Well folks, after wondering for quite some time what the north thompson river holds i decided to give it a shot. Dropped in a few km up the oxbows road and got picked up around 35km north of blue river. Not sure how many river kms it was. By road it was around 30km. I managed it in 8ish hours only stopping to cast the odd big pool or back eddy. Fishing was epic! But i must say there was several times i was honestly fearing for my life. I think the most scary part was at bridge #3 where river bank turned to rock cliffs and the water was roaring like a rocket. The 12 aluminum (i know i know) steers like a bus and i made a quick decision to avoid a small drop by trying to squeeze between the bridge pillar and a large boulder. By the time i saw that the opening was around 6 inches smaller than the boat it was too late to alter course and i wedged in there and a huge gush of water poured over the back of the boat. Thankfully for me i never repaired the broken side braces that go from the middle seat to the side of the boat and the whole boat kinda folded up like a hotdog bun before shooting me out half sunk. ( sorry no vid of that self preservation took over) Id say 70% of the entire float was less than a foot of water yet it was moving so fast in places i had trouble stabbing an oar in let alone if you had to try and stand up after a ditch. My biggest problem was the oars would catch ground and pop out explosively. One time close to the end of the trip (so tired by then) the right oar dug in the bottom and popped out spearing me right in the face busting my favorite suncor mine saftey shades and giving me a little bit of a shiner. Am thankful as the oar handle is just about the perfect size to fit right in my eye socket. Wearing saftey glasses has become second nature to me after this winters horror show. It also knocked my hat off and busted the gopro mount on my hat so if your wondering what im doing in vid #19 im checking to see the camera is still pointing forward as it was flopping around alot by then. One cool thing i saw along the way was a couple giant dump truck tires as large across as my 12ft boat was long. Judging by the yellow semi tie down belts in the trees id say a trucker lost his load and these ones got away down the heavily wooded cliff side into the river. Maybe worth recovering? Caught 40+ bull trout but never landed a monster. Always seemed to hook into the big ones in the fast moving deep water and after the hook set id reach for the camera and gone. I marked out some good drop off/pick up spots that have fairly safe water and good fishing if anyone is interested. Whatever you do stay away from the area (about 10km) between the 2nd and 3rd bridges unless you like snuggling with the reaper!
There is a dozen vids from yesterday on utube but not all of them are of me yanking out fish so ill just post the one link that best sums up the fishing and maybe one link that sums up the water. So if your a video nazi/troll maybe just stick to these as i wouldnt want to waste too much of your precious time. If you have the time and something constructive to add by all means check em out.
Note to self, never, ever, accept a boating invitation from Billy.
__________________
“One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.”
that was great. thanks for sharing. thought your title was floating not fighting the thompson. little extreme for me but looks like you had a great time. Love the blue river area.
Last edited by waterninja; 05-05-2013 at 03:16 AM.
thanks for the post made my day! I have a friend living in vale youre making me want to take a week off. The trails up to riding areas still have snow? sled for half a day then fly fish the rest? sounds like cloud 9
thanks for the post made my day! I have a friend living in vale youre making me want to take a week off. The trails up to riding areas still have snow? sled for half a day then fly fish the rest? sounds like cloud 9
Not sure what the sledding conditions are like... A few locals with sleds still on the truck but the hotels are empty and i actually managed to get gas and A&W in under 10 min today so i think most of the usual haunts for sledding (allan creek) are done for the season. Am sure you can still find snow but im thinking you will have to truck up quite a ways. Saw a ton of atvs down at kinbasket yesterday so you might have better luck going that route. If you make it down this way shoot me a pm and id be more than happy to share some nice walk in (10 min or less walk) spots in either the fraser or the thompson.
As always plenty of free camping spots if your into that.
Floating the N Thompson.. Fun & Fear
Linear Mode
