SanJuaquin river clean up/drift part II

After our drift of the SJR last thanksgiving, we had planned on returning when the flows were bigger. that time is now.
Unfortunately a few of our compadres were not able to make it but the Kraken and I decided to go ahead and drift, fish, and clean up the trash on the river that has been like an old friend for so many years.
The bigger water helped purge alot of the trash but there was still plenty for us to claim.
The fishing wasnt quite as productive as the clean up but our old friend SJR decided it was the Krakens turn. very exciting!(notice the NWKA shirt)
The bruiser bow came in at 21" 3.6#s and really made the already great day unforgetable. Was one of those fishing moments where even as a bystander I had a lttle shake in my hands. The fish was released unharmed.
The bigger water had also changed the river and we had to adapt a few times after finding our usual routes were blocked by strainers.
We still hope to return this year when the conditions are warmer for a multi-species hunt and maybe a full moon run.
Here are the visuals and thanks for letting us northwest wannabes share our adventures here.

Cool visuals and report. Way to represent guys!

Z

Way to go Kraken!!!!  What a great fish.  I wish I could've joined this time.  I had such a great time on the river with y'all last time.  Interesting to see some of the routes we managed last time closed this time.  New routes and some portage this time I imagine.

Soooo psyched to fish with you guys in May.  The LCT will be epic this year!!

Way to hold up the high expectations of Team Bridgeport men (both with the great fish and the river clean up)

Always leave it better then you found it.

Polarcat (Shirkus)

Wow, that was another fun trip. I did my first SJ River trip with Spider in 1991 and since then I have never seen this much water being released. I'll actually admit, this out of shape old fart had that little bit of nervous anxiety (okay, fear) before a few of the rapids and that's what made it so fun!

Shirk you and JT were missed, you probably would have been shocked to see me catch a fish.     See you guys in May.

After my recent trips with no fish, this trout felt so good. I remember telling Spider how I would never catch a trout and I should probably just fish for bass. I'm glad he talked me into working the trout gear. This wasn't only my largest trout, but my first trout from a kayak. So if I looked a bit giddy in the pic, I was. Good times.

Other than the one big fish, the rest of the day was very slow. So we decided to do what we use to do on kayak trips, explore, trash collection and searching for left over gear. Here's a few more pics from our adventure.