Had a blast on the river. We pulled out just as the sun was setting, the shower was ending, so the timing was perfect.

12 inches deep is a general estimate, nonstop. Some places it just covered your ankles and the next step you're in 15 feet of water. The bottom is pretty rocky, thus we use the term "Butt Bangers" for those hidden boulders that come up and whap your butt as you cruise over them. Think you got clearance, then realize your rear end is bigger than you pictured. Whammmm, "Butt Banger!"

Murphi tooted her horn approximately 2 1/2 of the 3 mile float. She only went overboard twice, but that was when she saw us doing it and she didn't want to miss out on the fun, so in she'd jump.

Going fishing tomorrow, and if that windshield goes in the water this time, I'm not going after it. The average depth of the lake we'll be on is 364 feet. Can't hold my breath that long.

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Man.....wish i could go fishing with you, Bob! I bet we both would have a blast!

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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!

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LOL BOB! No wonder you didn't catch many fish.....spending the day "looking underwater!"
(Lucky you didn't have to fish out a windshield from there!)

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Right Cheesey...........any fish that deep would be pre-historic monsters or VikesRule. I did manage to go overboard in that deep drop off area, though. I was curious as to what the drop-off wall looked like so I took a "dive" off the port side and went down about 15 feet.

Yep, shear drop off that went for hundreds of feet down. This must have been on the side of the mountain here and there was a somewhat level area for about 50 feet, then............boom, the bottom dropped out out for 500 feet.

We're going back next weekend with an Aquanaut Compressor with 3 air tubes that reach 50 feet and going to explore this area. Hope no one steals our boat while we're "down under."

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