Are you targeting specific species or just playing it by ear and see what you find?

 

Be mindful of the generation schedule of the river. Good luck are you wading or in a boat ?

 

Going after striper and trout, but might also float an upstream trib for smallies. Have my boat and my canoe.
I downloaded the TWA app, and it shows the release schedule. I’m still super cautious/ worried about it all though.

 

Have you fished down there before ?

 

I’ve never been down there to fish. Years ago I spent considerable time camping the national forest and stomping around the upper Obey River. But this is all new to me.
We got a guide for the first day down by Burkesville to soften the learning curve.

 

Call a bait shop in the area ask them about boating vs floating and the flows. They are good ppl down there. Know your put ins and take outs before you go. This way you can plan accordingly. Unless they are holding water behind the dam from a rain event they start normal generations at 1400.

 

Interesting trip. We didn’t get into them like we wanted, but still caught some fish. One striper, plus rainbow and brown trout, walleye, and sauger. Dam was releasing a lot of water, over 1700 cfs! Below the dam we were drifting at 3.6 mph. Difficult to fish effectively at that speed. Got into more fish about ten miles downstream where current speed had dropped.
absolutely beautiful country.

 

awesome!

 

Spawning striper good to see and yea that was my fear with that volume of water. I am little suprised that you did not hook into a sturgeon! Great report!

 

Funny you mention that. There was one other guy in a boat fishing below the dam and we watched him catch a 43” sturgeon at the seam btw fast and slack current. Told us he lost another one earlier that morning.

 

Nice Striper! That must have been a battle. Let’s hear the story on that.

 

Well, met the guide at 5am in Burkesville and headed to a ramp just north of town. On the water by 5:20. The water coming out of the dam was 53.6, and it was 55 downstream where we put in, warmed slightly by the feeder creeks along the way. River was blanketed by fog, as it is all summer long.
Guide had a 20ft g3 flat bottom boat, and we drove upstream about 25 minutes through the fog. Put in three rods dragging live 7” gizzard shad that he caught from a feeder creeks a couple days before. He keeps them alive in a 200 gallon tank in an air conditioned room at his house. Shad had one tine of a treble through the nose with a stinger hook through the belly, 10 feet behind a planer board.

We trolled two boards off the shore and one in the middle of the channel. It was a masterclass in boat control, trolling downstream just faster than the current, working the boards around downed trees. Didn’t get snagged once!
We had a boil on one rod within the first five minutes, but no takers. About ten minutes later a big striper chased one of the shad for at least a minute! Big boils, with the shad frantically trying to get away. Striper finally got hold of the shad but no hookup.
I manned the rods for nearly two hours. My fishing partner Bill Brasky (Ogf handle) wanted me to catch one since I’ve never caught a striper and he has caught plenty. I eventually had to take a break, so Bill manned the rods, and he was hooked up within five minutes! Fish took the planer board down like a bass pulling down a bobber.
Had to really keep the pressure on the fish to keep it out of the downed timber. It bulldogged, taking some 60lb mono off of the 20lb drag. Long fight, but he finally rolled up next to the boat and was in the muskie net on the first scoop. Bill said he could feel a little fatigue in his arms, and that was one of the hardest fighting fish he had caught!