Family Float

[jdavis]

I'm trying to put together a family outing with my wife and four-year-old next Wednesday or Thursday.

How is the water level above twin bridges and below Rainbow Springs?

Best campground and outfitter (I would like to use my own canoe)?

Best short stretch of water to allow a little girl (first float trip) to swim and catch some fish without staying out all day?

Where do the special fishing regulations start?

[Gavin]

I'd recommend Sunburst Ranch..Really nice folks...Stopped by the NFoW last Friday. The river is in really good shape, but the lake levels are really high. The dam at Dawt Mill was under 3ft of water last Friday. If your looking for a short float..Sunburst to Patrick Bridge is about 2 miles. but its in the blue ribbon manangement area...Sunburst to Dawt is around 6 miles and your daughter can fish bait between Patrick and Dawt Mill. No telling what you might catch in the lower end with the lake up so high. Good luck.

[huz001]

I'm trying to put together a family outing with my wife and four-year-old next Wednesday or Thursday.

How is the water level above twin bridges and below Rainbow Springs?

Best campground and outfitter (I would like to use my own canoe)?

Best short stretch of water to allow a little girl (first float trip) to swim and catch some fish without staying out all day?

Where do the special fishing regulations start?

Real good; the river jumped from 400 cfs to 1300 cfs after last weekends rains. Steve

[jdavis]

Is the water up enough to float above twin bridges?

[Brian Wise]

jdavis,

There is quite a bit more water now than we usually have this time of year. Like Steve said, we had some weather move through the area and hit the watershed pretty hard. That high water didn't blow the river out but made it pretty muddy for about 24+ hours....you should have beautiful water to float.

Brian

[Project Healing Waters]

It was still pretty murky once you got about 1/2 way between Althea Spring and James Lane yesterday midday. I wouldn't say "muddy," but not good fishing water yet. I was up at ROLF Sunday evening and the river was already clearing nicely. This morning...even with no direct sunlight yet...I can see bottom contours behind Taylors'. But the CFS is still running 50% higher than it was before the rain.

Floating from Patrick to 160 yesterday, we caught trout, carp, smallmouth, sunfish, stripers, and shiners on the fly. None of the fish were remarkable in size or numbers (except for one shiner that was pushing 8"). But the diversity was kind of cool and we were just happy to be catching anything on the fly rod after all the muddy water last weekend.

[Aaron Mills]

I think that if there isn't another rain this week, the water will be great for you the end of this week.

[jdavis]

We are headed down in the morning. We will most likely be floating from Hebron to Twin Bridges. I will give a river report in the evening.

[Brian Wise]

Have fun man, you guys are floating a really pretty part of the river.

By the way, they are calling for a little rain later this week maybe starting Thursday.

Brian

[jdavis]

7/2/08-Hebron to Twin Bridges

It was my first time on this stretch of the river. It was very pretty, although it is more of a creek in most spots. There were lots of trees and root wads right it the middle of the current. We had no problems staying upright but we side swiped several of the root wads and took plenty of tree limbs to the face. Water level and temperature was perfect.

Because we had the little one with us, I did not get to fish it hard. There is a lot of fishy water though and I was able to pick up a couple of smallies. One of which was about 15" in the deep hole below the steel bridge right after the put in. I used a grub all day, but I would have liked to throw some spinner baits to all of the cover that is in the water.