just a heads up for those floating the Hoh from Oxbow to cottonwood. The log jam that wsdot put in the river has become a boat eater at low water. A boat went down yesterday .This is the third one I ve heard of since August. They made it out ok
but they lost their gear and wallets and such.

Another went dow yesterday?
We talked to a guy at Cottonwood that said one went down Friday and Saturday.
Be careful through there guys!

Bummer.Any way to walk it thru.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Yes you could line a boat through there pretty easy.
If you're ready for it and make sure to slow yourself down way early it's not too bad to row through, you just have to back out of that damn log.

the ones that support the road? or the bigger log jam up above that? i know there are two spots on that dift i line my boat through but neither one of them are new.

Jake, it is the first Engineered log jam below Allen's Bar. I am pretty sure there are three, two of which are right at the road bank just a bit farther down river. The first you come to is just above these, on river left in the main channel/bed, and there is a huge sweeper that sticks out over the majority of the flow.

The river shallows up just as it gains speed and dives into the hole. Tough not to miss an oar stroke as you approach, but as Leland said, as long as you are on it an set up far right and dig when you hit the hole, it goes.

thats the one above i was thinking of. i line mine through there when i go through. havent been that low in the hoh since last year, so i was unsure if it was something new or not.

I believe I had a beer in my hand at that point. Leland must have done OK because I didn't even remember being concerned.

That spot ate a couple boats last year as well....

Having a beer in your hand isn't the most reliable reference point there KD Unless of course you were trying to affirm the fact that had been drinking. What did you have in the other hand?

Like many other spots on that float and others in the area, not much to worry about if you are paying attention and know what to do and when. A momentary lapse is often just enough eh.

If only I had 3 hands. I'm guessing you could figure out what I'd have in each. And no, Coley, oars and your penis are not among the items.

Coley, Did you happen to be on the Hoh saturday. At Allens bar. I believe you had some good luck in that hole. Coley is a fairly unique name and heard the person
rowing the boat refereed to as coley.

Hey Chubs,

Were you in the group with the trailer that nailed the silver on the plug? That was us.

-Kaiser D.

Yeah, that was me. I was the one that caught the silver. It was kind of funny. after you guys went further down the name Coley stuck with my buddy (BUSTINBIG).
He had been PM'ing coley about some of his eggs. That same hole on sunday was frog water. absolutely no flow at all.

Hey Chubs. Nice work on the silver and cool running into you guys. Quite the setup you had there on the bar. Good spot indeed! I wish I would have made the connection at the time as I could have hooked Dan up with some eggs while we were passing through.

I got a note from Dan today on the same subject. Thanks for letting us fish through and share the hole for a while. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the rest of the weekend and didn't get hassled by the gulls too much

Weird about the flows there. It looks like the river lost about 100 CFS that day and it is still dropping hard eh. Need some water.

That silver you caught was a perfect specimen... so pretty.

We found some more fish lower down on Sunday. All kings except for one silver that was hooked and lost.

Bring on the rain!

Yeah that was a nice fish, and I was jealous of the digs, you guys had it figured out.

thanks. it is always a good time when you can stay right on the Hoh and fish in your t-shirt in October. you guys were alright, had a fun time chatting while you played that big king.

The problem with this particular spot is that it doesn't look like much until you are already committed to it. It looks like any other log jam on the river except for the large spruce jutting out at just the wrong angle. My bro in law and I pulled a kayak out of there in late september and then watched a boat flip in the same spot before we even had the water out of the kayak. Three guys were in the boat and they were able to make it out onto the logs before the boat went under. My bro in law went in after the boat and we managed to get a line on it and pull it to shore. They lost some gear and a few bags, but got their boat, oars, and a few poles. We rowed downriver with them for a while and helped scrounge up some of their gear before continuing on our trip. Only one of the three was even remotely friendly and thankful that we had gone to the effort to save their boat. Not many people would dive into the Hoh for someone else's boat and we certainly thought a handshake and a sincere thanks would have been nice.

Two more boats went in this weekend, one on Friday and one on Saturday. Saturdays victim had rowed the same spot on Friday and done just fine. We went down on Sunday and fished out their boat with help from several other people. The boat was a pretty nice 16' Willie and was in remarkably good condition considering it had sat in the Hoh for over 24 hours. The two men from that boat both ended up in the water under the logjam and one said he was sure he was going to die. He figures he spent at least a minute under water. Both of the people in the boat were competent oarsmen and very decent people. I don't know much about the other boat that went in. Both of my bro in laws went in the water and were able to attach a line to the Willie and get it to shore. The gentlemen from that boat were very thankful and I believe at least one of them was finished with his fishing career.

I guess the moral of the story is walk the boat. Even experienced guides are dropping their passengers upriver before rowing it. It's just a matter of time before someone gets killed there.