The fishing trip was fun. Got a few small Northerns, but we had more fun exploring the depths of Noxon Reservoir with our fish/depth finder. The dam is an earthen hydroelectric dam opened in 1960. At the boat landing where we put in, about 7 miles upstream, MT. highway 200 used to cross the Clark Fork River here. There were several houses and a large Farmers Union grain elevator right near the old bridge that crossed the river. As the water started backing up in the Noxon Canyon, people realized, TOO LATE, that these buildings could be under water shortly. They guessed right. Fortunately no one lived in the houses anymore, and the grain elevator was abandoned.
Someone got the idea to make a map of what is underwater now so boaters could have some idea what is under them as they fish and play on the water. We got one and were following the old highway, using the fish finder as a guide. We came up on the buildings which looked like sharp points sticking up on the depth finder and then we were sitting right on top of the grain elevator. The very top of it is 15 feet under water and we could see it clearly in the water. Kind of eery knowing that years ago someone worked down there. The water here was 125 feet deep.
Farther downstream, about 1 mile from the dam itself, we hit some really deep water. We went in near the shore and using the map we started moving out towards the middle slowly. 10 feet deep; 15 feet deep; 25 feet deep; 364 feet deep!!! What the F? In the space of about 10 horizontal yards we went from 25 feet deep to 364 feet deep. We finally bottomed out at 521 feet deep which is where we guessed the old river used to travel.
They should post a sign for waders.......WATCH YOUR STEP. SLIGHT DROP-OFF AHEAD!
Anyone for a Weenie Roast?