After my major meltdown yesterday, I thought about the puzzle of handling heavy current and rocky/snaggy bottoms all day (I've never fished salmon/steelhead/whitefish in rivers, and have no idea how you folks are able to detect bites while avoiding the dubious pleasure of 98% of the fishing time being taken up by retying lost rigs on the shore), and decided to put on my fishing training wheels, and use a Sidewinder planar board to keep my gear way clear of the bottom completely. I also steered clear of the torrent down below Horn Rapids Dam, and tried in the Twin Bridges Road area.

Well, it didn't work. I don't know how to troll, never used planar boards, and neglected to bring my instructions. Also, the current in that area is probably still around 5.89 mph rather than the 6 mph below HR Dam. So I fiddled around for 30-45 minutes, and all I accomplished was the board doing nothing useful, and my downstream rig floating on top of the surface. I left before my temper and frustration started to flare.

Tomorrow I need to head over to Leslie Groves Park with my planar board rig (during the *day*), and figure out how this whole thing works. It seems like it really ought to work once properly configured.

I figure I've got about two or three more tries before I throw up my hands and give up, and just suffer the one-hour one-way drive to Ayers Boat Basin to catch channel cats. Fishing is supposed to be fun, and going through all this reminds me strongly of work....