Even the drive from the house to the river winds you down Rattlesnake Grade, a well-named road often attributed with having the most turns per mile that you’ll ever experience in your life. It sounds reckless (maybe it is), but the payoff is worth every risk. On days like this, there’s about a 5% margin for navigation error as you’re flying through white water, oars digging hard, unable to change trajectory more than a few crucial inches. Basalt boulders the size of Volkswagens, yesterday clearly exposed, are now lurking millimeters beneath the surface. I know it’s going to be a beautiful, cold, sunny day with inversely raging water. I wake up and look at the USGS chart online, seeing that the water levels have jumped overnight as low elevation snow melts into the canyon. For my dad and I, we picture something different entirely.ĥ:00am comes early on a frigid January morning in Asotin, WA. When you picture father and son fishing trips in a metal row boat, you might picture a pristine lake with a bobber and worms, goofy hats with oversized boots and dozing off in the warm sun. Without a dam to regulate discharge, you have one option: go with the flow. Winter offers a unique opportunity to try and tackle rough, rocky and frigid waters that change from minute to minute.

There are many ways to experience the beauty of the Pacific Northwest’s free-flowing rivers, but a drift boat in the winter is one of the most intimate and powerful. Anglers love to quote the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, “No man ever steps in the same river twice…”.

White water drift boating