Fish Creek, E. Branch

Major strainer at Sandpit. Going left avoids trees but is very bony at 1700 cfs.

On 4/26 mid-day someone dropped a plastic trash can containing a deer carcass on us from the river right cliff near the power lines above the dam, right about here: 43.366606,-75.566892 Perhaps we should title this section 'Dead Deer Drop'. (!)

Large pine tree down width of the river about 1/2 mile past Palmer Road bridge. Requires portage river right. See picture.

Strainer Warning! Two staggered tress down 1/4 mile after Palmer Rd bridge. Trees are in a very difficult spot. If you keep extreme river right there is a 3 foot space to paddle between the gorge and tree trunk. Otherwise difficult ferry between the two is required.

On river left somewhere between the Route 69 bridge and the ladder take-out, something tore a nasty gash in my boat. Maybe it was just a sharp rock, but I suspect it was metal. Sorry to give such vague info, but I figured a little was better than none.

Strainers to keep an eye out for:

Just before Sandpit there is a tree right in the middle of the river and parallel with it, rootball upstream.

Just before you get to town there is a tree across the river (perpendicular to it) on river left at an awkward point for newbies to thread around some holes and avoid.

There is a very large tree down across the width of the river just after the bend below the Palmer Rd. bridge. Monday 10/15/12 around 1200 cfs, we were able to move under it along the left bank. A picture is posted in the pictures tab.

Root ball strainer downstream of Sand Pit on the outside of the bend on river left.

Make sure you head down the inside of the bend on the right when you make the turn.

At 6ft (~2K cfs) on 10/16/2011 the center of the river was shallow over cobbles and it is extremely difficult to ferry to the right to avoid the strainer at that level.

There is a straggly tree hanging down over the creek on river left just upstream of the root ball.

Copied from a FLOW board posting

Re: Fish is up
« Reply #2 on: Yesterday at 05:28:37 PM »
Quote
Hey all!  Just spotted a possible river hazard on the Fish.  As the level rises and falls, things can change from what I'm currently seeing but I thought I should pass it along!

There is a rope across half of the river, just before the Palmer Rd. bridge; directly in the main current.  It will be to the right of the bridge abutment when coming down stream.  It is visible at this level and looks like you can get under it to the far right. There is enough water at this point to avoid it all together by going to the left of the bridge abutment.  I'm assuming one of the local swimmers or fisherman tied it there to cross the river?  Not so friendly or helpful when there is whitewater!

I also noticed a couple of trees in the middle of the river, just up stream from the Main St. Bridge in Taberg.  It looks like you can get around on either side at this point but it may be something you would like to check out before you get on the river.

The Fish hasn't been up with decent water in months, so I'm sure there may be other obstacles as well.  Be safe out there!

~Jen  (gr8ful boater on FLOW board)

As of 6/29/10 the rope has been cut. BoscoBoater on the FLOW board says he'll remove the ends later.