the pram thing too, the chinook sleighride, but it was always mellow currents in the tidewater. Where I hooked up there was no chance to follow the fish, simply too much flow to be safe in any small craft w/o the use of both hands. I hoped it would stay in the hole where I hooked it but it wanted to go downstream. It's all fun! I'll hook up again.

Good one Juan!

Thanks Juan, hope to join you in a year or so.

scott

Juan:

Man I love the Smith.  It has been sooo long since I have been up there.  One of these days.  Good job Juan.  What is that the second time this year.  Long haul!

jim

thought I was gonna see a PIC! of you and a fish!     You must have been WAY MORE UPSET than I. 
...anchors breaking loose, big water, get spooled or GET WORKED?, that's TOO SCARY! and I'M shaken NOW!

you krazy man!           thnks for the RUSH, Juan!    where do i sign up?