# Strainers and Newbs



## flyphisherman (Jul 7, 2009)

I like to think of kayaking as being a very intuitive sport. Paddle left, turn right...Paddle right, turn left......seems pretty simple. I've paddled with the same group for quite some time. We are all experienced paddlers and river fishermen (we can read the water). After you've been doing this for awhile, you really start to take some of the skill set for granted. It became glaring when a Newbie decided to join us for a river float. 

He started by holding the paddle backwards (curve to the front). When we suggested that he spin his paddle, we were met with opposition. He says....."This is how I do it". I explained the danger of strainers to him and and told him he should follow our path through the river (that's part of the advantage of having someone in front of you). He usually chose to do an alternate route whenever possible. 

Sure enough.....about halfway through the float he took a side shot of fast water that led directly into a downed tree. He thought he would just bounce off somehow. That's not how it works. You get pushed into the tree until you roll....then you get forced into the obstruction. 

We had to yank his a$$ outta there. It was by far the worst situation I've seen develop on any of our floats. He was scraped up by some branches but it could have been much worse.

Further into the float we came across someone with a cockpit style yak pinned up against a boulder. The water was gushing into the yak making it impossible to move. The guy said he had it all under control......but we stopped and helped out anyway ( he wasn't moving that thing on his own).

Nearing the end of the trip we spotted a big chunk of metal mid river. My buddy thought it was a guard rail until we got right up to it. It was pretty long metal canoe that had rolled and filled with water, then folded over a log. No one was around.......hope they made it to the take out ok.

Moral of the story is respect the force of water....look out for the Newbs.......and look out for the strainers.

Keep floatin'


----------



## crittergitter (Jun 9, 2005)

Find where the water is getting past it and power paddle through it. That's the deal. I'd be quite upset if a newb wasn't willing to take a little friendly advice. 

I've had a close call or two, only because I was to busy trying to fish a slack water eddy with deep water as I approached the strainer. There comes a time when you must drop the rod and paddle with everything you got!


----------



## flyphisherman (Jul 7, 2009)

It was too funny when he rejected our advice....we couldn't even get upset. The irony is that he's a teacher. Teacher didn't want to take a lesson that day


----------



## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

I'm really new to fishing rivers from a kayak. I hit a stretch of sciota last week an was amazed at the amount of obsibles that could take you out! Scary stuff. Nothing at all like padling a lake! I can see it being very scary if the rivers up a bit. 
Thanks for the post


----------



## fishing pole (May 2, 2004)

I saw that canoe wrapped around the rock. Was that in the the Cuyahoga?


----------



## SMBHooker (Jan 3, 2008)

Saw the same yesterday...red canoe wrapped around a strainer! 

The river yields for NO ONE!


----------



## flyphisherman (Jul 7, 2009)

Fishing pole found it.....lol. 

When I visited the Deschutes river they had a handful of driftboats set out on display near the lauch points. These were driftboats that had been pinned on rocks and deformed with the rushing waters. ......some still had price tags. The displays were impressive and conveyed a point very clearly.


----------



## cheezemm2 (Apr 7, 2004)

I'd also like to add in the advice that submerged logs that are parallel to the riverbank in the middle of the flow that go from river bottom to just above/below water can serve as ski ramps for a kayak. Doesn't matter how experienced you are, if the riffle pushes you up on the log, you will flip. Been there, done that.


----------



## Tazmanme (Jul 5, 2017)

Where in gods name were you floating?


----------



## fishing pole (May 2, 2004)

That pinned canoe is on the hoga just past the Jaite mill


----------



## creekcrawler (Oct 5, 2004)

Whenever I take someone new out this is the basic thing I'll tell them.
"I'm only saying this once, 'cause I'm don't want to sound like your mother.
They're called strainers and keepers for reason. When in doubt, hit the bank
and check it out. If you see me pulling out on an island, do the same."
Had a buddy get a little cocky once till he bumped a log broadside in the current.
The look on his face said it all, he got a quick understanding right quick.


