Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: mko72 on October 16, 2016, 03:57:46 PM
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Does anyone do this in their pontoon float?
Is there a river rafting type course to take to learn how to safely drift a river?
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This is not a river to learn on! Lots and lots of wood, very cold and fast water and very dangerous if you have little experience. River is very high right now and will have reworked it's self during this high water event. Still raining hard up this way so the Squamish is going to be unfishable for quite a while yet. I helped pull gear that was floating by on the river a few springs ago when some inexperienced pontoon boaters tried to drift the river. We first became aware of the problem when a bunch of full beer cans came floating by us and we just starting picking the stuff up. They lost lots of gear ( coolers, rods etc. ) and were lucky it was not their lives. Scarred the living cupcakes out themselves and they swore that they would never do that again. My fishing buddy and I just shook our heads at these people as they were so far over their heads it was silly. Darwin at work with those boys but someone was watching over them so they went home.
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So how does one get started? (Safely)
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Take a course- I think they are offered through Chilliwack river rafting. The instructor (name escapes me) has published a few articles in BC Outdoors.
You can float the Harrison - I think the put in is Morris Slough - it's suitable for beginners as it's all flat water but there is some current in places.
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Step one make sure you have a life jacket, and go with a constant floatation model over a an inflatable. Couple reasons. Fit on inflatables is not the best, and they need to inflate to work. My buddy flipped his drift boat Friday and one of the guys in the boat had an inflatable. He didn't pull the cord and it didn't inflate.
Also it is best to start easy as RalphH mentioned, learn how to manage your pontoons momentum before getting into higher class water. It also helps that when you do try a river with more current to follow a friend down. This way you can pull over and discuss what is coming next, and also follow their line through (make sure they know what they are doing).
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Take a course- I think they are offered through Chilliwack river rafting. The instructor (name escapes me) has published a few articles in BC Outdoors.
You can float the Harrison - I think the put in is Morris Slough - it's suitable for beginners as it's all flat water but there is some current in places.
I'm the one that wrote the articles for BC Outdoors. I'm also one of the lead instructors for a Two day River Navigation Course through Kumsheen Raft Resort. Here's a link to the course - https://kumsheen.com/contact/river-navigation-course/ (https://kumsheen.com/contact/river-navigation-course/) . The course takes place on the Thompson river because there's no terminal hazards(Chiliwack river has lots of wood hazards), the water is 20°C, so nice a warm to learn on.
Here's a link to my first article - http://www.bcoutdoorsmagazine.com/River_Navigation (http://www.bcoutdoorsmagazine.com/River_Navigation)The second one should be online shortly.
If you have any questions contact me at darrenwagner@hotmail.com.
Great advice about Foam PFD's by Clarkii. Here's a link why inflatable PFD's are not meant for rivers - http://forum.flybc.ca/index.php?showtopic=47801&hl=Inflatable+pfds (http://forum.flybc.ca/index.php?showtopic=47801&hl=Inflatable+pfds)
Cheers,
Darren.