Row Vs Wade

DaveKile said:
Not many 70 year olds dancing around those bowling balls they put in Penns Creek.
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I love to kayak, and I fish from it too.

But I just think through my typical day at Penns Creek. I'm not sure Penns is runnable when at summer low, at least from Coburn down through Cherry Run. So we're talking spring flows here. There's a fishermen every 100 yards. So pretty much the entire day is going to be spent going "sorry, coming around behind ya, sorry", and working my butt down the banks.

Might pick up a few fish throughout the day, but the evening is a must, at dusk. Am I gonna park the yak halfway between access points at dusk, fish till dark, and then, uh, have to float another few miles after dark at night? Heck no. So I'll make sure I'm to the car before dusk. In which case, why'd I do this again?

Oh yeah, there's a very bikable trail that runs the length, that I'm quite comfortable doing at night, that would have got me in the middle there quicker, with less hassle, and where I'd have no problem fishing till dark 3 miles from the vehicle and biking out via flashlight.

I just don't get it. Not infringing on Kray's right to row, lol. Just not gonna fit the way I trout fish in that case. Don't get me wrong, get a high flow in July or August, run lower Penns for smallies, where you're out midday, is an absolute blast. I will do that. Big rivers like the Susquehanna, where being on a boat opens up significantly more water you just can't get to otherwise, absolutely. Or cover 10 remote miles on the Skuke. Oh yeah. And also, it's a great way to get to places. For instance, to the mouth of that Lehigh trib that's on the wrong side of river from the trail or river. But just not Penns Creek/LJR/famous trout streams at hatch time.
 
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I only get to fish from a boat a couple times a year, so it feels like a treat. It's one of the few times I fish in close proximity to people, as even when I'm with someone wading we're obviously not really together. Also, I'm not much on paying someone to take me fishing, so the boat means I'm with a friend who owns a boat, which is a notably different fun time than solo fishing.

In that social sense, I kinda prefer the boat more, at least as a novelty compared to my usual creep-wandering-alone-in-the-woods mode.
 
pcray1231 said:
From the OP pic, wade, for obvious reasons.. :)

95% of my fishing is wading. I have never stepped foot in a drift boat in my life. I do enjoy running a river in a kayak and fishing that way, though it's mostly smallie fishing. It's a great way to cover water. The biggest of the big trout streams I fish are on the order of Penns, LJR, Tionesta, Oil, Pine sized. They are big enough to float. But in prime trout season, too crowded, it's more hassle than it's worth, you're just constantly trying not to **** people off too bad, going along shore behind them.

But on the Susquehanna, Big J, etc floating is just the best way to fish it, even if you island hop or get out and fish. And it's a fine way to do streams like Pine too, once summer comes and the crowds are gone.

One drawback of floating, yak or otherwise, is, the evening rise is tricky. I do not want to be boating well after dark, so you better be by the vehicle at the magic hour, and if you're stuck by the vehicle, why you got a boat at all?
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Ok, so there’s a lot wrong with this…😜

1. There’s a lot of dudes FFing these days with long hair. With Covid and work from home, I’ve cultivated numerous MacGyver Mullets myself since 2020. Plus my eyesight is starting to hit that late 30’s/early 40’s natural decline that many people hit. I’m not jumping out of a perfectly good drift boat, in rough water, to post up next to what I think from a distance is a FFing chick looking for a high stick nymphing partner. More than likely, the bottom half of the OP pic is a dude, and now I’ve proceeded to look like an idiot, assuming I didn’t drown on my way over there. If I stay in the boat, I probably still look like an idiot trying to hustle 3/8 oz “streamers” to the bank on my 6 weight, but at least I’m dry.

2. When you’re in the boat or yak, you’re forgetting you have the nautical right of way over the wading riff-raff. A simple “pardon me folks while I fish over your risers” is all that decorum requires.

3. If you’re doing it right, by the time you get to the evening rise, you’ve got one, or maybe two beers left and you should have the confidence needed to successfully navigate that thing down the Upper Gauley, at night. “If anything’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen out there.” - Captain Ron.
 
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Pcray mentioned bike fishing.
That's what I do
Better deal all round for me.

I can zip around from one spot to another - even up stream.
And stay late at favorite holes for the evening rise.
No problem biking out in the dark with a good light
Plus, some much needed exercise to boot

I first started doing it in the pine creek gorge.
I had floated it several times with a buddy

Shuttling around up there, between Ansonia and Blackwell, takes a while.
Have to drive round about on back roads.
Finishing up an 18 mile float around 9:30 pm and getting the raft or kayaks packed up.
Then driving around to Ansonia again to get the drop-off vehicle.
And back downstream again to camp, which would usually wind up being after midnight.
Just makes a long day even longer IMO.

Then I decided to buy a bike, and use that nice trail .
A lot easier for me
 
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I’ve never fished a stream in a boat. I’m not opposed but the times when boats have floated past it seems like they are not getting the full experience. Let’s say to rising trout where you try a few different flies before you fool them. However I’m not opposed to blind casting, I do it a lot.