----------



## thegrump1 (Jan 20, 2011)

flyphisherman said:


> I like to think of kayaking as being a very intuitive sport. Paddle left, turn right...Paddle right, turn left......seems pretty simple. I've paddled with the same group for quite some time. We are all experienced paddlers and river fishermen (we can read the water). After you've been doing this for awhile, you really start to take some of the skill set for granted. It became glaring when a Newbie decided to join us for a river float.
> 
> He started by holding the paddle backwards (curve to the front). When we suggested that he spin his paddle, we were met with opposition. He says....."This is how I do it". I explained the danger of strainers to him and and told him he should follow our path through the river (that's part of the advantage of having someone in front of you). He usually chose to do an alternate route whenever possible.
> 
> ...


Here's my scary strainer story. Canoeing down the Whitewater 2 weeks ago with a buddy and had just walked the canoe around a particularly nasty strainer, swift water, lots of tree branches. About the time we were going to launch back into the deeper water we heard the loud crack of tree branches followed by a woman's blood curdling scream. As we were trying to come up with a rescue plan a man's head appears in the branches but he appears to be ok. We then see the capsized canoe shoot out of the strainer followed closely by the man. What he said next made my heart sink. He asked if we had seen his son and I had to tell him no. A minute or two had easily passed and I was assuming the worst. To make a long story short the overturned canoe was lodged against a log near the shore and when the man got to it he heard his son underneath safe and sound in the air pocket. Managed to get all the canoe occupants back together and even retrieved the canoe. Now here is the kicker - the boy was the only one wearing a life jacket!!! Hope this guy takes up another recreational activity that does not include water.


----------



## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

Recreational kayaking is growing SO quickly. Too many people buy a couple of kayaks at a big box store, pick a weekend to float a river, and have NO idea what they're getting themselves into.
The spring, after everyone gets their first kayak for Christmas and has been waiting all winter, is the worst time. High water and brand new strainers are a horrific combination.
Maybe an organization such as ours could push to have some literature distributed to new kayak registrants about the dangers of rivers.


----------



## mas5588 (Apr 15, 2012)

crittergitter said:


> There comes a time when you must drop the rod and paddle with everything you got!


Amen. Truer words never spoken.

Just one more cast....gotta let that lure drift past the end of the....oh sheet...drops rod, grabs paddle at the last possible second. I'll cut it close, but nowhere near close enough to put my life in peril. Ain't no fish worth that. Probably.


----------



## creekcrawler (Oct 5, 2004)

Dang. Those pics say it all.


----------



## Fishingisfun (Jul 19, 2012)

Thanks for the reminders about how quickly a trip down stream can become dangerous. Reading the stories it is difficult for a reader to experience the effect of an encounter with a strainer. I'm not the often stream fisherman as those posting are but I have some years behind me. I can count three times when the conditions made for potential times when disaster was at arms length from me and those with me. Two were strainers I had no name for what to call them back then and many times my repeated story was meet with a angled look of a BS filter being applied. We were pinned once duck hunting in a small John boat against a huge downed tree in the river on the outside of a sharp bend. The sides of the aluminum boat bowed inward as the water pushed against our boat. We fired up the 6 hp motor and at full throttle the rush of water was pushing the boat under with inches of free board remaining just before we would had gone under we pushed with the oars as hard as two adrenaline charged young men could do we began to move ever so slowly away from the tree trunk. That day still lives vividly in my memory thirty plus years later. The only thing we can do is take the time tell our stories to those we come in contact with and when we encounter the new watercraft launching on the bank of the local flow. Like so many activities I see portrayed in videos we think we can do the same as anyone else without the experience of time on the water. Life teaches lessons that we can share if we survive the training. I'm lucky to had learned a lesson where a friend and I walked away with a large respect for the power of the flow of the stream. 
Share your story it may be heard by some and instill the respect for the flow that we learned by experience. Be safe out there and always wear you life vest.


----------

