Greetings everyone. I'm a long time board reader, infrequent board poster, who's done enough chores at home to be granted a fishing day by the missus. Planning on drifting the SolDuc from Whitcomb to Rayonier next monday and was wondering if the right channel at the split below the Whitcomb launch is still the way to go. I did a search and found an old post saying there was a log in the way. I've done that drift several times before, but it's been almost two years and wanted to see if there were any nasty surprises I should know about, besides the usual rapids.
Thanks for any info provided. I'm hoping the fish gods will look kindly on me since I'll be fishing on my birthday. Anybody else ever have good luck fishing on their birthday?

I don't know about what channel to take (I guess I should be paying attention) but someone here I'm sure has floated it recently.

About the B-day thing, mine is on February 5th and I usually go the the ********* with my dogs or whoever else wants to go, and get my limit of steelhead every year. That's as good as a B-day present I can think of.

Good luck on your B-day.

Don't know about the duc but I'm sure your answer will appear.As far as the birthday thing goes mine is December 8th.It's alway's fun getting a limit of chrome steelie brat's on your birthday.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

It's not going to matter much which way you go. If we don't get some substantail rainfall, you'll be dragging your boat down one side or the other. The Duc was at two boards when I left town yesterday afternoon.

August 13th (Friday the 13th) on the b-day senario for me, and summer steelies aplenty has been my ritual.

becareful on the duc as this river eats boats all the time. Best to follow someone down that knows the way. Have a fun and safe trip.

Back in February when I fished in Larry Scott DB.
We went from Dimmel to Confluence on day 1.
I remember that log on the right channel.
The water flow was just high enough to flow over the log but the log was clearly visible.
Larry floated his boat right over the log and he did that very smoothly.
Not that I would want to attempt it.
I would assume that log is still there on the right channel.
Be very careful on the lower Sol Duc.

Most of the log has "mysteriously" disappeared

Thanks for the replies.
Another log has "mysteriously" disappeared from the Duc? That seems to happen a lot. Sounds like we need some conspiracy theories to explain these unexplained vanishings. How's this: space aliens are beaming the logs up to their ships and selling them to International Speedway Corp, who will use them to build the grandstands for the new NASCAR track in Snohomish County.
Any other theories?

That theory sounds good to me as long as the navigation route is clear I'm cool with that!

i have seen the log and i believe a huge beaver may have bitten it off with a single bite.

Maybe a local with a chainsaw--a guide perhaps--someone that has to negotiate that channel all season long got in there cut it out.

Just a therory.

Sol,
Didn't I see a power saw in the back of your truck the other day?

I am not a local nor am I a guide.

Kudos to whoever got rid of it though, if the deed doer was indeed someone other than mother nature. I got tired of beating up my boat going down the left side last season.

Amen! If I owned a chainsaw, I'd certainly use it some river hazards if I had to navigate them daily, whether it's illegal or not (is it illegal?).

If the kind soul comes forward, I know of a couple rocks on the Duc they can go to work on next.

Fellas...fellas...

...since its not exactly legal, its not the kind of thing anyone would cop to if they had unless done with the cooperation of the DNR.



hence perhaps the winking

DNR has to my knowledge worked in the past to allow certain modifications of dangerous structures in the river, but it doesn't happen very often...not to mention my knowledge is purely second hand.

Bob probably knows...

Legal or not, hazard or not. I think it is wrong to take the log out. Sure it's a hassle to get around but if you give it a few years it'll help promote a nice hole that will hold fish. This is much better than removing the log and losing the habitat that it creates! Much of stream rehabilitation has to do with adding just this type of structure to a river. Think about it guys. This is counter to what we really want to have happen. Don't we want to keep as much prime habitat on the river as possible so that we have fish to fish for in the future?

Just my .02 worth.

Gary,

Though I haven't seen this particular obstacle, I would imagine that only the part of it which created the navigation hazzard was removed.. not the entire log. If true, IMHO... you could call this a reasonable compromise between the safety of boating anglers and the need for fish-friendly habitat.