Floating would provide a much better appreciation for the river system and probably is worth it just for that reason alone. I’ve been invited a few times but never pursued it.
 
It highly depends on the river you're planning to fish and maybe the level it is running. Sure, if you prefer to fish smaller creeks, it's not even a question. Even Penn's - wading is the way to go. Sure, it's big enough to float when it's at normal spring level. But there's no advantage to floating it. Now if you want to fish bigger water, it's a whole different question. I have fished the Lehigh for many years, but a lot more frequently now that I have a raft. (And a raft is pretty idiot-proof, thankfully. Bouncing off of rocks until you learn what you're doing at the oars usually won't cause any catastrophes.)
With the Lehigh in particular, where wading is so downright nasty in so many areas. I've fallen far more times there than anywhere else. Yes, even adjusting for the amount of time spent there.
But drifting it is a pleasure. It gives you so much more freedom to place yourself ideally to fish a certain spot. And because the river edges are where the fish most frequently rise means that you want to be casting downstream to them, then feeding out line as the fly drifts. (Since the fly and leader is in slower water.) In the great majority of cases, the amount of mending needed is minimal, and there is no chance of lining the fish. With this approach, the first thing the fish sees is your fly. This flexibility to set up my position relative to the fish is 1000 times better than when wading, at least in a big river like that. And I can scout miles and miles of river for risers if that's the game I want to play.
And when I want to nymph fish, I can set up next to a slot that there's no way I could get to while wading. Even in spots that I could muscle my way into, I'd be up to my thighs or waist and keeping slack off the water and mending is way harder than sitting up high in a boat.
One final advantage - back cast room is never a problem.
 
pcray1231 said:
From the OP pic, wade, for obvious reasons.. :)

95% of my fishing is wading. I have never stepped foot in a drift boat in my life. I do enjoy running a river in a kayak and fishing that way, though it's mostly smallie fishing. It's a great way to cover water. The biggest of the big trout streams I fish are on the order of Penns, LJR, Tionesta, Oil, Pine sized. They are big enough to float. But in prime trout season, too crowded, it's more hassle than it's worth, you're just constantly trying not to **** people off too bad, going along shore behind them.

But on the Susquehanna, Big J, etc floating is just the best way to fish it, even if you island hop or get out and fish. And it's a fine way to do streams like Pine too, once summer comes and the crowds are gone.

One drawback of floating, yak or otherwise, is, the evening rise is tricky. I do not want to be boating well after dark, so you better be by the vehicle at the magic hour, and if you're stuck by the vehicle, why you got a boat at all?
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Let's work on that, Pat! Maybe the Lehigh? :cool:
 
I appreciate a good pun as much as anyone, but it seems there have been more than a few abortive attempts at humor here.
 
Wade, I want to be intouch with the stream
 
I use a solo canoe to get access to hard to reach areas then wade, especially on the Delaware system. The current is gentle enough to launch and travel upstream, pulling the canoe though the rifts, or in some cases, just crossing the river during high flows. You also put yourself out of synch with the guide boats.

I used to bike the tracks but have not done that in a lot of years, an electric bike would get you in the game.

Mark C
 
I don’t have much more to offer than what’s already been said. Most of the time I wade, despite owning a nice scadden 2 man raft, and one of my best friends owning a drift boat. I will say however, that for the last 5 years, my buddies and I float the WBDR at least once a year (several days) and it is usually my favorite trip of the year. We do have to navigate a lot of fisherman, but floating gets us to a few spots that wading doesn’t. It also allows us to see long stretches of the River under different conditions and “learn” it’s little nuances. Even when floating, we usually stop and spend considerable time at certain locations wading.
 
In my part of the world rowing is a big thing. Lots of McKenzie drift boats, but I refuse. It's wading for me on all the big rivers. I have access to plenty of fish, and I see boats passing me without a hit in a 200-yard stretch, while in the same time frame, I might take four or five fish. I also consider myself a minimalist. The hassle of boats and trailers and the logistics of retrieving diminish the experience. I did recently buy a kayak for lake fishing, as shore access can be terrible in most lakes within the Cascades. Wade fishing is my preferred style because of the way I fish.
 
djs12354 said:
I see what you did there!
.
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Just have to add that I believe that you should be able to choose which side of the argument you are on without fear of "pun"ishment.
 
I like to do both. I really love wading streams and rivers for trout and smallies, but also love to fish from my kayak fishing for smallies in the bigger rivers. The kayak allows me to cover a lot more water and reach sections of the river where wading is impossible. Like many others posted, I also often beach my kayak and wade sections of the river.
 
I like to think of floating as nice way way to keep the cooler close by,
YMMV.
 
Don't have a boat, float trips are way expensive too so it's all wade!
 
Bruno said:
Rowing in itself is fun.
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It can be.

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