Drifting the Thompson.

[professori]

Last weekend a group of us from the sister site (BC Fishing reports) got together and drifted/fished the Thompson river from Steelhead Park (Savona) to Juniper Beach Provincial Campground. It was a total of about 13 miles of beautiful river, sometimes tranquil and sometimes class II rapids. 3 of us (Anthony, Rib and I) traveled together from the lower mainland, up the Fraser Canyon to just north of Cache Creek (Hat Creek Ranch). It was a great 4 hours spent trading fishing stories, philosophies and expectations for the coming trip.

We arrived at Hat Creek around 3:00 pm and with in an hour, Ortho and his lovely wife Robin pulled in and set up their camp. A few beers, scotches and a meal and the tales grew larger as the fire warmed up the evening. Around 10:30 we were joined by a few more family members and friends, more stories and finally bed time around midnight.


6:00 AM next morning came much too early, but we were all anxious to start the day off, so we jumped in our trucks and headed to Savona. We dropped the boats off at Steelhead Park and 2 of us headed up to Juniper beach to leave one truck there. Twenty minutes later, aftger a short safety meeting we were off. The Tompson is big, deep, fast fllowing body of water with some good rapids in the portion we floated. The 7 pontooners were of various levels of experience, from rookies to a couple with a lot of time on flowing water.





It was a wonderful 2 days. 35-40 fish among the seven of us, virtually all on the dry. The 'bows in the Thompson are incredibly beautiful, a true Kamloops strain red striped fish. The were 1 to 3 lbs in flowing water, so you know we had a terrific battle, even on the smaller fish. Great weather, great company, great water and GREAT fish. Thanks to all who came and made it a very memorable weekend and one that is sure to be repeated. Thanks to Robert for organizing it and to Adam (ribwart) for the photos. (I take responsibility for the video quality and content.)

(the sysem won't let me put all the images up, so check out the thread entitled more Thompson images)
http://www.flyfishbc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=599

[phearless]

Thanks for the great report and pics/video Prof.
Makes me pine for the T.