So I didn't get a picture -- hard to dig the camera out sometimes when you're maneuvering on the river -- but we floated by a moose hanging out on an island in the upper stretch of the Grande Ronde, on the Wild and Scenic stretch between Minam and Troy.

Also heard a report that another rafting party saw a moose swimming the river.

A flying squirrel with aviator cap also reported in the area. All very exciting.

The wildlife sightings have been good with all this greenery -- herd of bighorn sheep yesterday on a day float with Todd and Mike from Troy down to Boggan's. Little lambs in amongst them. So cute. Bald eagles. A golden eagle. Deer. Lots of birdlife.

Fishermen, take note: stoneflies are out. River is still high, but dropping. The Wallowa is the culprit right now for murkiness. The Minam is real clear coming into the Wallowa, then the Grande Ronde is green where it joins the Wallowa and the Wenaha at Troy is nice and clear where it dumps in at town.

If I was going to break out the fly rod I'd say the Wenaha is the best bet at the moment. Authorities say to watch yourself down there, though, as they just busted a large illegal gardening operation down around there recently. Maybe don't take a can of Miracle Gro with you. You might get asked questions.

Here's the breakdown on river flows: Snake River is running about 36,000, down from the 50's.

Grande Ronde is 9,630 at Troy.

Salmon River is in the mid-50's but dropping.

Speaking of Hells Canyon at high flows, lay your eyes on this video taken by a Winding Waters guest, with cool slo-mo.



Be seeing you on the river.

Got in a roadtrip to fish some new water over Montana-way last week.

What you see here is a specimen from the Beaverhead River, which was about the only river not running so high that fishing was out of the question.

Fish handler: David Kesey. The fish's name is Carl. Nice guy.

These underwater picnic tables are why the Beaverhead wasn't running high. They were holding water above the dam to relieve flooding situations down lower, was the word around the campfire.

Float me the mustard please.

These Beaverhead fish do not play by the rules. They hang out in the shallows where they shouldn't be, congregate in a pack right below where you're standing in the stream . . . one of them flipped me off. I mean, that's just rude.

The only flies they would take were so tiny you needed a high powered microscope to tie the things on and the fish needed spotting scopes to see the flies coming at them. It's a cumbersome arrangement. Your line has to be so thin we ended up using spider web gossamer threads made of fluorocarbon -- fluorocarbon spiders are very rare and tippet material made from their webs is on the expensive side.

So I just started catching fish with my hands. Seriously. This half-dead rainbow was hanging out next to me while I was trying to catch other fish and I recently watched a video where a guy demonstrated slowly getting your hand under a fish, then rubbing its belly which calms them down and you just pull them out of the water.

He's in rough shape, or really needs Clearasil.

So I tried the belly rub. And it worked. Pulled that thing out of the water. Held it. Got a look at its banged up noggin and put it back in the water. Told Dave about this, he didn't believe me so I walked over and did it again. So technically I caught that fish twice, which did wonders for my numbers of fish caught on the Beaverhead.

After I realized I was ninja, I spent the rest of the day sneaking around in the river breathing through a reed, jumping out of the water to karate kick other fishermen, used throwing stars to cut the ends off cigars of rich guys ... used nunchucks to swat mosquitoes back at camp. That kind of thing. Been working on my backflips, too. They still need a little work.

Altogether an interesting trip. Frustrating at times, fishing for those sophisticated, smart trout. Just like sophisticated people, me and these fish didn't have much in common and my attempts to engage them rarely worked. Ah well.

So we heard the Missouri River was running high, but still fishing OK.

And we heard wrong. Here's an action photo of fishing amigo Dave scratching his head, trying to figure out why we drove up there in the first place. Later he would be scratching mosquito bites. Missouri River mosquitoes are not fun.


So Montucky treated us awfully well, but it's always good to lay eyes again on the Wallowas.

Morgan just got off another Hells Canyon trip today so I'll check in with Cap'n Mo and pass along the trip breakdown for the next post.

Here's a shot from a recent launch. Print this out, cut and paste yourself into the picture to get the feel of what it's like to be about to push off for five days of Hells Canyon rafting or, better yet, just come on out and get in on a real trip.

Local fishing reports have guys catching salmon on the Wallowa, Grande Ronde and Imnaha. So if you don't want to drive for 24 hours to catch elderly fish with your hands, get out here to lovely northeast Oregon for a crack at the chinook run -- or get in on the super-fun smallmouth bass fishing down on the Snake. We've got options.

See you on the river.

Hells Canyon is running strong. Check out the video of last week's runs through Wild Sheep and Granite.

Paul, Morgan, Todd Kruger, Brent, new guy Dane and new guy Brian had them some waves down there. Big water, but things should be settling...come rafting with us and get in on this surplus water year.

It's a new era in Gearboat Chronicles ... introducing something called "moving pictures," or "talkies."

I was going to do flip books with stick figure drawings to illustrate the Winding Waters crew going through rapids and jumping off Sturgeon Rock and whatnot, but instead I got a little waterproof movie camera and it's way easier.

So break out some Jiffy Pop and gather the kids around for the first ever Gearboat Chronicles movie. Well, it's more of a documentary. And by documentary I mean clips of Morgan and I laughing at stuff that probably wouldn't be funny if we weren't operating in the River Time time zone.

Think back on your last river trip. I bet you a jar of homemade apple butter that you and your cohorts found something highly entertaining that wouldn't have made sense at all outside the river setting. And that's why we go on the river. You can find something amusing about Accounts Receivable or whatever -- but it's so much easier to laugh and laugh because Morgan's raft is starting to drift away after you bumped it.

So let's go rafting. Day trips on the Grande Ronde are still the happenin' thing right now, so give Paul and Penny a call at Winding Waters headquarters to clock 38 river miles as a day trip on the GR.

And here's a behind-the-scenes view of a Grande Ronde trip, complete with bighorns, elk and a shuttle monkey.