About five years ago I floated my favorite stretch of the Hoh completely by moonlight for absolutely no other reason than to do it. It was a nice night...early September, still a warm breeze blowing and a full moon.

Funny thing about it is I swear I could see and read the water better by moonlight, at least in the choppy parts. Reading depth in the glassy tailouts was a different story....

I've also been known to put in pretty early and float few holes til I get to my favorite one.

So whaddya think, irresponsible boating or kinda fun?

Eric,

I can't really answer your question...the only night time drift boat float I've ever done was on the Cowlitz.

It was so foggy that you couldn't see ten feet...I leaned over the front of the boat while my buddy rowed as we went down the riffle above blue creek. I couldn't even tell if we were facing up or downstream.

Eventually we made it to the bar.

It wasn't really scary, since it's a hard spot to really screw up unless you run into something, but at night when you can't tell up from down in the fog, it was pretty nerve wracking.

Fish on...

Todd.

It was a little foggy at first that night too...going into it I was pretty scared, mostly because I had no idea expect...

But then it was like I could see everything...not like a 'third eye' epiphany or anything, just good contrast I guess.

I did one on the Grande Ronde as a bet. A few too many drinks will do that to you. One of my more stupid moves, but I survived.

Both!

I imagine it would be a great time until you ran into some type of problems, at which point, things could turn bad in a hurry.

Running the drift boat on the Salmon river years ago got to the take out only to find that some moron had parked his truck "right at the bottom of the boat ramp" No way around it to pull the boat out. Was getting dark fast. Young and stupid we figured if we hurried we could get to the next take out. The river runs through a pretty deep canyon and when the light goes it goes fast. Halfway we are in total darkness. Had to run Blackhawk bar from memory. When we get to the take out.. the only people there ??? the dumb ass who parked his truck in the ramp,,, said he forgot to pull it up off the boat ramp. Made him give us a ride back to our truck. Alls well that ends well

Never really thought about it before, but it sounds like fun. May have to give it a try this summer.

I floated a stretch of the Icicle in the pitch black dark one time to get to our favorite springer hole. My buddy held the light in the bow of the boat. It was interesting.

stlhdh20,

Hopefully you are seeking discussion not and justification here. Only you can know if this was the safe or wise thing to have done. And if you didn't know it at the time, I hope that you know by now, especially if others are floating with you.
I am sure all of us have found ourselves in some very compromising, difficult or otherwise just plain bad situations before. Some perhaps that we would certainly not want recommend to others or ever want to repeat. I know have been there one too many times myself. One thing I do know is that any captain worth his salt would never intentionally put others, his craft or himself in harms way without accessing the need to take such risk. I quess your question comes down to whether getting first water or catching a fish is worth such risk.

Maybe instead of a Piscatorial Pursuit decal, we should have one made up that says "WWBD" (What would Bob do?).

I only asked the question 'cuz I figured everyone would give their opinions anyway...and maybe it would give people something to talk about besides the war/politics.

Ultimately I think it was kinda fun. Putting anyone else in that position by putting them in the front of the boat may have been irresponsible had I done that.

stlhdh20,

I never have done any drift boating in the dark, but I have run a sled in the dark. When I was guiding, I hated to run in the dark! In over10 years of guiding, I only had 2 crashes in my sleds. Both occurred at dark thirty in morning. No one got hurt, except my lower unit and my pride.

On smaller rivers, drifting with a drift boat at night only endangers the people who are in the drift boat, but all that changes when you mix sleds and drift boats together. That is not a good thing to do! In all the years that I was guiding, I never saw a drift boat with lights.

Personally, I think that do so is only for the young and foolish. In fact, it's even foolish to run a sled on a river at nighttime. I don't do it anymore (got smarter), and I now wait tell it gets light and the fog lifts.

Going down a river in the dark can almost certainly guarantee you that sooner or later you will get a "thrill" that you may never forget. I hope that it does not happen to you. Beside, aren't most rivers closed to night fishing? So it the risk of getting to hole first really worth it?

Good luck... you may need it someday if you keep dritfing at night!

Ps, it's been my personal experence.... that $hit happens three times faster in the dark!


Cowlitzfisherman

I think it depnds upon a number of factors ...

I've run down the river a number of times in the dark, usually it's something we only do in salmon season when we know positioning / first light bite is going to be a factor.

If it's a piece of water you haven't been down in a bit and there could possibly be additions to the river / other changes ... then it's probably not the smartest move in the book. If it's a piece of water you know very well and your boat handling skills are very good, then I don't see a lot or problem with it.

I can still still see the white knuckles of Gusty when I took him and his partner through a couple of miles of the 'Duc in total darkness (we did have a spot) at about 6 boards. They'd been through there in the daylight with me before, and knew some of what we were going through ... I think it made them a wee bit anxious

Actually I still run around in the dark, mostly with a motor as my shoulder is no longer reliable. I am one of those with excellent night vision and have found, in the absence of fog, that I have excellent visibility. It's usually flatter at night on the salt, floating debris seems to show up real well, and I do dearly love to be in the water and fishing before everyone else. In popular spots sometimes that's the only way I get fish.

Now the one time I did something real hairy in the dark was 30 years or so ago on the Cowlitz - used to cross the river below the barrier dam in a little rowboat all the time to fish off the far bank. One morning it was foggy and the river was real high - actually had been out for a month and was dropping back in. Well, I put in about midnight and rowed across more by feel, finally did hit land just below the deadline in my usual spot, and didn't think much about it, just started glowballing, except when I hooked a fish that took off downstream and started to walk down all of a sudden I hit this channel with 4 feet of fast water running through it about 20 yards downstream - so did the fish and I promptly lost him in the trees. It turns out that in the high water the bank had washed out and the river was pouring into the backwater. Had I missed that bar by a couple more yards I would have gone over a 5 foot drop into the trees in the dark and likely be dead. Keep in mind that this was I spot I had been fishing for 10 years, that had always been stable, I knew what flow conditions were, and had no clue that anything had changed. It only takes once - got lucky that time.

We do have a guide that takes his clients out at 2:00a.m to get to the honey hole. He has the clients holding a flashlight off the bow. Come daylight he tells everyone where and when to anchor. Makes me a LITTLE mad.
The Duck

Duck, would that be DL.....he piss's off a lot of people.

Do it on the Columbia all the time, but on sections that I know well. If you know how to read the nav markers, it's a piece of cake. I have a jet, so most driftwood isn't a problem for me, and even in the dark you can see the pieces that will. I have one of those 3 gazillion candlepower spot lights for the times when you need visibility.

Put in, in the dark, got down to the honey hole anchored up and started the wait till first light. While wating something hit the water with a big bang right next to the boat . After it had lighten up a bit I relised we had anchored next to a new bever house,gess the criter didnt like us in his living room.

One of the other guides out this way used to "hire an apprentice" in years past ... in salmon season, he'd send his trainee down the river about 3 AM to hold "the magic spot" for him.

Don't think I need one hole that badly ... lots of places to catch fisheys

stlhdh20 - Anytime you get an urge to run the river in the moonlght...
Go for it.

We only live (and die) once and...
If you don't take the chance to enjoy living you may as well be dead.

Would you pass a chance to go fishing
because you might lose some gear a snag?