Hwy 8 To Scotts Ford

[hank franklin]

I too have been eyeing it. We floated overnight January 2012 with Steelville gage at 346 cfs, it's 396 today. At this level it's still pretty skinny above the spring but doable. Once below the spring you should be fine.

There was a quite impressive rift on the bend above Cardiac that we had no intention of messing with it all w our loaded canoe. Instead we portaged around through the very skinny and trickling channel divide to river right. Photo below. The rift itself is not the problem but the big log just below. I did not want to take the chance of wrangling with him.

The fishing was bad on this trip but the river itself I find to be beautiful. Bald eagles in abundance.

[MattTucker]

Hank:

That is the kind of info i was looking for. As of right now, it looks like we are going to drop the drift boat in and give it a go this coming sunday. Thanks for the info, will share what i find after the trip. You got any other photos your float?

--Matt Tucker

[hank franklin]

Matt,

No pics of any consequence, nor any pics of any fish. I think I mighta got one or two that trip.

The river gets slow in the reaches above Scott's Ford. I would definitely concentrate most of my fishing above Cardiac.

Yes, please post a report. I'd be interested to know if that chute I referenced above has been cleared.

[hank franklin]

The river is at a pretty good stage right now, (153 cfs Cook Station, 651 cfs at Steelville) actually probably ideal for floating. Probably discolored just a bit.

Only drawback is wading at this stage can be a bit iffy, especially if you're trying to cross back and forth. I may be down there myself on Sunday. Good luck.

[MattTucker]

Yeah, I have been watching it pretty intently. Hoping that it will stay above 550cfs for Sunday, which should make it just about right. If you are down, make sure you introduce yourself. We will be easy to spot....probably the only drift boat on the river.

[Gavin]

Think you will be fine...but bring a chainsaw and a come along just in case.

[MattTucker]

Roger that. Will have 150ft of rope and a winch in the boat for the inevitable.

[Brian Sloss]

I would hit where the spring enters the river for smallmouth and trout.

[cwc87]

About a 1/3 mile below the springs be careful trees n river. This stretch has been like this for a few years. The water flow is great u should have decent fishing.

[MattTucker]

Well, I finally did it and dropped the drift boat in at the Hwy8 access and floated the 9-1/2 miles to Scotts Ford. The river was running right at 475cfs or so (I was actually hoping for a bit higher, but it was falling out pretty good). The river is pretty easily floatable in a drift boat at this level for sure, we did not have to get out to drag over a single shoal. We did have to get out of the boat a couple of times though (more on that a little later). For this float we packed about 150ft of rope, a hand winch, and a 14" chainsaw. We needed the rope and the chainsaw, but not the winch this trip. After making this float, I would not make it without the winch, the rope, and a bigger chainsaw....there is so much wood in this river.

From Hwy8 to the mouth of the spring was an easy float, no real issues, but with lower flows, I can see how this would be a PAIN (but doable). The first issue we ran in to was about a 1/2 mile or so below the spring, almost to Dry Fork, there were two big trees all the way across the river. One was a good 2ft out of the water, and the one on the upstream side was half in the water and half out of the water. We attempted to cut them out with the chainsaw, but being a little 14" chainsaw...it wasn't meant to be....however, we did get enough cut so the rear log dropped about a foot or so. We then had to get the 17ft fully loaded drift boat up and over. Surprisingly, without even unloading the boat, we were able to get it up and out of the the water and over. We ran in to no other real issues until we ran up on the run pictured above (although I swear it was below Cardiac). The run looked quite a bit different than the picture above, there "skinny" channel on river right was dry. The run itself is quite a bit longer than pictured with more wood below it was well and now not all the way across the river. We pulled out the rope and opted to rope it through as I didn't know if i could get enough oar strokes to miss the big log and cut across stream to miss the downstream sweeper all in about 20yds or so. After looking at it from the downstream side, i think I should have tried it. But man, that water is moving through there and it looks like the river falls a good 3ft or better in that short run. No real issues on the remainder of the float. The real long slow deep stretches were a bitch. I really need to add a trolling motor to the boat for these pools and the wind was howling at times on Sunday.

By the time we finished running our shuttle and whatnot, it was 9am before we started floating. We pulled off the river at 5:30pm and we didn't stop to get out and wade fish (there were several areas that I would have liked to), only stopping for lunch (right at the cabin above Cardiac). We saw one jet boat (he put in at Hwy 8). Funny thing, the guy knew there were trees that were blocking the river; but didn't give us a little heads up until I specifically asked (I always try and give people a little heads up on stuff when I am on the river, and always look for the same). We saw two other wade fisherman that walked in from Cardiac, and that was it.

All in all for a first float down the river, it served its purpose. We established life (both browns and rainbows) and a streamer bite (we threw big streamers all day). We only boated 2 trout and a sucker....but moved about 1/2 doze fish on big streamers...so there is life there. That being said, the sandy river bottom and its constant shifting have to make it one of the toughest to get a handle on, because the river is always changing.

I will have a blog update and photos soon (I have a huge backlog of trips to get posted up).