November 28, 2009 - Tim Nickels

We put in on Saturday at 10:00 where the SSG flows underneath Ronald Reagan Blvd. It was partly cloudy, windy, and flow was at 90 cfs. The water was crystal clear and fine temperature for wading/paddling. My friend was paddling a Dagger white water boat and I was using Doug/Hook’em’s 14’ WS Ride. Being my first time on a river, I didn’t want to have to deal with fly tackle or breaking/losing expensive gear, so I brought along a light spinning rod. We were unsure how long the trip was going to take, we’d estimated the distance at around 8-10 miles, so I figured 5 hours. My friend figured 1 hr per river mile. Since we were unsure, I didn’t spend much time fishing at all, although I’m sure it would have been spectacular if I’d given it a good try, conditions were perfect.

It ended up being 4 hours to float from RR Blvd down to Blue Hole Park where we took out, so there would have been time to fish. The river was really nice, all of the seeps and springs flowing well, lots of fish in the holes, saw a big buck. There were quite a few areas where we scraped bottom a bit, but only had to get out and float the kayaks in a couple of areas. Overall it was a great trip I’d recommend to anyone, flow is ok now but I think 100+ would be ideal. (Editor’s note: on the day of the float the flow was 90 cfs, as measured by the USGS flow gauge at the I35 river crossing.)