Picking up on what Hig was saying above, the current “Packtach” system Alpacka makes was heavily influenced by what Hig & Erin have come up with, and also by looking at the shockle settups of Brad, Forrest, & I want to say Roman (Roman… I forget what you were using when we paddled Eagle creeking summer 07, but I think it was shockles…?).
Something I’ve been finding lately is that an integral part of the self-rescue is - in rougher water - getting the packraft out of the hole before it flushes you, sans raft. This is where I could actually see a pack on the bow as an asset, because it gives the raft a bit of a sea-anchor to hang down and grab water in a flushing hole that might otherwise surf it. That said, I haven’t gone out yet w/ a throw bag, a raft, a pack, and big hole and played “hole fishing.”
This last Sunday, though, a couple of us were on a run and found a well-developed instinct to grab the raft immediately when dumped in a hole is really valuable. To paraphrase my friend Ben:
"I said to myself, 'if [Shaggy] doesn’t flip in that hole I’ll eat my hat.
"Then you hit it, and flipped, and boat went up into it, and I thought 'uh-oh, that’s gonna be there forever.
“Then this arm emerged from underwater, grabbed the boat, and dragged it out!”
I didn’t even think of it - I just grabbed the boat, w/ out being able to see anything. “Hey, I know I’ll need that!” 
I’ve been tinkering w/ the idea of adding a specific “grab handled” at one hip, so I can snatch it in situations like this. The full-rail rig, like Roman prefers, has an obvious merit here too, but I do enough brushy runs that right now I’m trying having a really “clean” boat. In any case, I notice my biggest challenge is often getting ‘traction’ on the boat w/ strong hydraulic forces present… which brings up again the “clean boat vs. rigged boat” debate 
