THE BLACKWATER FLOAT TRIP

Awesome, fun, beautiful, exciting, pristine….  These are just a few adjectives that fit the Blackwater River float trip.  This is the perfect adventure for a novice fly fisherman or for an experienced one.

Ron Thompson and his crew (Jordan, Dom, Charlene) were all excellent hosts, oarsmen and fishing guides.  For a week, we had the pleasure of floating the upper Blackwater River and catching (and, of course, releasing with barbless hooks only) unbelievable numbers of wild rainbow trout.  Some of these rainbows had orange slash lines on their lower jaws indicative of a rainbow/cut-throat hybrid (i.e., cutbow).  These fish typically were ½  – 1½ lbs. of all-out fight with the occasional 2-3 lb. beauty.  The icing on the cake was that essentially all the fishing was with dry flies.  We had incredible hatches of stone flies, caddis flies and may flies.

For Lindy in particular the trip was an outstanding learning experience:  first time doing true river wading; recognizing when the fish actually take the fly to be able to successfully hook it; casting to a particular fish with success; and learning how to carefully release the fish so it can be re-caught another day.  Each day’s fishing added so much more experience than the actual hours spent on the water.  Just fantastic!

Of course, Ed’s fishing wasn’t a learning experience but rather returning to pristine trout waters similar to many he experienced in the past.   Given that wealth of experience, Ed was able to give incredible encouragement, guidance and tutoring to both Lindy and Mark Dagostino, his second cousin, who accompanied us on this week long adventure.  While Mark has floated major rivers before, this was his first true fly fishing adventure.  He did great and caught lots of beautiful trout as the photographs attest!

Now, apart from fishing, everything else was outstanding too.  Each day we moved to a different spot.  En route we would stop for lunch along the river.  We simply stepped off our raft or pontoon and enjoyed a delicious treat laid out before us.  Then, at the end of the day, we went ashore to camp.  All sites featured great views, the roar of the river and no one else but us along its shores.  As a matter of fact, in the week we floated the river, we saw not one other person!  When we arrived each evening, all tents were set up and sleeping bags already inside.  All we had to do was relax (or choose to take a hot shower at an outpost in the trees – quite refreshing!).

The evenings consisted of sharing fishing stories and other experiences around the campfire.  This occurred while enjoying gourmet meals and fine wines.  It’s amazing what our guides, especially Dom, could cook in a Dutch oven over an open fire.  Anyone want another game hen with wild rice?!  It was also amazing to enjoy fine dining at 9:00P with the sun still shining (for that matter, it was never truly dark since we were so far north).

So, in summary:  great fishing; great scenery; great food; great company!  Apart form our photographs below, get even more details about the Blackwater by visiting Ron’s website, www.theblackwater.com. 

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THE SETTING

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THE FISHING

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