With local levels staying above 4 ft, Wet Bottom has become a good spot to burn a few calories. Key factor is the presence or absence of the first eddy as you ferry from attainer's right.
Above 4.2 , it's pretty much gone...so you drive straight over to the tail of the eddy below the big center rock. At 4.2 and below, you have a paddler's dilemma --- to use the 1st eddy or not? My rough gauge is the strength of the eddy lines on the 1st eddy. If they are strong enough to cause me problems as I ferry across, then stopping in the eddy to climb up is probably a good tactic. If there is mostly a wave train with weak eddy lines, then I may use the waves to reset my angle upstream...but then I move over to the big rock eddy.
At 4.1+, I think I've discovered another secret once I get to the big rock eddy. While my instinct told me to get away from the waves and to use the boily water on my left for the climb up, I consistently failed. But when I moved closer to the waves of the 1st eddy on my right, apparently into faster water and risking catching my bow, I was able to drive up.
Maybe the swirly boils don't let me get a good catch? Maybe the water to the right only looks faster? Maybe the boils take away as much as the give? Whatever it is, it got me up twice in a row at the end of a long session.
Incidentally, don't be afraid of even higher levels. I actually think that 4.4 may be a little easier than 4.2, for example. And somewhere around 4.5 or 4.6, a move on the Virginia side opens up.
Attaining in the lower 4s does provide a great prize at the end --- prime surf time at Rocky! ;-)
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