nighttime on the American (8/22/07)

Matt and I launched at the Harrington access late, hitting the water at nearly 8:00pm for a float on a section I had not yet been on.  It got dark fast last night, I guess the summer’s almost over.  It was nearly dark when we made the turn off the main stem into the northern channel and we threw big top-water for a while in the big eddy on the inside of the turn for nothing.  We did see a few splashes that looked like stripers chasing bait, but that didn’t help us any.  As we rounded the first bend the tree’s blocked out the moonlight and it was like paddling into a cave.  We drifted for a while under the canopy, tossing poppers into the night.

Not long after dark the quiet was broken by the sound of rushing water and we knew the riffle had to be close but we couldn’t see anything by smooth water in the moonlight.  Putting our rods away we paddled into a hard right hand turn and saw a smooth downstream V with broke water on the sides.  Matt followed closely, as he has poor night vision, and we took the V.  in the moonlight I had not seen the micro-currents in the river that drove the smooth water into a small standing roller on river left and was soon bouncing down along this roller with water splashing into the cockpit from the left.  Below this was a section full of boilers and confused currents that were spinning the boat right then left then back again (would be a good place to soak an anchovy).  After this the rest of the paddle was smooth sailing and I called for a shuttle as we were approaching the Watt ave. bridge at about 9:20.  The first thing I heard on the phone was “what took you so long?!?!”, the river I replied.

Nosing the boats up on the sand we marveled about the beauty of having a wild place  flowing right through the middle of 2 million people and the fact that we saw only 5 other people on the river, all fishing from the bank.

In all, we saw many fish-like splashes, one giant swan, lots of beavers, and enjoyed the kind of solitude usually reserved for the mountains.

We’ll be doing this float again soon, and taking much longer!

Jim

Nice report.  Novelesque descriptors and tone.   

A lot of time those splashes are suckers going after caddis flies. I used to fly fish for them to be used for stripers. It is amazing how fast a 4 or 5 lb. sucker will be inhaled by a huge striper.

right on, Jim nice report. sounds like a fun adventure. i think the salmon will be worth another try up here, pretty soon.

Nice Run... I would like to try something like that with ya,

  I would time it before my shift the next day...

 Have you guys tried drifting live minnows?

 I'm thinking ( cause I've had trouble fishing this river )  anchoring in a good spot and

 floating some minnows or squawfish like Tote said..

 Seems like sunset would be a good time.... Danglin

I think Chryss and I will do this float again this Sunday evening.  We'll probably get on the water around 6 or 6:30.  If you want to join us, call my cell at 5597796295.

Its a great float and I'm going to bring the fly rod for suckers...