HELLS CANYON OCT 08

[PHANTOM 309]

I've been wanting to make a trip up Hells Canyon for a few years now but never got around to it. Earlier this year Rocktoy tried to get one going for me but it never came about. Friday morning myself and another guy here at work got a call from one of our contractors asking if we'd be interested in an all expense paid, 2 day, guided fishing trip up HC. "Hell yeah! When we goin'?".......he told us to be at his place in two hours. Not knowing many details, I threw every piece of gear I could think of in an army duffle, left a voice mail for my wife that I'd be back late Sunday, and headed out of town. We stayed the night in Clarkston friday night. Sat morning we got picked up in Lewiston at 7:00. It was pouring down rain, but I was pumped. I love fishing in the rain.

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The mouth of the Grand Ronde about 20 miles above Lewiston.

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Theres all sorts of cabins and houses on the way up the canyon. Most of these had to have the materials delivered by boat or helicopter.

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One of the boats we were on.

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The drivers weren't afraid to get personal with the rocks at about 50+ mph. It feels like about 80 though.

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Saw quite a few mountain goats.

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The pics don't really give any idea of how deep and jagged the canyon is. It's the deepest gorge in the united states I think. Watching the storms roll through was pretty surreal.

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The boat that I was on was named BOHICA......Bend Over Here I Come Again

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A huge buck watching some does.

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We switched boats about 60 miles up river to go the rest of the way to the lodge.

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The water is flat movin is spots. It's incredible how fast these boats can manouver in it. Most of the boats we were on had twin 6.0 chevs. Not sure what kind of pumps they used.

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Heres where we stayed at Kirby Creek. It's 80 miles up river from Lewis/Clarkston. The only way in or out is by boat. The owners do alot of boat recovery from here and we got to hear about some pretty bad wrecks on the river. Its the only residence in the area.

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The boat on the right with no top or sides was the "boogie Boat." It's what they took us up through the big water to the dam in.

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I'll have to get Sundays pics up tomorrow. I have a couple of vids also.

[Ceg]

Aren't you glad you ditch us? :laughing6:

The trip looks cool! :thumbright:

[Fish]

The water level look like it was low. Thanks for sharing the pics!

[TooRisky]

Man O Man you just fell into this trip, what/how did you get this chance of a life time...

[Jeepscum]

Good lookn trip but an fish or just bad a$$ boats. :headbang:

[BlindPilot]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing! :thumbright:

[Jerry]

That was a neat trip. I've never been up the canyon in a small boat, but we have been on a couple of tours in the big ones, i.e. 40 passengers, three Ford 460's. We wanted boats with dependable engines. :)

[gasman]

Lucky Bastard.........
:occasion5:

[PHANTOM 309]

Good lookn trip but an fish or just bad donkey boats. :headbang:


The fishin' wasn't so hot. Out of ten of us, only one wild steelie was brought to the boat. No one else even had a chance to lose one. That night and sunday morn we killed the bass fishing off of the bank. There was a few pretty nice ones but nothing to get too excited about. I was pretty bummed about that. I was looking forward to taking home a couple of nice steelhead.


The water level look like it was low. Thanks for sharing the pics!

Yeah, it was pretty low. They it was actually a little higher than average for that time of the year though. They were letting more than usaual out of the dam.

[willysworker]

thanks for sharing. Brings back memories, Wife and I took the gray hair jet boat tour up the river a few years ago. It is a grand place and worth seeing. Another great site seeing boat trip, is Lake Chelan.

[PHANTOM 309]

After getting our a ss kicked by the steelies saturday, we killed the bass sun morning until noon when they loaded us on the Boogie Boat and headed up to the dam. It was a big boat (34') but with triple 6.0's is flat got it on!

We ran into quite a few drift boats on the way.

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The pics of the rapids are pretty dissapionting. In the pics it looks like no big deal but what you can't tell is the depth between the waves and how fast the water was moving. It wouldn't take much to roll a boat here. The boat barely around some of the rocks. The pilot would have to stall it in the rapids and work it sideways in order to get it around some of them. It was a rush to hear the three 6.0's turnin' the rpms while it danced throught there. We got hella wet too.

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The rollers on this one were actually near 6' tall.


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Hells Canyon Dam. 104 miles from Lewiston. The guide said that in 1996 there was water running over the top and the Dam was almost lost.

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On the way down, I talked the outfitter into letting me drive. I can an add a boat to my list of things that I've rolled. I'm not sure how this ones gonna turn out. Thankfully no one was hurt.

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On the way down we came across a herd of deer.

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This was an awesome trip. If anyone ever has the chance to do it, don't hesitate. Pics don't even begin to show what it looks like in person. It's defenitly something I won't ever forget....and I'll defentely be going back sometime.








Just kidding about the rolled boat! It's acrtually a picture of a picture that was in the lodge!

[PHANTOM 309]

Here's a few vids. It was pretty hard to hold the camera still!

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb304/HELLIESEN/th_HELLSCANYON08119.jpg (http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb304/HELLIESEN/?action=view&current=HELLSCANYON08119.flv)

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb304/HELLIESEN/th_HELLSCANYON08118.jpg (http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb304/HELLIESEN/?action=view&current=HELLSCANYON08118.flv)

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb304/HELLIESEN/th_HELLSCANYON08096.jpg (http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb304/HELLIESEN/?action=view&current=HELLSCANYON08096.flv)

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb304/HELLIESEN/th_HELLSCANYON08093.jpg (http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb304/HELLIESEN/?action=view&current=HELLSCANYON08093.flv)

[Fish]

:headbang:

Love the videos!

[Ceg]

:headbang:

Love the videos!X2